During World War II,
many countries realized that existing rifles, such as the Mosin-Nagant,
were too long and heavy and fired overly powerful cartridges, creating
excessive recoil. These cartridges, such as the 7.92x57mm Mauser, .303 British, .30-06 Springfield, and 7.62 x 54R were effective to ranges of up to 2,000 meters (2,200 yd);
however, it was noted that most firefights took place at maximum ranges
of between 100 meters (110 yd) and 300 meters (330 yd). Both the Soviet
Union and Germany realized this and designed new weapons for smaller,
intermediate-power cartridges. The German approach was the production
of a series of intermediate cartridges and rifles in the interwar
period, eventually developing the Maschinenkarabiner, or machine-carbine, which later evolved into the MP44 Sturmgewehr, or "assault rifle", which was produced during the war, chambered in the 7.92x33mm Kurz intermediate round.
Meanwhile the Soviets produced an entire family of weapons designed
around the new 7.62x39mm M43 cartridge, which was probably developed
from the late 1930s German GeCo cartridge.
Among these were a bolt-action carbine, which was never produced beyond
the prototype; a select-fire assault rifle which became the AK-47; a
light machine-gun or squad automatic weapon which became the Degtyarov RPD,
and a semiautomatic carbine, which became the SKS. A small number of
SKS rifles were tested on the front line in early 1945 against the
Germans in World War II.
Design-wise, the SKS relies on the AVS-36
(developed by same designer) to a point that some consider it a
shortened AVS-36, stripped of select-fire capability and rechambered
for the 7.62x39mm cartridge. It also owes heavily to the earlier SVT-40 and M-44 Mosin-Nagant
rifles that it replaced, incorporating both the semiautomatic firepower
of the SVT (albeit in a more manageable cartridge) and the small,
fast-handling size and integral bayonet of the bolt-action carbine.
In 1949, the SKS was officially adopted into the Soviet Army,
produced at the Tula Armory from 1949 until 1955 and the Izhevsk Armory
in 1953 and 1954. Although the quality of Russian SKS rifles
manufactured at these state-run arsenals was quite high, its design was
already obsolete compared to the Kalashnikov which was selective-fire,
lighter, had three times the magazine capacity, and had the potential
to be less labor-intensive to manufacture. Gradually over the next few
years, AK-47 production increased until the extant SKS carbines in
service were relegated primarily to non-infantry and to second-line
troops. They remained in service in this fashion even as late as the
1980s, and possibly the early 1990s. To this day, the SKS carbine is
used by some ceremonial Russian honor guards; it is far less ubiquitous
than the AK-47 but both original Russian SKS rifles and copies can
still be found today in civilian hands as well as in the hands of
third-world militias and insurgent groups.
The SKS was to be a gap-filling firearm produced using the proven operating mechanism design of the PTRS
and using proven milled forging manufacturing techniques. This was to
provide a fallback for the radically new and experimental design of the
AK-47, in the event that the AK were to prove a failure. In fact, the
original stamped receiver AK-47 had to be quickly redesigned to use a
milled receiver which delayed production, and extended the SKS rifles'
service life.
Courtesy of Wikipedia