View source for Alexey Sudayev

{{Short description|Soviet firearm designer}}{{Infobox military person
| image         = File:Alexey Ivanovich Sudayev.jpg
| caption       = Sudayev {{circa}} 1943-1946
| birth_date    = {{OldStyleDate|23 August|1912|11 August}}
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1946|8|17|1913|8|23|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Alatyr, Chuvash Republic|Alatyr]], [[Alatyrsky Uyezd]], [[Simbirsk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_place   = [[Moscow]], Soviet Union
| placeofburial = [[Vagankovo Cemetery]], Moscow
| allegiance    = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
| branch        = [[Red Army]]
| serviceyears  = 1934-1935<br>1941-1946
| rank          = [[Lieutenant]]
| battles       = [[Great Patriotic War]]
| awards        = [[Order of Lenin]]
| alma_mater    = [[Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University|Gorky Industrial Institute]]<br>[[Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces|Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy]]
}}

'''Alexey Ivanovich Sudayev''' ({{Langx|ru|Алексе́й Ива́нович Суда́ев}}; 23 August 1912 – 17 August 1946) was a Soviet firearm designer.<ref name=autogenerated1>Судаев Алексей Иванович // Великая Отечественная война 1941 - 1945. Энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. М. М. Козлов. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1985. стр.694</ref><ref name=autogenerated2>Судаев Ал. Ив. (1912 - 1946) // Советский энциклопедический словарь. редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. 4-е изд. М., «Советская энциклопедия», 1986. стр.1286</ref><ref name=autogenerated4>Судаев Алексей Иванович // [[Great Russian Encyclopedia|Большая Российская Энциклопедия]] / редколл., гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. том 31. М., научное издательство "Большая Российская Энциклопедия", 2016. стр.375</ref>

== Biography ==
[[File:Могила конструктора-оружейника Алексея Судаева.JPG|thumb|Sudayev's grave]]
He was born on 23 August 1912 in the city of Alatyr.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

His father Ivan Nilovich Sudayev, a telegraph mechanic for the postal and telegraphic district in Kazan, died in 1924, leaving his mother dependent on 12-year-old Alexei and his two sisters.

In 1929 Sudayev graduated from a vocational school and began working as a locksmith. After graduating in 1932 from the Gorky Construction Technical School (Department of Industrial Transport), he worked in "Soyuztransstroi" as a site technician in the village of Rudnichnoye of Satka District in the Ural Region (now the Chelyabinsk Region). During this period (1933-1934) appeared his first inventions "Automatic firing from a machine gun through the action of infrared rays" and "Gasometer".

In the autumn of 1934, Sudayev served in the Red Army,<ref name=autogenerated1 /> in the [[railway troops]], where he showed great interest in weapons. Following his discharge, he entered the [[Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University|Gorky Industrial Institute]] where he studied from 1936-1938. During his studies he showed considerable creative abilities. He joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in 1940.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

At this time, the [[Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces|Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy]] created a school of gunsmiths, which recruited students from various universities who had a tendency to invent and design. In 1941, Lieutenant Sudayev defended his diploma project<ref name="autogenerated1" /> (7.62 mm machine gun) with honors in German language, majoring as an engineer. He was then recalled into the Red Army following [[Operation Barbarossa]].

He died in 1946 of a [[Peptic ulcer disease|gastric ulcer]] and was buried at the [[Vagankovo Cemetery]] in Moscow.

== Awards ==
* [[USSR State Prize]] (1946)<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name=autogenerated2 /><ref name=autogenerated4 />
* [[Order of Lenin]]<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name=autogenerated4 />
* [[Order of the Patriotic War]] 1st class<ref name=autogenerated1 />
* [[Order of the Red Star]]<ref name=autogenerated1 />
* [[Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"]]
* [[Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]]

== Inventions ==
* anti-aircraft machine gun mount (1941)<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name=autogenerated4 />
* [[PPS submachine gun]]<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name=autogenerated2 /><ref name=autogenerated4 />
* [[AS-44]] assault rifle<ref name=autogenerated4 />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Д. Н. Болотин. Советское стрелковое оружие. М., Воениздат, 1983
* Судаев Ал. Ив. (1912-46) // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 2. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1991. стр.425

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sudayev, Alexei}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Alatyr, Chuvash Republic]]
[[Category:People from Alatyrsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Firearm designers]]
[[Category:Soviet inventors]]
[[Category:Soviet engineers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery]]