The first trials were unsuccessful. PPD’s rate of fire was too fast (about 1000 shots per minute), recoil was unmanageable, so it took Degtyaryov another five years to work the bugs out of his design.
In 1935 PPD was officially accepted into service as a Personal Defence Weapon for NCOs and officers up to the company commander level. But production rates remained very low:
in 1936, Kovrov factory produced 911 PPDs,
in 1937 – 1291,
in 1938 – 1115,
and in 1939 – 1700. Several modifications were made over the years.
Red Army generals could not decide what role SMGs should have in the armament system, one of the arguments they had was (quote): “Americans and Germans regard SMG unfit for military service and only use them in police and security units”.
Production remained low and in 1939 artillery department of Red Army made an incoherent decision to stop production of PPDs and decommission all SMGs from active duty troops. Artillery department was displeased with the relatively high production cost of PPDs and suggested that “new automatic weapon should be developed to potentially replace PPD”. Needless to say, no alternative to PPDs was offered.
Just 9 months after this “ingenious” decision was made, “Winter War” started. Finns had a reliable and effective Suomi M31 submachinegun which they used very effectively against Soviet troops.
After Red Army experienced the effectiveness of SMGs during the first months of the Winter War, all available automatic weapons were given back to active duty troops. The need for automatic weapons was so great, that even Fedorov battle rifles were issued to the troops for the first time since World War I and Civil War.
Soviet soldiers really liked Suomi M31 SMGs they managed to capture. Overall, M31 Suomi impressed Soviets so much, that, according to the memoirs of General Vannikov, Joseph Stalin asked him once: “Can we maybe start production of Suomi SMGs in the Soviet Union?” General convinced Stalin to resume production of PPD, not knowing what consequences it would have for the factory.
Stalin took the production of PPDs under his “direct control”. The factory was given completely impossible tasks and deadlines. When deadlines were not met, a group of NKVD officers, Stalin’s secret police, was sent to the plant to “investigate suspicious individuals who were bought off by enemies of the state”. At the time, it meant only one thing – arrests based on false accusations and and executions.
Director of the factory and chief design engineer were arrested, and Stalin himself wrote a letter promising (quote): “If deadlines are not met, the government will take the manufacturing plant under special control and execute all the bastards clogging up the factory”.
Mass production began in 1940, a year in which 81,118 PPDs were produced.
I hope both sides get ski troops!