system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come that in WW2 the soviet union was able to produce so many tanks, but lacked guns to equip their soldiers with?
gpt
You are making a common mistake and conflating WWI and WWII. 

In WWI the Imperial Russian army was woefully under equipped and using weapons that were decades out of date (at least at the start of the war). This is the war where it was common for soldiers to be paired up and share equipment, including weapons. 

But WWII Soviets were generally well equipped, at least when it came to their weapons. Some of the sieges had weapons shortages, and non-weapon equipment often had logistical issues due to the culture of never asking questions or voicing complaints to superiors for fear of reprisal, and much of the trained leadership being execution during the power transition when the Soviets took over.