Soviet
Berlin Breakout II
The Charlotten Bridge over the Havel River in Spandau used for the German breakout to the west. The suburb of Stresow on the right is dominated by the massive Deutsche-Industrie-Werke factory producing guns and tanks. Marshal Zhukov, on hearing of the breakout attempts from General Kuznetsov of the 3rd Shock Army, ordered a maximum alert. He was understandably perturbed by…
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Operation Borodino
The Soviet Union decided to start to build an atomic bomb during WWII when Stalin received a letter from a physicist named Georgy Flyorov. The Soviet nuclear research program, later code-named “Operation Borodino,” was accelerated in 1943 with detailed research information provided by communist sympathizers such as Klaus Fuchs, inside…
Spanish Republican T-26s
The Spanish Civil War was the first conflict in which the T-26 participated. At the request of the Spanish Republican government, the Soviet government sold weapons and military equipment to Spain and provided military advisers (including tankers) within the framework of Operation X. The first shipment of tanks to Spanish…
KV (Klimenti Voroshilov)
KV designation was for Klimenti Voroshilov, the Soviet defense commissar. Intended as the replacement for the T-35 heavy; design work began on the KV-1 in 1938. It incorporated many of the features of the T-34. Subsequent models of the KV-1 incorporated extra armor, new cast turret, and upgraded engine. The…
KV-85 AND IS-85/I HEAVYÂ TANKS
The KV-85 was a stopgap solution to the problem of replacing the ageing KV-1 heavy tank. A new turret, intended for the IS-85 (later redesignated the IS-1) and armed with the same 85mm (3.34in) gun as the T-34/85, was mounted on the KV-1-S chassis. Concurrent to the development of the…
The Red Army invades Poland
German soldiers greet a Red Army tank crew near Brest-Litovsk. On 17 September, as the XIX Corps secured Brest-Litovsk, the Soviet army invaded Poland. This action came as a complete surprise, not only to the Poles but to the German army, which had been kept in the dark over the…
Early Tanks and Armored Vehicles
The Soviet Union produced a large number of tank designs in the period between the two world wars. Early Russian experiments with AFVs in World War I had been limited to armored cars, such as the Austin Putilov. Based on a British chassis, it had entered service early in World…