Sks Semenov is a Soviet semiautomatic rifle designed by Sergey Simonov in 1945. Its official name is "Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova" or "Semi-automatic rifle Simonova", adopted in 1949 by the Red Army alongside the Kalashnikov
With the production of a large number of new assault rifles, the SSC retreated from the front line, but it remained the arm of the reserve soldiers and became used in the celebrations. They were widely exported and were produced by many former Warsaw Pact countries. Among these are GDR (S. Karabiner), Albania (July 10 rifle) and North Vietnam (type 1). Poland and Romania started manufacturing (49 WZ and 56 model) but gave up the idea quickly. Only China, North Korea and Yugoslavia are somewhat modified. It is now (2006) very popular on surplus civilian market weapons
