T-34 Tank (Victory Park, Samara)

A T-34-85 tank stands in Victory Park in the Sovetsky district of Samara, near Maurice Thorez Street, close to the Veterans' Palace and the park's pond. It is a memorial to military glory and a tribute to the soldiers and home-front workers of the Samara region, and the centrepiece of a small display of military vehicles that draws visitors who come to the park to see its tanks and guns.

History

Victory Park was planned for the 30th anniversary of the Victory on the site of the neglected Chernovsky orchards, once known for their apple trees, and opened to visitors in 1977. In spring 2010 military vehicles were moved here from Gagarin Park to a site by the lake: a T-34 tank, two guns and an armoured personnel carrier. For the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War the park was reconstructed and reopened in 2015.

The T-34 and its variant

The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank designed by the tank department of Kharkiv Plant No. 183 under Mikhail Koshkin. Series production began in 1940, and from 1942 it was built at plants in the Urals and Siberia. Its economical V-2 diesel engine and its room for upgrades kept it effective throughout the war. The T-34 was the main tank of the Red Army and the Soviet armed forces in 1942–1947 and the most produced tank of the Second World War.

The Samara tank is the late T-34-85 variant with a more powerful 85 mm gun, which reached the front in 1944. Plaques by the pedestal list the tank's main specifications and production years.

What to see nearby

Next to the tank stand a 100 mm KS-19 anti-aircraft gun, a 152 mm ML-20 gun-howitzer of 1937 and a BTR-40 armoured car. Nearby are the Star of Memory memorial and, in a corner of the park, the Veterans' Palace with the Unconquered museum of former child prisoners of Nazi concentration camps.

By the main entrance are a red arch with the Order of Victory and a monument to children who survived the camps (2007). The Alley of Veterans has busts of the Heroes of the Soviet Union Vasily Margelov (2020) and Vladimir Chudaikin (2022). By the eternal flame stand a stele naming Samara residents who marched in the Victory Parade of 24 June 1945 and a relief of Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky. The park also has the Church of Saints Boris and Gleb, built in 2004, and a monument to border guards (2018).

Good to know

The tank is repainted every year before Victory Day on 9 May. On holidays and anniversaries veterans come to lay flowers, and on ordinary days children explore the vehicles and play at being tank crews.

Getting there

The nearest metro station is Sportivnaya, about a kilometre's walk away. The closest stop is Ulitsa Entuziastov (Samara Veterans' Palace). Buses 70 and 75 and trams 3, 4, 11 and 23 serve the park.