- Yes
- No
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Hello, I’d like to suggest the addition of a well-known Red Army inscription from a KV-1 column : “С Новым годом!” or “Happy new year!”.
As Christmas was heavily frowned upon and discouraged in the USSR, most of the festivites were relegated to New Year ones. Soviet soldiers would still celebrate the holiday at the front, receiving gifts from their families, friends, etc. . The 1942 New Year was especially important as the battle of Moscow was still ongoing and it was the first winter Soviet soldiers would spend on the battlefield.
As you may know, there were many cases in the USSR of tanks being directly funded by people or public organizations. One such case was with the “С Новым годом!” column that was fundraised by local inhabitants of the Chelyabinsk tank factory.
The KVs were, obviously, late 1941 ChKZ production models but it is not known exactly what unit received them besides it being under the command of the Western Front.
While it is also not exactly known what happened to all tanks, we know that they directly went to battle as demonstrated by tanks of the column being sent back for repairs in early 1942 and being filmed there.
Some tanks were photographed by German soldiers after being destroyed in the spring of 1942.
We know that the tanks were used by then by the 3rd Shock Army of the Kalinin Front and that some were lost in the vicinity of Kholm.
One of those tanks had earlier on be used for a Belarusian movie and was aptly renamed Belarus but it was eventually re-renamed and lost near Kholm.
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