An example is the IS-7, or the seventh Stalin tank. The Stalin tanks averaged 50 tons and as the Soviets developed succeeding variants they eventually created the most advanced and powerful tanks in the world. It was also ahead of its time with armor that was impervious to anti-tank guns and a 500 horsepower diesel engine. a circular turret, low profile, and a large main gun. The Stalin 3 marked the beginning of the new Soviet template for tank design, i.e. But it did see combat in the Far East against Japan and production continued during the first years of the Cold War. The third iteration of the feared Stalin tanks arrived too late for any decisive battles in the European theater. It’s an un-gentle reminder that whoever seeks dominion over the Earth must first contend with the Bear. (Of that number just 2,800 are assumed to be “modern.”)Īs its relationship with the West deteriorates Russia is now rearming and building tanks. The Soviet Union’s relentless military-industrial development also left today’s Russian Federation with a peculiar conundrum: What to do with so many leftover weapons? It’s believed the Russian Army is stuck with an estimated 23,000 Soviet-era tanks. Even when derided as crude and unsophisticated the Red Army’s armor always leapfrogged the West in terms of cost-effective mass-production, ruggedness, and firepower. In the ensuing decades the Cold War arms race inspired the continuous production of new and ever deadlier tanks. The lesson learned from defeating the Axis powers would resonate for generations to come: Tanks will decide the outcome of any great war over Eurasia. This is why the Red Army possessed between 22,000 to 25,000 armored vehicles, including at least several hundred KV-1 and 2 heavy tanks, at the onset of the Great Patriotic War.īy the time the almost indestructible Joseph Stalins arrived at the Reichstag the total number of Soviet tanks had swelled to more than 60,000. As the world’s dominant land power the Soviet Union understood the value of mechanized forces.
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