Soviet T34 and Great Patriotic War Memorial - Siberia

In the spirit of sharing, begun with modern vehicles, here's some photos of a salvaged WW2 era T34 that we found in Victory Park, Khanty Mansisk, Siberia.  The park is a Great Patriotic War (WW2) memorial to the fallen.  The plaque suggests this was an early production T34/76 produced in 1942 from a factory hastily evacuated east of the Urals.  In winter they drove the tanks to a railhead across a frozen lake but this one went across in the thaw and broke through.

The T34 through birch forest - typical of huge tracts of northern Russia.

 The tank on its plinth

 I don't think I'd like to be a German soldier viewing the thing from this angle!

Avenue of Heroes of the Soviet Union.  All these guys were locals from this region of Siberia who made the ultimate sacrifice doing heroic deeds.  The memorial is treated with considerably more respect than our war memorials - no dregs stealing the plaques for scrap here!

Mother Russia weeping for the fallen.

 

  Last view of the T34.

There were some other bits of equipment on display including what looked like a WW1 era field gun and a lend lease British (or Canadian?) made 4.2" mortar - if we could deceipher the Russian plaques correctly.