After the end of World War II, US President Harry Truman decided that the Soviet army could continue its offensive and conquer all of Europe. Measures were taken to build up military potential, and, moreover, the successful tests of the atomic bomb led to the start of a new war, the Cold War. The Soviet army during the Cold War was the best in the whole world. Its commanders and soldiers had vast combat experience behind them; an excellent school for training specialists in all branches of the army was worked out.
The increased military power of the USSR could not be ignored further, as it was before the Second World War. In response, the United States developed a preventive nuclear strike plan, which was supposed to deliver thousands of distant American bombers. Although the Soviet Union already possessed nuclear weapons, it still did not have so much heavy aviation to retaliate. A solution was found, the Soviet army began to build up a "steel fist" - a huge number of tanks capable of fighting in areas contaminated with radiation, it was they who had to walk across Europe with a steel rink in the event of a nuclear strike.
It takes decades to develop a strategic bomber, and a tank is built in two to three years. In the post-war period, the country gained a lot of experience in the production of tanks inline, Soviet industry could stamp them in hundreds. An adequate response to the American bomb shower was to be a tank armada. The Soviet army began to be equipped with new T-55 tanks, they were able to fight even in contaminated areas. The ventilation system installed on the tank created excessive pressure inside the machine, which tightly blocked the penetration of radioactive dust inside.
The next round of development of the tank forces of the USSR was the creation of the main tank T-64. This car was formed from scratch. It used the latest developments of the time, including a laser rangefinder and automatic loader. The frontal armor of the tank could not penetrate the guns of American and English vehicles of the same type. All subsequent tanks created in the USSR, in essence, are a deep modernization of the T-64.
The concept of the development of tanks of the USSR and the USA was a huge difference. While the Americans and European countries made the main emphasis on increasing the thickness of the armor and improving the working conditions for the crew, the Soviet army received the simplest machines possible, the production of which can be easily put on stream. For example, the top of the American tank construction M1A2 Abrams is so difficult to repair and maintain that the slightest damage leads to sending the tank to the rear, and a Russian tank can be repaired of almost any level of complexity in the field.
The USSR Ministry of Defense adopted various strategies, new types of troops and equipment appeared, aircraft and missiles improved. However, the tank as it was and remained a symbol of what the Soviet army was. A photo of the first main Soviet T-64 tank shows the power of the armed forces of the Soviet Union, and now Russia, as well as possible.