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At the start of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States had the only two armies equipped with semiautomatic battle rifles. Both rifles fired the powerful service cartridges developed at the turn of the century for the bolt action rifles. The M1 Garand proved more rugged than did the Soviet's SVT38 and SVT40 models which experienced such severe breakage problems that the rifle was withdrawn from production in 1942.
Soviet designers had begun work the year before on a new, medium powered cartridge that it was hoped would alleviate the parts breakage problem. S.G. Simonov was assigned the task and in 1944, produced a prototype semiautomatic carbine, or short rifle, that had a magazine holding ten rounds. The new carbine was battle-tested later that year and received glowing reports. The end of World War II however, delayed production of the new carbine until it was clear that the Soviet Union had embarked upon a "Cold War" with its former allies. Starting 1949, two Soviet factories began mass production of the new carbine with its distinctive folding bayonet. In the years following, the SKS carbine would form the mainstay of many "national liberation movements"around the world including North Vietnam and many African resistance movements. The SKS Carbine was distributed widely among Soviet client states and friends, and revolutionary and terrorist movements. Like its successor, the AK47, the SKS is found in armies and police forces around the world. The Palestinian security police force continues to issue the SKS to its officers. The SKS was also manufactured in many countries including East Germany, Red China, North Vietnam, North Korea, Romania and Yugoslavia.
In the late 1980s, Chinese SKS carbines were imported in large quantities into the United States for the civilian market. Initially, ex-military weapons were imported but as these ran out, Chinese factories dug out long-stored tooling out and mass-produced "sporting" versions of the carbines. Shortly after the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, the first Russian SKS carbines reached North America. These were an extreme rarity as until then, the only specimens in the country had been captured during the early days of the Vietnam War and brought back by returning veterans. Collectors as well as shooters snapped these up as fast as they appeared.
Identifying SKS Carbines by country of origin and finding replacement parts that were interchangeable soon became a challenge. "The SKS Carbine" by Poyer and Kehaya is the first book to provide a part-by-part description organized by national origin and time of manufacture including Russian, Chinese, North Korean, North Vietnamese, Romanian, etc. Variation in parts is not as great as in some American military weapons because of the tendency of Communist governments to resist change or innovation in manufacturing processes. But there are distinct differences in parts, not only in those made by one country, but in interchangeability between parts made in different countries. This book describes all parts and tells the reader in clear and concise terms which parts can be interchanged and which cannot. Other chapters provide detailed information on the history of the development of the SKS, its use by communist forces around the world, descriptions of various models and appendixes that tell collectors and shooters how to manufacture many parts which might not be available on the market.
From the Publisher
This is the first book to describe all models from all countries, including Romania, of the SKS Carbine on a part-by-part basis. A must for both collectors and shooters.
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