Originally Posted by Kai

The SKS began production in Russia in 1949 and continued until about 1955, when they sold the tooling to China. Production began there, and continued until somewhere in the late 80's or early 90's, noone is quite sure. In that time period, the SKS was also produced by East Germany, Albaniana, Yugoslavia, North Vietnam (supposedly,) Romania, and possibly a couple other combloc countries.