Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945 to Present [Hardcover]

David R. Markov, Steven J. Zaloga Andrew W. Hull (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945 to Present starts the reader at the end of World War 2 and follows the course of armored fighting vehicle and artillery designs right up to the most modern equipment now in prototype stage or in service. The book is illustrated with more than 310 photographs and more than 250 line drawings. This book represents THE reference source for Soviet/Russian armored fighting vehicles and artillery. No other book comes close to offering this detailed level of information on the path and design and all programs relating to tanks, APCs, artillery, and other AFVs beginning with the post-war programs.

About the Author

Andrew Hull is a project leader and David Markov is a research staff member for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Washington, DC. Both study and write on ground warfare issues and have been published in a variety of professional journals. Steven Zaloga has written more than 30 books on Soviet/Russian tank history and is a professional defense analyst.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Darlington Productions (April 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892848015
• ISBN-13: 978-1892848017
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,440,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have resource from a team of true experts., June 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945 to Present (Hardcover)

Simply put, this book is a must-have resource for anyone interested in the subject of Soviet/Russian armor and artillery. It is the most up-to-date and comprehensive reference book of its type published to-date; definately required reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book about soviet post-war armour development, May 15, 2005

By	Jukka-pekka Hietaniemi (Finland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945 to Present (Hardcover)

This book is must to have for anyone deeply interested from Soviet tank design and development after ww2. It is very comprehensive study and carefully researched, average reader can't point any mistake in the text.
Book includes all major russian tank projects in well-written text which includes many technical factors without being boring.
There are many photos showing the rare tank designs which never accomplished to go to production and line pictures which are quite clear. Also book includes very up-to-date innovations in russian tanks design, with active anti-atgm devices etc. There are many tables which show exact information of tanks and their guns, penetrations and ammunitions. There are very good appendixes representing soviet "obiekt"-codes for each tank/design bureau and also evolution chart of russian tanks and descriptions from all the major tank development factorys and research institutes.
Even if there is five star rating ( book this good can not be given much lower rating than 5 stars) i found that there are some things that i didn't like. First, this book is printed to paper which is not so good ( it reminds of home inkjet paper) and the pictures are not very clearly reproduced. This is book which is expensive anyway, so it could have been made all-colour or at least printed for better paper.
Some parts of the text are identically same from Zalogas earlier "Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles: 1946 To the Present"-book from 80's. Also Zalogas Osprey booklets include much the same text from word to word than these two books. Altough Zaloga is very highly dignified author it is quite a dissapointing to see same text passages in many different book, like copy-pasted.

Well these couple of things are easily forgotten since book is written so well. This is definitely must-to-have book for any interested from good and well-researched, authoritative book of recent and modern tank developments of Soviet Union and Russia.
Very recommendable!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource, August 30, 2003

By	Sean Fee (Granada Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945 to Present (Hardcover)

The book gives a detailed history and specifications of ALL soviet armor types. You can really appreciate this reference, as I have not seen one this detailed when compared to other books. It does have some shortcomings. There is almost no color photographs in the entire book. I am not sure why the publisher chose this route, as color photos of most of these tanks are in abundance and easily obtainable. Black and white photos (even some drawings) do not convey the scale or manufacturing quality (or lack of) of these machines. The other problem I have is there is almost no history of the tank in combat. There are a few passing references, but I am disappointed that more information was not given on how these machines performed in battle.