That’s actually Mk V tank. Britain supplied Whites (anti-bolshevik) forces during Russian Civil War with them, but most were eventually captured by the Red Army. Four were later taken by Estonia and two by Latvia. Interestingly this tank is a “hermaphrodite” – it has “male”-type sponson (with gun) to the right side and “female”-type sponson (machine guns only) to the left side.
Those are British MkV tanks – the ones with just machine guns were termed ‘female’ for some reason, whilst the ones with the cannon were ‘male’ of course. The interesting thing for me is, as Xoliul says, how did Russia come to have these? Some answers are here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_tank#Mark_V_series including some other interesting facts (2 found in Berlin in 1945!).
It seems these very old tanks have a lot of history.
Mark V tanks were used by both the White Russians and british forces in the North during the Russian Civil war. Most of those were captured by the Bolshevik forces and used against their former owners. I guess those tanks are survivors of this.
General Baron Vrangel in his Memoirs mentions British tanks used by the Russian Forces against the Bolsheviks in Southern Russia: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/vrangel1/02.html “In the nearest future we expected arrival to Novorossiysk of a large number of airplanes and tanks” (beginning of 1919) Then in June 1919: “the 7th Infantry Division… including heavy artillery and six tanks”
“In Yekaterinodar I saw action of the Russian tank units which had been trained by the British instructors”
Incredible effort to save these historic tanks. Seems like they should be placed INSIDE after all that work. Well done! Bravo!
I believe the last photo is from tank museum in Kubinka. Its most photographed item is WWII Maus.
What’s the story here, I didn’t know russia used MkIV tanks ?
That’s actually Mk V tank. Britain supplied Whites (anti-bolshevik) forces during Russian Civil War with them, but most were eventually captured by the Red Army. Four were later taken by Estonia and two by Latvia. Interestingly this tank is a “hermaphrodite” – it has “male”-type sponson (with gun) to the right side and “female”-type sponson (machine guns only) to the left side.
Those are British MkV tanks – the ones with just machine guns were termed ‘female’ for some reason, whilst the ones with the cannon were ‘male’ of course.
The interesting thing for me is, as Xoliul says, how did Russia come to have these?
Some answers are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_tank#Mark_V_series including some other interesting facts (2 found in Berlin in 1945!).
It seems these very old tanks have a lot of history.
I didn’t know either . but it seems the white movement had some of them in their lines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_tank
Mark V tanks were used by both the White Russians and british forces in the North during the Russian Civil war.
Most of those were captured by the Bolshevik forces and used against their former owners.
I guess those tanks are survivors of this.
amazing they still exist after almost 100 years
Also the Belgians went to fight the bolcheviks in Siberia with FN armoured machine gun cars..
General Baron Vrangel in his Memoirs mentions British tanks used by the Russian Forces against the Bolsheviks in Southern Russia:
http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/vrangel1/02.html
“In the nearest future we expected arrival to Novorossiysk of a large number of airplanes and tanks” (beginning of 1919)
Then in June 1919:
“the 7th Infantry Division… including heavy artillery and six tanks”
“In Yekaterinodar I saw action of the Russian tank units which had been trained by the British instructors”