War & Peace – Part 2

привет, my friend!

Last Saturday I went to Kubinka Tank Museum, which is located in an active military base about 80 km (50 miles) west of Moscow and is the largest tank museum in the world. I am not really interested in tanks (I’m into airplanes actually) but I found the museum awesome. Some of the tanks in the collection are the only ones left in the world, and – because the base is also a testing facility – there were many prototypes that never went into production. Here’s a picture of me next to one of the pavilions:

The guide was a retired Army colonel and he was great: he talked about tanks for 4 hours straight and I am sure he could go on for another 4 hours if we had more time. His comment at the very end of the tour was truly special: "We are all brothers and should live in peace. All these tanks shall remain as pieces of a museum, and never again be used in wars." Here’s a picture of him:

The visit was also strengthened my opinion about Stalin being really stupid. The 'pope' of tank combat in the early 30s was a Soviet Marshall called Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky, who pretty much devised the strategy of organizing tanks in special armored corps instead of supporting army divisions, and also talked about leveraging the speed of light tanks to break enemy lines as fast as possible. During the purges of 1935, Stalin ordered the deaths of Tukhachevsky and most of his pupils, hence destroying the entire Soviet knowledge on tank fighting. Interestingly, some German lieutenants attended Tukhachevsky’s lectures in the early 30’s (invited by Stalin) and later implemented his theories in the Panzer divisions of blitzkrieg, which was key for the Nazi conquest of Europe. Here’s a picture of German light tanks that conquered Europe in the late 30s and early 40s, using Tukhachevsky’s strategy:

Apart from paying $40 for the tour and $25 for the admission, I also paid $20 to be able to take pictures. So I took an absurd amount of photos, and I will use the blog as a kind of diary. Feel free not to read the following 5 posts.

пока!