Rather than bring out the more advanced and effective semi-automatic rifle – or the Great Patriotic War as it was known in the Soviet Union – the Soviets continued to focus on the bolt guns. “Germans also liked SVTs and used it whenever they could, because their own semi-auto rifles either were non-existing or sucked big time, like the G41; The Germans even copied SVT gas systems to their more or less successful G43/K43 rifle.” However, unlike the PPSh-41 and other wartime small arms largely exported to “revolutionary” states early in the Cold War, the semi-automatic rifle was withdrawn from service and put into storage.