THE CURIOUS HISTORY OF THE SKS

The SKS (Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945) occupies one of the most unusual positions in military firearms history. Designed by Soviet engineer Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, it was an engineering triumph that was rendered obsolete almost immediately upon introduction—yet went on to become one of the most widely manufactured and ubiquitous shoulder arms of the 20th century.

During World War II, Soviet weapon designers recognized that full-power rifle cartridges (like the 7.62X54 were unnecessarily heavy and over-powered for infantry combat, which typically occurred within 300 meters.

The 7.62×54mmR is a rimmed rifle cartridge developed by the Russian Empire and introduced as a service cartridge in 1891. Originally designed for the bolt-action Mosin–Nagant rifle, it was used during the late Tsarist era and throughout the Soviet period to the present day. The cartridge remains one of the few standard-issue rimmed cartridges still in military use and has one of the longest service lives of any military-issued cartridge.

In 1943, the Soviets developed the 7.62X39 M43 intermediate cartridge. Simonov adapted his previous PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle gas mechanism into a short-stroke piston system to fire this new round. A small field-test batch of the new carbine was deployed to the First Belorussian Front in 1945 during the final months of WWII—making it one of the very first operational weapons chambered in 7.62X39.

The 7.62×51mm NATO is a rimless, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In India, the standard 7.62mm ammunition for all weapons from rifles to MMG is the 7.62×51mm NATO, though the INSAS uses the 5.56×45mm

The SKS was built on traditional WWII rifle philosophy: a milled steel receiver, a fixed 10-round internal magazine loaded via stripper clips, and a traditional wooden stock with an integrated folding blade bayonet. However, almost concurrently, Mikhail Kalashnikov developed the AK-47, which offered select-fire capability and 30-round detachable box magazines. The SKS's frontline Soviet service lasted less than a decade.

The rifle which was discarded by the original military by its replacement found a completely new life in China

While the Soviets moved on to the AK family, they exported SKS production lines to socialist allies across the globe. It saw extensive combat in the Vietnam War, Korean War, regional African conflicts, and the Balkans.

In China it became the Type 56 Carbine

Type 56 Carbine (produced in greater numbers than the original Soviet run) was introduced in 1956 alongside the Type 56 assault rifle (a variant of the AK-47), it served as a primary infantry weapon for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) before being transitioned to reserve, honor guard, and militia roles.

(In India the Chinese Type 56 assault rifle is commonly and mistakenly called the AK-56. Kalashnikov never made any rifle called AK-56)

Curiously, while the SKS was overwhelmed by its replacement AK-47 in the Soviet military, the Type 56 Carbine overwhelmed its planned Chinese replacement the Type 63. The Chinese SKS/Type 56 Carbine production run lasted for over 30 years. It was the standard PLA weapon in conflicts like the Sino-Indian War (1962) and the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979). It was also exported globally across East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East during the Cold War.