How tank forces evolved in the USSR & Russia (PHOTOS)

Gateway to Russia

Sep 13 2026

A group of tankers, 1983.

Mikhail Potyrnike, Albert Simanovsky/TASS

Tanker's Day is celebrated annually in Russia on the second Sunday in September.

A British Mark V heavy tank in service with the Red Army, 1918.

Refueling T-26 tanks, late 1930s.

Tank crews, 1939.

A crew dines near their camouflaged tank near Stalingrad, 1942.

T-34 tank platoon commander Alexandra Samusenko, 1943.

In a liberated village, 1943.

IS-2 tank crew near the Reichstag, 1945.

Timofey Melnik/Sputnik

Military exercises of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries in Bulgaria, 1967.

Lev Polikashin/Sputnik

Drills in Kazakh SSR, 1970.

Viktor Chernov/Sputnik

Tank crews of the Leningrad Military District, 1977.

Oleg Porokhovnikov/TASS

A T-80 tank crew cleaning the gun, 2000.

Oleg Buldakov/TASS

Tank crews of a motorized rifle unit of the Southern Military District in the new ‘Cowboy’ protective gear, 2012.

Dmitry Rogulin/TASS

A soldier in a T-90A tank during exercises in Volgograd Region, 2018.

Kirill Braga/Sputnik

Tank crews during a Victory Day Parade rehearsal in Yekaterinburg, 2020.

Pavel Lisitsyn/Sputnik