After invading the USSR in 1941, the Nazi German soldiers were in for an unpleasant surprise: not only were the Soviet soldiers formidable and tenacious warriors, but Soviet engineers were more than capable of producing weapons, armored vehicles and warplanes that could give the enemy a run for its money.
A Red Army officer issues Mosin-Nagant rifles to Moscow militiamen.
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© Sputnik / Timothy Miller
A battery of Katyusha multiple rocket launchers - the first type to be mass produced in the USSR - unleash their deadly payload upon German forces.
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© Sputnik / Zelma
Machine gunner armed with a Degtyaryov machine gun fires at the enemy from cover.
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© Sputnik
The Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft became the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history. Nicknamed 'the flying tank,' this type of warplane was the bane of German armored units on the Eastern Front.
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© Sputnik / Nikolay Maksimov
Soviet T-34 medium tanks - the most effective, efficient and influential tank design of the World War II - advance on the enemy.
Soviet soldier armed with PPSh-41 submachine gun escorts a German POW.
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© Sputnik / Aleksej Mezhuev
Guard cruisers 'Red Caucasus' and 'Red Crimea' of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet engage in a combat mission during World War II.
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© Sputnik
Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter aircraft. Small, light and deadly, it was one of the most formidable dogfighters of World War II.
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© Sputnik
Soviet Schuka-class submarine.
10/17
© Sputnik / Boris Kudoyarov
A Soviet IS-2 heavy tank advances along a woodland road.
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© Sputnik / Dobrovolskiy
GAZ-76 vehicles tow artillery units.
Pe-2 dive-bombers getting ready for a combat flight.
A German soldier inspect some Soviet BA-10 armored cars in the Polish city of Lublin.
A Soviet Su-100 tank destroyer.
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© Wikipedia / Bundesarchiv
A battery of Soviet ZiS-3 divisional field guns shells the city of Berlin. April 1945.
LA-5 warplanes of the Mongol Arat squadron, built on donations collected by Mongol peasants, prepare for a sortie.
The crew of a Soviet ISU-152 armored self-propelled gun is greeted by jubilant civilians. Poland, May 1945.
