Hungarian K1 "Kucher" Light Submachine Gun

In the early years after World War Two the Hungarian government needed new small arms, but chose to license Soviet designs instead of developing their own. when it came to submachine guns, this entailed production of the PPSh-41 at FÉG in 1950. Josef Kucher was a talented Hungarian arms designer who had worked with Pal Kiraly on a number of designs, and when Kiraly left post-war Hungary, Kucher remained. He was able to successfully petition the government to adopt his submachine gun as a supplemental weapon for tank crews and others where the fixed stock of the PPSh-41 was inconvenient. It is formally adopted in 1951 as the K1 light submachine gun.

Kucher followed the K1 with a machine gun development program, but in 1953 he was prosecuted for political crimes and imprisoned. He was released in 1956 and went back to work at the Danuvia arms factory until his death in 1976. He was eventually pardoned posthumously in 1992.