I still feel like one of the unique markers of the Soviet Army, the mass deployment of Submachine Guns, is completely missed in CoH2. Most of the time you'll play the whole game without a single SMG in your whole army. I've long advocated for Conscript PPSh's for that reason and because it would enforce the dynamic of Grenadiers Long (LMG) - Conscripts Short (SMG).
There is an icon in the game files that resembles the Conscript's icon, but with crossed PPSh's instead of Mosins. I think that could be worked into the game somehow, either to show a distinct unit or to show that they've received the global PPSh upgrade (as opposed to the doctrinal upgrade/won't mask objects the upgraded cons have picked up).
This 1000%!