The SMK was an armored vehicle prototype developed by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
prior to the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. It was named after
Sergei Mironovich Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov (né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge.
Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and membe ...
, a Communist Party official assassinated in 1934. The SMK was discovered and classified by German intelligence as the T-35C, leading to the misunderstanding that the
T-35 took part in the Winter War.
Only one was built and after a trial showing the downsides of its weight and size against the
KV tank
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pro ...
and brief use in the war with Finland, the project was dropped.
Design and development
The SMK was among the designs competing to replace the unreliable and expensive
T-35 multi-turreted heavy tank. A design team under
Josef Kotin at the
Kirovski Works (formerly the
Putilov Works
The Kirov Plant, Kirov Factory or Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) ( rus, Кировский завод, Kirovskiy zavod) is a major Russian mechanical engineering and agricultural machinery manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was establ ...
) at Leningrad designed the tank. Competition came from the former
OKMO
OKMO (''Opytniy Konstruktorsko-Mekhanicheskiy Otdel'', 'Experimental Design Mechanical Department') was the tank design team in the Soviet Union during the early 1930s. Located in Leningrad, it produced the design of the T-26 infantry tank, of whic ...
designer N. Barykov at the
''Bolshevik'' Plant with their
T-100 tank.
In spite of the lessons that could have been learned during the Spanish Civil War, the specification drawn up for the "Anti-Tank Gun Destroyer" in 1937 required the ability to withstand 45 mm anti-tank guns at point-blank range and 75 mm artillery fire at .
[Zaloga p6]
Meetings in 1938 reduced the number of turrets in the specification and a move to
torsion bar
A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...
from spring suspension. Kotin and his assistant independently designed a single-turret version of the SMK which received Stalin's approval and the name
KV. Production of two prototypes was ordered.
The SMK's armament was a short 76.2 mm gun in the upper centrally placed turret and a 45 mm weapon in the forward turret.
Service history
The SMK, the two
KV-1
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pro ...
prototypes and the two
T-100 prototypes were put through proving trials before being tested operationally in combat at the
Battle of Summa during the
Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
against Finland. The vehicles formed a company of the 91st Tank Battalion of the 20th Heavy Tank Brigade. The unit was under the command of the son of the Defence Commissar. After being immobilized by a mine, the SMK had to be abandoned and was not recovered for 2 months.
The KV design proved superior in both trials in Finland and was accepted.
Armor
See also
*
List of tanks of the Soviet Union
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*Zaloga & Gransden ''Soviet Havy Tanks'' Osprey Publishing
on battlefield.ru.
WWII Vehicles - Soviet Union's SMK
External links
{{WWIISovietAFVs
Heavy tanks of the Soviet Union
Multi-turreted tanks
World War II tanks of the Soviet Union
Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union
Trial and research tanks of the Soviet Union
Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s