Sergey Ustyantsev on how the CIA assessed the technical capabilities of the T-34-85

In September of the distant 1951, the American company Chrysler published a rather interesting report on the study of the Soviet tank T-34-85. Generally speaking, it was far from the first - in the XNUMXs, the Americans (as well as the British, by the way) had already issued similar documents. However, unlike its predecessors, this material was not just a dry description of the vehicle and its components and assemblies, but a full-fledged collection of information on the development of the tank.
Of course, Chrysler did not take up this topic to create a kind of encyclopedia that would be informative and valuable only in terms of study. stories Soviet tank building. In fact, the customer of the study was the US government itself and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in particular - and they were interested in the tank for a reason.
The fact is that the T-34-85 tanks, contrary to popular belief, were not immediately shoved into storage depots after the end of World War II. Even in the 50s, despite the appearance of the T-XNUMXs, which were superior in armor, armament, and other parameters, they remained the quantitative basis of the Soviet Union's armored fleet, which is understandable, given the overall production volume of these vehicles.
It was this circumstance that became the reason for such close and, it seems, belated attention from American researchers. After all, if in the same Korea, torn apart by the war between pro-Soviet and pro-Western forces (North and South), tanks of the T-34 type did not represent such a significant threat, then in a potential large-scale conflict in Europe, the T-XNUMXs were to become the basis of the USSR's land "fist".
Considering this fact, it becomes clear that the US interest in the T-34-85 was far from idle - having studied the vehicle in detail, they actually received information not only about its combat and operational characteristics, but also about the technological level of the Soviet tank industry. Well, and what conclusions they made, says the scientific editor of the public relations department, historian Sergei Ustyantsev - a video with his story, filmed as part of the program "First Tank", we offer for viewing.
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