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SFR Yugoslavia (a country that only existed from 1945 to 1991) was a socialistic state but was not part of the Soviet bloc. To be honest by being socialistic, neutral and between the western and Soviet blocs was not good for relations with the USSR and other Soviet bloc countries. This fact did produce one interesting phenomenon; Yugoslavia could purchase weapons and import technology or ideas from both sides (both the west and east).

The sole purpose of making the Yugo 59/66 SKS rifle was to give more fire power to the average foot solider. Since Yugoslavia was a small country (only around 20 mil. people) and was threatened by the USSR (it shared border with 3 countries that belonged to Warsaw pact) its primary defense strategy much relied on the people's resistance to an invading force. To boost the fire power of every solider in such a war scenario, the grenade launcher was mounted on this rifle. A few years later Yugoslavia made the AK style rifle (M70) and that automatic rifle was also equipped with same grenade launcher.

That's it, there is no mystery as you can see.

I served in the Croatian (one of states created in process of breakup of Yugoslavia) Armed Forces in 1996 and was equipped with the Yugo 59/66 SKS rifle for a short period (during my training). I fired grenades from it and found it to not be bad at all. Aiming is easy and after four to six practice shots you can easily place grenades on designated targets without a problem. There were four combat types of grenades (anti-personnel, anti-armor, illuminating, smoke) and two practice types (anti-personnel and anti-armor) made of aluminum and plastic. The only problem with firing grenades was the recoil, it was very strong. But once you developed the proper technique you had no problem with operations.

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