The SMK was an armored vehicle prototype developed by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was named after

Sergei Mironovich Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (born Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolsheviks, Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction ...

, 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 The T-35 was a Soviet multi- turreted heavy tank of the interwar period and early Second World War that saw limited service with the Red Army. Often called a land battleship, it was the only five-turreted heavy tank in the world to reach product ...

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 ...

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

multi-turreted heavy tank. A design team under Josef Kotin at the Kirovski Works (formerly the Putilov Works) 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 resulted in a reduction in the number of turrets in the specification and changes in suspension design (going from spring-based 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 ...

). Kotin and his assistant independently designed a single-turret version of the SMK, which gained Stalin's approval and was named the Kliment Voroshilov tank (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 ...

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 was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

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. While the SMK had thick enough armor to protect the crew from Finnish cannons and machine guns, its extremely long hull made turning difficult, especially in the dense forests where the Winter War took place. After being immobilized by a mine, the SMK had to be abandoned and was not recovered for two months. The

and KV-2 designs proved superior in both trials in Finland and were accepted. SMK Abandoned in Finland

Armor

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *Zaloga & Gransden ''Soviet Heavy 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

Design and development

Service history

Armor

See also

References

External links