The SKS was widely exported, and was also produced by some former Eastern Bloc nations as well as China, where it was designated the "Type 56", East Germany as the Karabiner S and in North Korea as the "Type 63".
It is still used as a ceremonial arm today. In the early 1950s, the Soviets took the SKS carbine out of front-line service and replaced it with the AK-47 however, the SKS remained in second-line service for decades. Its complete designation, SKS-45, is an initialism for Samozaryadnyj Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945 (Russian: Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, 1945 Self-loading Carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945), or SKS 45. The Norinco-made Chinese copy of the Russian SKS was seen in Tremors franchise used by Burt Gummer. At one point, there was a buying rush for the SKS in the United States with many cheap Russian and Chinese SKS rifles flowing rapidly onto the market for prices of around $200. The SKS is known for being cheap and reliable. It is essentially the semi-automatic carbine version of the AK-47 that can take either magazines or stripper clips, similar to a Mosin-Nagant. The SKS is a Soviet semi-automatic carbine chambered for the 7.62×39mm round, designed in 1943 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Chinese SKS with a detachable box magazine and thumbhole stock.