Pulling on the land colossus weighing nearly twenty tons was not easy. First, the tank, which had lain for decades for a long time, was explored by local divers. Then it is time to work hard on the tractor, bulldozer and excavator. I had to make several attempts. A rusted car was crawling on an iron cable slower than a turtle, 10 centimeters per hour. Only on the ninth day of the operation, already at night, from the bottom of the river with a peaceful name, the kind appeared legendary T-34, known to the current generation only from pictures or museum visits.
Experts believe that the tank was assembled at the Ural plant already in the war years, and was sent straight from the assembly line into battle. The car, one of ten who held defenses on the approaches to Stalingrad in these places, supposedly ended its war in 1942. How the crew met their death is to be learned only now, 68 years later, right before the anniversary of the liberation of Stalingrad from the Nazis.
The remains of the dead warriors will be reburied with honor on May 9 on Mamayev Kurgan. While historians will find out the details of human stories, the tank will be sent to the Volgograd Tractor Plant for reconstruction. The car will return its original appearance, after which they will hoist it on a pedestal in the center of Volgograd, at the museum-panorama "Battle of Stalingrad". This will be the first tank in the museum, which in fact took part in the battle on the Volga.
- Young Volgograd citizens often represent war as a picture on TV or in the form of a computer game, where the hero has countless lives. And at such times as today, the horrible story of a real war comes alive before the eyes of the young, ”said Vladimir Vasin, chairman of the regional committee on youth affairs.
Regional authorities promise that one a tank business will not be limited. They intend to return to operation several more armored vehicles that are scattered throughout the Volgograd region.
