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155-454: The ZSU-57-2 Ob'yekt 500 is a Soviet self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG), armed with two 57 mm autocannons . 'ZSU' stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka ( Russian : Зенитная Самоходная Установка ), meaning "anti-aircraft self-propelled mount", '57' stands for the bore of the armament in millimetres and '2' stands for the number of gun barrels . It was the first Soviet mass-produced tracked SPAAG after World War II. In

310-410: A ball-bearing race ring 1850 mm in diameter. The turret rear can be removed, which makes replacement of the guns easier. The turret can be covered in the travelling position by a tarpaulin which has 16 plexiglass windows. To aim the guns, base data such as the target's speed, direction and range must be entered into the sighting system by the sight adjuster, who sits to the left of the guns at

465-476: A ground pressure of 0.63 kg/cm. The ZSU-57-2's electrical power unit partially differs from the T-54, in that it consists of a more powerful G-74 direct current generator which develops 3 kW (108 A at 27–29 V) at 2100 rpm and six 24 volt 6-STEN-140M or 6-MST-140 accumulator batteries (total battery capacity is 420 A-h), the batteries are used for starting the engine and an electrical power supply when

620-704: A one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , it was a flagship communist state . Its capital and largest city was Moscow . The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin , established the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the world's first constitutionally socialist state . The revolution

775-497: A practical rate of fire of between 100 and 140 rounds per minute, which gives a fire time of 2–3 minutes before running out of ammo. Muzzle velocity is 1,000 m/s. Each clip has 4 rounds, each of which weighs 6.6 kg; the charge in each round consists of 1.2 kg of 11/7 nitrocellulose powder, a projectile weighs 2.8 kg. Maximum horizontal range is 12 km / 7 miles (with an effective range against ground targets of up to 4 km / 2.5 miles. Maximum vertical range

930-465: A 26 mm signalling pistol . The main weakness of the ZSU-57-2 was the lack of a search or fire-control radar ; the vehicle was equipped with an optical mechanical computing (analog) reflex sight as the sole fire control system , so it could engage visible targets only. Night firing was also impractical. Also, the manual gunlaying and manual clip loading was not good enough, the rate of fire

1085-522: A 360-degree field of view without moving his seat, including rear vision by engaging the extra prism. This design, patented by Rudolf Gundlach in 1936, first saw use in the Polish 7-TP light tank (produced from 1935 to 1939). As a part of Polish–British pre- World War II military cooperation, the patent was sold to Vickers-Armstrong where it saw further development for use in British tanks, including

1240-431: A 45° angle. This form of periscope, with the addition of two simple lenses, served for observation purposes in the trenches during World War I . Military personnel also use periscopes in some gun turrets and in armoured vehicles . More complex periscopes using prisms or advanced fiber optics instead of mirrors and providing magnification operate on submarines and in various fields of science. The overall design of

1395-685: A SPAAG based on the T-34 tank chassis, to be armed with four 37 mm AA guns, to the Technical Council of the Ministry of Transport. However, the project did not proceed due to the desire to concentrate attention on the newest tank chassis available. The Design Bureau of Research Institute No. 58 (NII-58) (formerly known as the Central Artillery Design Bureau, TsAKB), under the supervision of V.G. Grabin , began

1550-583: A battery of four vehicles was even lower than that of a battery of six towed 57 mm S-60 anti-aircraft guns controlled by the PUAZO-6 anti-aircraft artillery director with the SON-9 fire control radar or later by the RPK-1 Vaza radar. It became obvious that the hit probability on a jet aircraft of the era was very low using only determination of target speed by aircraft type and determination of distance to

1705-592: A closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement , the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain. Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in

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1860-454: A device that can rotate to provide a wider field of view (or is fixed into an assembly that can), while an episcope is fixed into position. Periscopes may also be referred to by slang, e.g. "shufti-scope". An important development, the Gundlach rotary periscope , incorporated a rotating top with a selectable additional prism which reversed the view. This allowed a tank commander to obtain

2015-669: A fixed, non-retractable periscope that used a combination of prisms to relay the image to the submariner. (Peral also developed a primitive gyroscope for submarine navigation and pioneered the ability to fire live torpedoes while submerged. ) The invention of the collapsible periscope for use in submarine warfare is usually credited to Simon Lake in 1902. Lake called his device the "omniscope" or "skalomniscope". As of 2009 modern submarine periscopes incorporate lenses for magnification and function as telescopes . They typically employ prisms and total internal reflection instead of mirrors, because prisms, which do not require coatings on

2170-486: A fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers. Periscope In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at

2325-519: A greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии , romanized : Soyuz Sovyetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii ). Joseph Stalin initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to

2480-542: A large payment for his periscope patent from some of its producers." The USSR also copied the design and used it extensively in its tanks, including the T-34 and T-70 . The copies were based on Lend-Lease British vehicles, and many parts remain interchangeable. Germany also made and used copies. Periscopic sights were also introduced during the Second World War. In British use, the Vickers periscope

2635-610: A light-weight T-54 tank chassis, was finished in 1948. The first prototype ZSU-57-2 was built in June 1950, the second in December 1950. After official tests, taking place between 27 January and 15 March 1951 in which the vehicle was driven for 1,500 km (932 miles) and 2,000 rounds were fired from its guns, six more prototypes were built for service tests. These prototypes had some improvements included, such as an increased ammunition load (300 rounds), but development stopped again due to

2790-571: A modernization programme for the ZSU-57-2 in parallel with the beginning of its serial production in 1957, but this programme was rejected due to the development of new radar-guided SPAAGs armed with small-bore autocannons and another tracked chassis. The ZSU-57-2 still retained some of the features of its predecessor, the ZSU-37. One of them was the lack of an armoured roof on the turret. The advantages of an open turret for SPAAGs, such as very high elevation angle for AA autocannons, excellent visibility of

2945-501: A narrower field of view and higher magnification. In World War II and earlier submarines it was the only means of gathering target data to accurately fire a torpedo, since sonar was not yet sufficiently advanced for this purpose (ranging with sonar required emission of an acoustic "ping" that gave away the location of the submarine) and most torpedoes were unguided. Twenty-first-century submarines do not necessarily have periscopes. The United States Navy's Virginia -class submarines and

3100-597: A new profitable market. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists . In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with

3255-1045: A production license for twin S-68 AA autocannons, but declined it. Eventually, Poland replaced all its ZSU-57-2s with ZSU-23-4s. Seven Polish ZSU-57-2s are preserved, one at the Lubuskie Military Museum in Drzonów, one in Wicko Morskie, the largest anti-aircraft artillery firing range in Poland, one at the Land Forces Museum in Warsaw, one at the History and Tradition of Suvalkai Soldiers Museum in Suwalszczyzna , one in Koszalin and two at

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3410-685: A program to replace the ZSU-57. The ZSU-37-2 and -23-4 were the products of the attempt, and the ZSU-23-4 Shilka would see widespread service in various countries. Although the vehicle entered service in 1955 and in the same year the No. 174 Works located in Omsk began producing the hulls and turrets, the first vehicles were completed in 1957 after the first 249 57 mm twin S-68 guns were produced by

3565-417: A rear drive sprocket with detachable sprocket rings (lantern-wheel gear) and an idler wheel on each side. The first and last road wheels each have a hydraulic rotary shock absorber . The track is 12.33 m long, 580 mm wide and has 90 links; despite having four road wheels instead of five the ground contact area of the track is the same as the T-54 (3.84 m). Track center distance is 2.64 m The vehicle has

3720-631: A status that is retained by the Russian Federation . Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America . Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine , rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to

3875-467: A targeting, or commander's, periscope. Navies originally mounted these periscopes in the conning tower , one forward of the other in the narrow hulls of diesel-electric submarines. In the much wider hulls of recent US Navy submarines the two operate side-by-side. The observation scope, used to scan the sea surface and sky, typically had a wide field of view and no magnification or low-power magnification. The targeting or "attack" periscope, by comparison, had

4030-460: A true periscopic sight in the primary role. The periscopic sight was linked to the gun itself, allowing elevation to be captured (rotation being fixed as part of rotating turret). The sights formed part of the overall periscope, providing the gunner with greater overall vision than previously possible with the telescopic sight. The FV4201 Chieftain used the TESS (TElescopic Sighting System) developed in

4185-475: A union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians . The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR

4340-429: A vehicle that used a modified T-54 chassis, with four twin road wheels per side instead of five, and much thinner armour in order to not overwork the inbuild V-54 4-stroke diesel V12 engine of the T-54. The vehicle was armed with twin 57 mm S-68 autocannon in a new, large, rotating, open-topped turret. The ZSU-57-2 consists of three compartments: driver's in the front, fighting in the middle and engine-transmission at

4495-769: A visible wake (and may also become detectable by radar ), giving away the submarine's position. Marie-Davey built a simple, fixed naval periscope using mirrors in 1854. Thomas H. Doughty of the United States Navy later invented a prismatic version for use in the American Civil War of 1861–1865. Submarines adopted periscopes early. Captain Arthur Krebs adapted two on the experimental French submarine Gymnote in 1888 and 1889. The Spanish inventor Isaac Peral equipped his submarine Peral (developed in 1886 but launched on September 8, 1888) with

4650-688: Is welded rolled steel sufficient to protect the vehicle from 7.62mm armour-piercing bullets at 250 meters. Armour thickness is as follows: The ZSU-57-2 has a maximum road speed of 50 kilometres per hour(31 miles per hour), which is reduced to around 30 km/h off-road(19 mph). The vehicle has better acceleration compared with the T-54 because of its better power-to-weight ratio (18.6 hp per tonne). It has an operational range of 420 km(261 miles) on roads and 320 km(199 miles) across country. The vehicle can cross 0.8 m high vertical obstacles, 2.7 m wide trenches , ford 1.4 m deep water obstacles and climb 30° gradients. The ZSU-57-2 uses

4805-512: Is 8.8 km / 28,871 ft with a maximum effective vertical range of 4.5 km / 14,750 ft). Fragmentation rounds have a safety-destructor which activates between 12 and 16 seconds after being fired to ensure the shells will not fall back to ground, so the maximum slant range of anti-aircraft fire is 6.5–7 km / 4-4.3 miles. BR-281 armour-piercing rounds are able to penetrate 110 mm armour at 500 m or 70 mm armour at 2,000 m (at 90° impact angle). The S-68 autocannon

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4960-573: Is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет ), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice', ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of * vět-iti ('to inform'), related to Slavic věst ('news'), English wise . The word sovietnik means 'councillor'. Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет ). In the Russian Empire ,

5115-495: Is equipped with a single-piece hatch cover opening to the left and two periscopic vision devices. One of them can be replaced by the TVN-1 infrared vision device which is operated together with the infrared headlamp ( active night vision ), which is mounted on the right track board. A fire-fighting equipment signal panel and a spare parts case are also located in the driver's compartment. The open-topped box-type welded turret has

5270-591: Is his background, his education , his profession . These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror ." During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , or by

5425-417: Is located on the right hand side of the turret interior. It has a range of 9–20 km(5–12 miles) when the vehicle is stationary, and from 7–15 km(4–9 miles) when the vehicle is on the move. It was later replaced by R-113 or R-113 radio transceivers. The TPU-4-47 intercom system was later replaced by R-120 or R-124 intercom systems. Small arms for the crew members include two AK-47 assault rifles and

5580-420: Is not high enough, particularly considering that air-cooled barrels require quite long pauses for cooling at high rates of fire and the turret traverse is not fast enough to effectively intercept high-speed attack jet aircraft at low altitudes. The vehicle cannot perform aimed fire on the move. Although the ZSU-57-2 had the highest firepower among production SPAAGs of its time, the anti-aircraft fire efficiency of

5735-568: Is used instead of electro-hydraulic drive, three crew members instead of two should work with the sight. The commander, who sits on the right hand side in the middle of the turret, lays the gun in azimuth, the gunner in elevation and the sight adjuster enters data into the sight. The loaders feed clips into the twin autocannon manually as needed, similar to the Bofors 40mm . The twin S-68s are recoil-operated and weigh 4,500 kg. Their construction

5890-593: The Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor and the Nimrod MR1 as the "on top sight". Various US bomber aircraft such as the B-52 used sextant periscopes for celestial navigation before the introduction of GPS . This also allowed the aircrew to navigate without the use of an astrodome in the fuselage. An emergency periscope was used on all Boeing 737 models manufactured before 1997 found under "Seat D" behind

6045-665: The Axis powers , suffering an estimated 27 million casualties , which accounted for most Allied losses. In the aftermath of the war , the Soviet Union consolidated the territory occupied by the Red Army , forming satellite states , and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower . Geopolitical tensions with the US led to the Cold War . The American-led Western Bloc coalesced into NATO in 1949, prompting

6200-711: The BTR-40A (ZTPU-2) wheeled SPAAGs. Two of the USSR's potential enemies – the United States and Great Britain, had high-quality air forces with substantial ground-attack experience. The need for a new tracked AA vehicle was apparent. In February 1946, the Design Bureau of Works No. 174 in Omsk and the Research Institute No. 58 in Kaliningrad, Moscow Oblast submitted a joint project for

6355-520: The Council of People's Commissars ), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of

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6510-585: The Croatian War of Independence and were later also scrapped. The air defence battery of the 44th "Wolves" armoured-mechanized battalion stationed in Pivka, belonging to the 4th Regional Command Postojna operated ZSU-57-2 s . All vehicles were retired from service in late 90 s . Finland imported 12 ZSU-57-2 SPAAGs between 1960 and 1961 alongside other kinds of Soviet equipment. The ZSU-57-2 s were designated 57 ItPsv SU 57-2, some of them remained in service to

6665-661: The Crusader , Churchill , Valentine , and Cromwell models as the Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV . The Gundlach-Vickers technology was shared with the American Army for use in its tanks including the Sherman , built to meet joint British and US requirements. This saw post-war controversy through legal action: "After the Second World War and a long court battle, in 1947 he, Rudolf Gundlach, received

6820-593: The Gulag was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents, resulting in mass death, imprisonment, and deportation. In 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed a nonaggression pact , but in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II . The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating

6975-755: The Land Forces , the Air Force , the Navy , Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Internal Troops . The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in

7130-528: The Moscow State Institute of International Relations . The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions. During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it

7285-657: The Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia , was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones , and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra , taiga , steppes , desert and mountains . The USSR, like Russia , had the world's longest border , measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it

7440-731: The Polish Army Museum in Warsaw . Three other Warsaw Pact members, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, received ZSU-57-2s once the ZSU-23-4 was introduced in the Soviet Army. Czechoslovakia imported one ZSU-57-2 for testing but it was rejected when it was realised that the domestically produced M53/59 Praga was comparable to the ZSU-57-2. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ordered 100 ZSU-57-2s in 1963. Deliveries were completed between 1963 and 1964. They were passed on to

7595-790: The Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism , especially of the Nazi variety. The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form

7750-631: The Royal Navy 's Astute -class submarines instead use photonics masts , pioneered by the Royal Navy's HMS  Trenchant , which lift an electronic imaging sensor-set above the water. Signals from the sensor-set travel electronically to workstations in the submarine's control center. While the cables carrying the signal must penetrate the submarine's hull, they use a much smaller and more easily sealed—and therefore less expensive and safer—hull opening than those required by periscopes. Eliminating

7905-463: The Six-Day War in 1967 or the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Despite that, the Egyptian Army operated 40 ZSU-57-2 s as of 2003 and equipped them with radars. Egypt also bought Chinese-made proximity fuzes for its S-60 and S-68 ammunition. Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ), commonly known as the Soviet Union , was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. During its existence, it

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8060-411: The Soviet republics , and the control of the Communist Party weakened. The failed coup attempt in August 1991 against Gorbachev by hardline communists hastened the end of the Soviet Union , which formally dissolved on December 26, 1991, ending nearly seven decades of Soviet rule. With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country,

8215-500: The State Council , which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers. The Soviets as workers' councils first appeared during the 1905 Russian Revolution . Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the February Revolution of 1917 , workers' and soldiers' Soviets emerged throughout the country and shared power with the Russian Provisional Government . The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin , demanded that all power be transferred to

8370-489: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), saying that it was "overly juridical" and potentially infringed on national sovereignty. The Soviet Union later signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 (and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ), but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by

8525-496: The largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world . As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . Before its dissolution, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomatic and ideological influence (particularly in the Global South ), military and economic strengths, and scientific accomplishments. The word soviet

8680-485: The right to food , the right to work , and the right to education . The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law . According to Soviet legal theory , "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the individual". The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights. Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered law an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of

8835-481: The 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers. In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union , concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government, now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR , to himself. Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling

8990-427: The 1950s, such as the US M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (based on the M24 Chaffee light tank) and the M42 Duster SPAAGs (both armed with the famous 40 mm Bofors M2A1 twin AA gun ), had similar problems and were armed with less powerful weapons. The M42 Duster was tested with a T50 radar system in 1956 though it was a failure (production of the ZSU-57-2 had not started at this point). The Soviet Union would launch

9145-424: The 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded its efforts in space exploration and took a lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite , the first human spaceflight , the first space station , and the first probe to land on another planet . In 1985, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev , sought to reform the country through his policies of glasnost and perestroika . In 1989, various countries of

9300-416: The 1960s had one battery equipped with four SPAAGs or, more likely, with six 23 mm ZU-23 towed twin AA guns). The anti-aircraft performance of the ZSU-57-2, however, was quickly found to be unsatisfactory and, because of rapid air force development, the vehicle was deemed obsolete by the early 1960s. ZSU-57-2s were gradually replaced by radar-guided ZSU-23-4 Shilkas from the beginning of 1965. Towards

9455-432: The 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines , and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel . It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea , which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in

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9610-425: The Artillery Works No. 946 located in Krasnoyarsk . A total of 5,300 of these weapons were produced by the end of the 1950s. The hulls and turrets were produced by No. 174 Works where the final assembly also took place while the Krasnoyarsk Works, belonging to the Ministry of Heavy Engineering, participated in some production stages. The ZSU-57-2 remained in production until 1960 when the No. 174 Works stopped producing

9765-427: The CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees , local Soviets and executive committees . While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary. The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies ) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge , but

9920-411: The Communist authorities. Under Joseph Stalin , the death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. Sergei Kovalev recalled "the famous article 125 of the Constitution which enumerated all basic civil and political rights" in the Soviet Union. But when he and other prisoners attempted to use this as a legal basis for their abuse complaints, their prosecutor's argument

10075-452: The M3 through Lend-Lease . In 1942, Soviet engineers developed the T-60-3. The vehicle, based on the T-60 light tank chassis, was armed with two 12.7 mm DShK heavy machine guns; but the prototype did not go into production because of flaws in the design. The SU-72 SPAAG and several other experimental vehicles based on the T-60 or T-70 light tank chassis and armed with 37 mm autocannon were also tested in 1942–1943. The ZSU-37

10230-457: The Moon]. Hevelius saw military applications for his invention. Mikhail Lomonosov invented an "optical tube" which was similar to a periscope. In 1834, it was used in a submarine, designed by Karl Andreevich Schilder. In 1854, Hippolyte Marié-Davy invented the first naval periscope, consisting of a vertical tube with two small mirrors fixed at each end at 45°. Simon Lake used periscopes in his submarines in 1902. Sir Howard Grubb perfected

10385-481: The Politburo after the deaths of Lenin and Stalin, as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal, itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee. All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party. Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from

10540-420: The Russian name of the Soviet Union as СС has been taboo, the reason being that СС as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is associated with the infamous Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany , as SS is in English. In English-language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that, for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it

10695-445: The Soviet Army in 1955. The first vehicles began replacing BTR-40 A's and BTR-152 A's in the anti-aircraft batteries of tank regiments in 1957. It was first shown publicly during the military parade in Moscow on 7 November 1958. Initially, tank regiments had a single battery equipped with four SPAAGs, later increased to two batteries, each equipped with four SPAAGs. The vehicle was also used by some motor rifle regiments (which in

10850-450: The Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation . After the Soviet invasion of Finland , the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below). While nominally

11005-477: The Soviet Union . Boris Yeltsin , the leader of the RSFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation , which became the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states . During its existence, the Soviet Union produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations . It had the world's second-largest economy and largest standing military. An NPT-designated state , it wielded

11160-507: The Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact , in 1955. Neither side engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars . In 1953, following Stalin's death , the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev , which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused tensions with Communist China . During

11315-662: The Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the United Kingdom , Vyacheslav Molotov dropped his post war border demands. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc , which began following World War II in 1945. The term cold war is used because there

11470-594: The Soviet Union's superpower status, the economy struggled due to its centralized nature, technological backwardness, and inefficiencies. The vast military expenditures and burdens of maintaining the Eastern Bloc, further strained the Soviet economy. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev 's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist movements gained momentum across

11625-483: The Soviet authorities admitted. The Soviet Union was the world's second largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet GNP was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP. The Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986

11780-757: The Soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers. After the October Revolution , in which the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the Soviets, Lenin proclaimed the formation of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR). During the Georgian Affair of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national Soviet republics to form

11935-587: The Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership, but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ,

12090-507: The T-54. External rear-mounted supplemental fuel tanks can increase the road range to 595 km (370 miles). The mechanical transmission in the rear part of the hull consists of a change gear quadrant, a primary multiplate clutch unit with metallic friction pads, a manual gearbox with five forward gears, two multiplate planetary steering clutches with band brakes and two in-line final drive groups. The chassis has four twin rubber-tyred road wheels with individual torsion bar suspension ,

12245-522: The USSR, it had the unofficial nickname Sparka (Russian: Спарка ), meaning "twin mount," referring to the twin autocannon with which the vehicle is armed. During World War II, ground-attack aircraft emerged as a significant threat to mechanized units on the move. Conventional towed anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), as well as vehicle Mounted smaller machine guns like the ones found on the ZiS-12 were an inadequate response under such conditions owing to

12400-430: The USSR. Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it

12555-469: The Warsaw Pact overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes , and nationalist and separatist movements erupted across the Soviet Union. In 1991, amid efforts to preserve the country as a renewed federation , an attempted coup against Gorbachev by hardline communists prompted the largest republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede. On December 26, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of

12710-583: The ZSU-57-2 system and a few examples were delivered to the PRC for reverse-engineering. To meet Iraq's production order, NORINCO attempted to manufacture a copy with the improved amphibious chassis of the Type 69 -II tank. Several Type 80 SPAAGs were tested and accepted into service by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in small numbers. It was originally intended for the export market but didn't sell well. Greater success

12865-621: The ZSU-57-2 was East Germany as it received its first vehicles in September 1957. From 1957 to 1961 the National People's Army received 129 vehicles, eventually replacing them with ZSU-23-4s between 1967 and 1974. The ZSU-57-2 was completely gone from East German service by 1979. Some of the vehicles were converted into FAB 500U training vehicles for T-54 drivers and were passed on to the unified German state. Poland received its 129 ZSU-57-2s between 1957 and 1961. They were also offered

13020-476: The absence of improved S-68A guns. Various updates continued in 1952 and 1953. The service tests, in which two vehicles participated, took place in December 1954. This was due to delays in the development of drives for the S-68 guns. The ZSU-57-2 officially entered service in the Soviet Army on 14 February 1955. With the Warsaw Pact, all Russian allied countries were given a number of the ZSU-57-2. Based on past experiences with SPAAG designs, Soviet engineers designed

13175-503: The accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). Another major radioactive accident was the Kyshtym disaster . The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with major problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk , where nickel , for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During

13330-416: The classical submarine periscope is very simple: two telescopes pointed into each other. If the two telescopes have different individual magnification, the difference between them causes an overall magnification or reduction. Johannes Hevelius described an early periscope (which he called a "polemoscope") with lenses in 1647 in his work Selenographia, sive Lunae descriptio [Selenography, or an account of

13485-489: The combat situation by the gunners and no need for induced ventilation of the fighting compartment during intense fire were significantly over-shadowed by the disadvantages. The open turret of the ZSU-57-2 made it vulnerable from above, and prevented operations under NBC conditions. This flaw was partially nullified in the modified Bosnian Serb ZSU-57-2s, which had improvised overhead armour protection. Nevertheless, its Western counterparts that were operationally available in

13640-501: The country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property . According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , human rights are the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." including the right to life and liberty , freedom of expression , and equality before the law ; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture ,

13795-716: The creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget . The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee ) to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court , the Procurator General and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as

13950-589: The degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941). They were not controlled by

14105-408: The development of a twin 57 mm S-68 automatic anti-aircraft gun based on the 57mm S-60 in the spring of 1947. The first S-68 prototype (with ESP-76 diesel-electric drive), was ready in 1948. It was initially mounted on a S-79A four-wheel carriage; that system passed various tests but did not go into production. The final project of the ZSU-57-2 (Ob'yekt 500), armed with twin S-68s and based on

14260-531: The device in World War I. Morgan Robertson (1861–1915) claimed to have tried to patent the periscope: he described a submarine using a periscope in his fictional works. Periscopes, in some cases fixed to rifles , served in World War I (1914–1918) to enable soldiers to see over the tops of trenches , thus avoiding exposure to enemy fire (especially from snipers). The periscope rifle also saw use during

14415-606: The duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in

14570-538: The early 1980s that was later sold as surplus for use on the RAF Phantom aircraft. In modern use, specialised periscopes can also provide night vision. The Embedded Image Periscope (EIP) designed and patented by Kent Periscopes provides standard unity vision periscope functionality for normal daytime viewing of the vehicle surroundings plus the ability to display digital images from a range of on-vehicle sensors and cameras (including thermal and low light) such that

14725-414: The end of the 1960s, a frequent configuration was one battery of an AA battalion in a tank regiment equipped with ZSU-23-4s and another battery equipped with ZSU-57-2s. Unpopular in the Soviet Army, the ZSU-57-2 was completely replaced by ZSU-23-4s by the early 1970s. Most ZSU-57-2s were put into reserve storage while a few remained in service in tank training centres (as vehicles for driver training), until

14880-606: The end of the 1970s. Some were converted by army workshops into bulldozers. The last ZSU-57-2s were scrapped in the 1980s, while some dismantled vehicles were used as gunnery range targets. One is preserved in the Kubinka Tank Museum . ZSU-57-2s were exported like other Soviet equipment. Five other Warsaw Pact members—Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania—used it, as well as Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria. North Vietnam and North Korea may have received theirs without payment. The first foreign operator of

15035-454: The end of the century. A ZSU-57-2M modernization programme was being developed in Finland which would equip the vehicle with radar and configurable ammunition. However, after the prototype was produced the project was abandoned because of high costs. ItPsv SU-57 s were withdrawn from service in 2006. The People's Republic of China was approached by Iraq in the early 1980s to develop a copy of

15190-723: The founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs . In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR

15345-410: The general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism , demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above. The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments . All senior government officials and most deputies of

15500-443: The generator is shut down. The ZSU-57-2 is equipped with an automatic anti-aircraft sight of the plotter type with two collimators which can supervise a target with a speed of up to 350 m/s, a dive angle of between 0° and 90° and a slant range of up to 5,500 m; a simple mechanical sight is provided in case of failure. There is also an optical sight for direct fire at ground targets. The 10RT-26E portable radio transceiver

15655-525: The globe. The post-Stalin leadership, particularly under Nikita Khrushchev , initiated a de-Stalinization process, leading to a period of liberalization and relative openness known as the Khrushchev Thaw . However, the subsequent era under Leonid Brezhnev , referred to as the Era of Stagnation , was marked by economic decline, political corruption, and a rigid gerontocracy . Despite efforts to maintain

15810-549: The government. Extensive extrajudicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies . In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law , civil liberties , protection of law and guarantees of property , which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky . The USSR and other countries in the Soviet Bloc had abstained from affirming

15965-454: The highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since

16120-722: The hulls and turrets for ZSU-57-2. More than 2,023 ZSU-57-2 s were produced in Soviet Union. 250 ZSU-57-2 SPAAGs based on the Chinese Type 59 (a copy of the Soviet T-54A) tank chassis were produced under license in North Korea . The turrets were bought from the USSR and delivered between 1968 and 1977. Since the production of the ZSU-57-2 turrets ended in 1960 the turrets that North Korea bought must have come from decommissioned Soviet ZSU-57-2 s . The turrets were ordered in 1967. The ZSU-57-2 officially entered service with

16275-472: The implementation of socialist policies and the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms. The rise of Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by the forced collectivization of agriculture , rapid industrialization , and the Great Purge , which eliminated perceived enemies of

16430-438: The main armament, load clips into the magazines of their respective weapons. The loaders' travel seats should be stowed in clamps on the turret sides before opening fire. The gunner, seated on the left hand side in the middle of the turret, aims ("lays") the gun and opens fire using an electric trigger, which fires both barrels, or two-foot pedals, which can fire either barrel independently. If manual mechanical backup gunlaying

16585-541: The most common Russian initialization is Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR ) which essentially translates to Union of SSRs in English. In addition, the Russian short form name Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovyetsky Soyuz , which literally means Soviet Union ) is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the Great Patriotic War at the latest, abbreviating

16740-479: The newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR , and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt . The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR. The judiciary

16895-400: The nominal head of state . The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations . However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party, nor

17050-608: The official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth). The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis , under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov , it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989, there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on

17205-552: The only legal party and the final policymaker in the country. At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee , elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union. Depending on

17360-694: The other order until 1936 . In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukrainian SSR . СССР (in the Latin alphabet: SSSR ) is the abbreviation of the Russian-language cognate of USSR, as written in Cyrillic letters . The Soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this,

17515-570: The partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II . Up until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the interwar period . Despite the increasing build-up of Germany 's war machine and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path. However, after Operation Barbarossa ,

17670-485: The party's highest body the Politburo . Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs . It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in

17825-411: The protectoscope allows the vision slit to be blanked off with spaced armoured plate. This prevents a potential ingress point for small arms fire, with only a small difference in vision height, but still requires the armour to be cut. In the context of armoured fighting vehicles , such as tanks , a periscopic vision device may also be referred to as an episcope . In this context a periscope refers to

17980-417: The rear of the turret. The target's speed and direction is determined by visual estimation, while range can also be estimated visually or with the rangefinder . The upper front of the turret has two small ports with armoured covers meant for collimators of the sight. To fire the guns, the breeches must first be opened. The left and right loaders , located in the forward part of the turret on both sides of

18135-412: The rear. The hull is more spacious in comparison with the T-54 because of the thinner armour and has different locations for some equipment. The general layout, with transverse mounting of the engine, is the same. The driver's compartment is located on the left hand side of the front of the hull. The driver's seat is moved forward and to the left in comparison with its location in the T-54. The compartment

18290-436: The reflecting surface, are much more rugged than mirrors. They may have additional optical capabilities such as range-finding and targeting. The mechanical systems of submarine periscopes typically use hydraulics and need to be quite sturdy to withstand the drag through water. The periscope chassis may also support a radio or radar antenna. Submarines traditionally had two periscopes; a navigation or observation periscope and

18445-469: The resulting image appears "embedded" internally within the unit and projected at a comfortable viewing positions. Periscopes allow a submarine , when submerged at a relatively shallow depth, to search visually for nearby targets and threats on the surface of the water and in the air. When not in use, a submarine's periscope retracts into the hull . A submarine commander in tactical conditions must exercise discretion when using his periscope, since it creates

18600-420: The same engine as the T-54. It is a water-cooled V-54 4-stroke diesel V12 engine with a displacement of 38.88 litres, which develops 520  hp (388 kW) at 2,000 rpm. The engine itself weighs 895 kg. Fuel capacity is 830 litres carried in three fuel tanks inside the hull (640 L total) and two external fuel tanks on the right fender each of 95 L; fuel capacity was increased in comparison with

18755-597: The state. The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II , but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the Eastern Bloc in opposition to the Western Bloc during the Cold War . This period saw the USSR engage in an arms race, the Space Race , and proxy wars around

18910-469: The struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare , propaganda campaigns, espionage , far-reaching embargoes , rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race . Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs), all four being

19065-528: The successor states during the 1992 breakup of the federal state. They were then used by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. There were 54 of those vehicles in service as of 1999, but this number decreased to 36 in the subsequent decade; they were withdrawn from active service by 2003. A number of ZSU-57-2 remained in Serbia national inventories until 2008. Two vehicles captured by Croatian forces during

19220-407: The target by eye or by rangefinder; the ZSU-57-2 was designed to defend tank units against NATO attack aircraft flying at subsonic speeds, but it entered service ten years too late. Aircraft technology had improved to the point that a SPAAG required a much higher rate of fire, turret traverse speeds of 50–100° per second and a fully automatic radar-controlled fire control system. Works No. 174 started

19375-472: The telescoping tube running through the conning tower also allows greater freedom in designing the pressure hull and in placing internal equipment. Periscopes have also been used on aircraft for sections with limited view. The first known use of aircraft periscope was on the Spirit of St. Louis . The Vickers VC10 had a periscope that could be used on four locations of the aircraft fuselage, V-Bombers such as

19530-550: The time needed to bring anti-aircraft machine guns into action. This experience made it clear that an anti-aircraft tracked vehicle, armed with small-bore autocannons or heavy machine guns , was needed. Vehicles such as the German Wirbelwind and specialized variants of the US M3 Half-track had been used to good effect in the final battles of World War II, both by the US and nations which had received

19685-555: The time. SPAAGs based on light tank chassis had poor maneuverability in difficult terrain, slow off-road speed and insufficient range in comparison with medium tanks and SPGs. Thus the ZSU-37s were retired from service by the end of the 1940s. For several years after World War II there were no new SPAAG models in the USSR except for the BTR-152A (which were armed with two or four 14.5mm KPV heavy machine guns , designated ZTPU-4) and

19840-492: The truth". Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labour unions , private corporations , independent churches or opposition political parties . The freedom of movement within and especially outside

19995-501: The turret can traverse 360° at a speed of between 0.2° and 36° per second. Drive is from a direct current electric motor and universal hydraulic speed gears (a manual mechanical drive is also provided in case of electrohydraulic failure; with the use of mechanical drive, elevation speed is 4.5° per second and the turret traverse speed is 4° per second). The guns firing together are capable of firing up to 210–240 fragmentation and armour-piercing tracer (AP-T) shells per minute, with

20150-432: The turret, 72 rounds in clips in the hull front, and 52 separate (unclipped) rounds in special compartments under the turret floor. Armour-piercing rounds in clips are placed in the rear part of the turret to the left and right of the guns. Empty shell cases and clips are removed via a conveyor belt through a special port in the turret rear into an external metal wire basket on the back of the turret. The ZSU-57-2's armour

20305-447: The vehicle roof. Prior to periscopes, direct vision slits were cut in the armour for occupants to see out. Periscopes permit view outside of the vehicle without needing to cut these weaker vision openings in the front and side armour, better protecting the vehicle and occupants. A protectoscope is a related periscopic vision device designed to provide a window in armoured plate, similar to a direct vision slit. A compact periscope inside

20460-576: The war – this was an infantry rifle sighted by means of a periscope, so the shooter could aim and fire the weapon from a safe position below the trench parapet. During World War II (1939–1945), artillery observers and officers used specifically manufactured periscope binoculars with different mountings. Some of them also allowed estimating the distance to a target, as they were designed as stereoscopic rangefinders . Tanks and armoured vehicles use periscopes: they enable drivers, tank commanders, and other vehicle occupants to inspect their situation through

20615-527: The west further raised concerns. In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19 , K-8 , a K-129 , K-27 , K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets . There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , the government represented by the Council of Ministers , and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),

20770-465: The world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran ), and Lake Baikal , the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia. Neighbouring countries were aware of the high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what

20925-562: Was a coastline . The country bordered Afghanistan , the People's Republic of China , Czechoslovakia , Finland , Hungary , Iran , Mongolia , North Korea , Norway , Poland , Romania , and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The Bering Strait separated the USSR from the United States . The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak ) in Tajikistan , at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of

21080-612: Was achieved by Chinese-made proximity fuses which could be used to modernize the S-60 and S-68 ammunition. Iraq ordered 100 ZSU-57-2 s in 1970 from Soviet Union, which were delivered between 1971 and 1973. The New Iraqi Army does not use these vehicles. Iran ordered 100 ZSU-57-2 s in 1966 from Soviet Union and they were delivered between 1967 and 1968. Around 90 remained in service until 2002. Egypt ordered 100 ZSU-57-2 s in 1960 from Soviet Union and they were delivered between 1961 and 1962. ZSU-57-2s were not very successful during either

21235-539: Was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'. Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of

21390-556: Was based on the chassis of the SU-76M self-propelled gun (SPG) and armed with one 37 mm 61K anti-aircraft autocannon in an open-top rotating armoured turret. The vehicle entered production in February 1945 and was in small-scale production until 1948. After World War II it became clear that the firepower of a single 37 mm AA gun was insufficient to destroy the high-speed, low-altitude targets, which airplanes started to become at

21545-402: Was based on two 57 mm S-60 AA autocannons . The guns have a recoil of between 325 and 370 mm. The individual weapons cannot be swapped from one side to the other as they are mirror images. Each air-cooled gun barrel is 4365 mm long (76.6 calibers ) and is fitted with a muzzle brake . They can be elevated or depressed between −5° and +85° at a speed of between 0.3° and 20° per second,

21700-483: Was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov , the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure, culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The constitution , which

21855-540: Was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code. Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt. Martin Latsis , chief of Soviet Ukraine 's secret police explained: "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what

22010-542: Was colloquially, but incorrectly, referred to as Russia . The history of the Soviet Union began with the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War , the Soviet Union quickly became a one-party state under the Communist Party . Its early years under Lenin were marked by

22165-404: Was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status. In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia , and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by

22320-424: Was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers , but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars . The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment,

22475-534: Was not accepted by all within the Russian Republic , resulting in the Russian Civil War . The RSFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth but contributed to a famine between 1930 and 1933 that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system of

22630-450: Was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts ( People's Court ) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law , where the judge, procurator , and defence attorney collaborate to "establish

22785-485: Was promulgated in 1924 , 1936 and 1977 , did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in

22940-457: Was provided with sighting lines, enabling front and rear prisms to be directly aligned to gain an accurate direction. On later tanks such as the Churchill and Cromwell, a similarly marked episcope provided a backup sighting mechanism aligned with a vane sight on the turret roof. Later, US-built Sherman tanks and British Centurion and Charioteer tanks replaced the main telescopic sight with

23095-477: Was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924. All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of

23250-543: Was that "the Constitution was written not for you, but for American Negroes, so that they know how happy the lives of Soviet citizens are". Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, instead, it was determined as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death. The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928–31

23405-473: Was the largest country by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries , and the third-most populous country . An overall successor to the Russian Empire , it was nominally organized as a federal union of national republics , the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR . In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized . As

23560-587: Was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic —lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help. By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became

23715-404: Was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant . Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far. Although long-term effects of the accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of

23870-578: Was the most powerful AA gun installed on SPAAGs at that time. According to the statistical data of the Air Defence Research Institute No. 2, a direct hit of a single 57 mm shell could destroy a contemporary jet aircraft. In order to shoot down a jet bomber of the Canberra type, an average of 1.7 hits were deemed necessary. The vehicle carries 300 rounds, and the ammunition is stowed as follows: 176 rounds in clips inside

24025-486: Was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned . The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets ) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history, at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including

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