Book Review: T-34: Pervaya Polnaya Ehntsiklopediya (T-34: The First Full Encyclopedia) by Maksim Kolomiyets; Moscow =93Yauza=94, =93KM Strategiya=94, =93Ehksmo=94 joint publication, 2009; 496 pp. with drawings, plans and illustrations; price US$72 plus $21 shipping and handling from East View Information Services
Advantages: great one-source book on the T-34 tank and its derivatives; wealth of factory drawings and blueprints; unique photos
Disadvantages: only available in Russian; not enough plans for most modelers
Rating: Recommended (Highly Recommended if you read Russian)
Recommendation: for all =9334" fans
It is probably safe to say that the Tiger, Panther, Sherman and T-34 are to armor modelers and fans what the Bf-109, Zero, P-51 and Spitfire are to aircraft modelers =96 namely the most popular subjects. As such, new books are constantly being written for each of them and they never seem to fail to sell. Books tend to come and go in cycles, and it seems that every time a new book comes out there is an ebb and flow to its popularity, normally being a big flow at first blush followed by an ebb as its failings or shortcomings become obvious.
I tend to focus on Russian and Soviet armor, and compare notes frequently with other Soviet armor fans as to what is out there and which new books are worth buying and reading (there are very few =96 if any =96 Russian language lending libraries in the US and the average small one would be fortunate to have a couple of books on the language or history).
There was a big surge over a series of books from =93Frontovaya Illyustratsiya=94 books in Russia in 2006 when Sergey Kirsanov published two books entitled =93T-34-76 Snizu Doverkh=94 (T-34-76 from Bottom to Top) and it covered most of the detail differences among the various
76mm armed T-34 tanks. A bit short on history, it was nevertheless an excellent base guide to the various T-34 models and their detail differences. Some =93experten=94 were not happy, of course, and began to pick the books apart because the drawings differed with their beliefs.A Polish book, =93T-34 - Mythical Weapon=94 by Robert Michulec and Miroslaw Zientarzewski, came out in the same year and was soon bandied about as the best book on the =9134 going. But while it had excellent photographs of T-34s and details of most of the vehicles covered in =93Bottom to Top=94, the text, research and historical commentary presented was appallingly biased and amateurish, and most of the combat shots were of gleeful German soldiers gloating on top of abandoned or knocked-out T-34s.
Right now there are about a dozen good to excellent Russian historians and researchers providing books and articles on WWII Soviet tanks =96 top ones being Maksim Kolomiyets, Mikhail Bartyatinskiy, Mikhail Svirin, and the Ivanov brothers who are doing an epic four part series on the complete history of Soviet and Russian tanks and armored vehicles. Each has done various books on the T-34 (the first three one or two monographs on the tank and the Ivanov brothers the well-known =93Neizvestniy T-34" (The Unknown T-34). Now Maksim Kolomiyets, best known as being the editor of the excellent =93Frontovaya Illyustratsiya=94 series of books (six per year plus special editions), has combined all of his knowledge of the T-34 in one volume.
This book is written more for the general historian and modeler than for hard-core modelers or footnote-happy historians, and Kolomiyets has reached a happy medium with this book. As it is an encyclopedia, he covers just about everything related to the creation, evolution, expansion, and use and operations of the T-34 tank in World War II (the =93Great Patriotic War=94 or VOV to the Russians) as well as some of the postwar actions involving T-34 and T-34-85 tanks. Note that this book does NOT cover the SU-122, SU-85, or SU-100 self-propelled guns.
The book begins with the origins of the T-34 tank in the BT series during the 1930s, and follows it through the A-20, A-32 and A-34 prototype tanks and their evolution into the T-34 which was accepted for service in 1939. Kolomiyets covers the tremendous obstacles that its enemies in the political structure of Stalinist days put in its path and how the tank and its designers overcame all of them.
Kolomiyets follows the tank into production and the dispersion of its production to other factories, and then into combat. The evolution of the tank, including the ill-stared A-43 design which morphed into the more =93acceptable=94 T-34M is also covered, as are all of the 57mm ZIS-4 armed tanks. Finally, the evolution of the T-34 into the T-34-85 is covered along with the flamethrower variants and the applique fitted ones.
A separate chapter covers combat use of the T-34 tanks along with the various tables of organization and equipment (alas, these are textual and not graphic). Combat results of T-34s versus Tigers and Panthers are covered in detail, as well as a short lists of T-34 =93aces=94 with the top one having scored 52 confirmed kills (D. F. Lavrinenko in late
1941, a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union for that feat).Kolomiyets has included a large number of plans and detail sketches taken from either factory blueprints of the relative tanks or from the operators=92 manual for them. While these are not like the =93Bottom to Top=94 books they cover the evolution of the tank very well, and for example provide detailed differentiation between the A-43 and the more refined (but stillborn) T-34M, which was the tank that the leadership hoped would be built.
There are at least 450 good photos in the book; while some would appear to be well-known and even hackneyed, it should be noted that many other Russian authors use Kolomiyets=92 photo collection for their own works. Many are totally new to me and most of them are of Soviet tankers or organizations and not captured German photos.
Many modelers are always seeking the one-off or obscure variant of a popular subject to model, and this book does have quite a few good shots of that sort. Think about T-34s missing road wheels or with odd bits instead such as road wheels with no rubber tires or even one with a set of Panther roadwheels (competition modelers can figure how to explain THAT one to the judges!) Also shown is the ultimate compliment to German engineers =96 a T-34 that was fitted with the complete =93schurzen=94 array off a Pzkw. IV to include the turret set! Go figure. Also covered are tanks fitted with the PT-3 =93mine trawl=94 or roller mine clearer, so those of you with an Arsenal kit can now find how to fit it to a Model 1942 tank. Also covered are some of the evolutionary steps of the tanks and the D-5T equipped 85mm tanks.
One really impressive section is a series of photos taken at Repair Factory No. 180, who spent the war rebuilding destroyed T-34s into functional tanks. In one case shown here they cut the complete upper glacis and roof section, as well as the front half of the sides, from one T-34 and welded it on to another to create a functional tank which was sent back into combat. Shots are also provided of repairs made to T-34s using patches and weld bead.
All of this can be used by non-linguists without much of a problem =96 if you see T-34, 1942 and 112 in one line of text you can figure out it is a T-34 Model 1942 built at Factory No. 112. But if you do have the ability, there are tons of useful bits on T-34s such as serial numbers, production lots and production numbers, allocations to units, damage reports (compiled in the field for NII-48, who published a complete study of how and where a T-34 was knocked out) and even testing against German weapons. There are some spectacular shots of what happens when a =93Panzerfaust=94 (=93Faustpatrone=94 to the Russians) hits a fully loaded T-34 Model 1942, with one shot showing the roof some 200 feet in the air.
Overall this book may not stand on its own to non-Russian speakers, but it fits in nicely with the other sources and puts some items in better context. For the Russian speaker, it is truly a one-volume encyclopedia.
Cookie Sewell