The film has been noted for accurately depicting how the large, slow-moving behemoths literally shook the ground.
What is largely forgotten is that there were plans for even larger armored vehicles.
What is remarkable is that not only did these men design such a tank, they built a prototype!
Alternately known as the Lebedenko tank, the Tsar Tank was a radical design that has sometimes been described as an armored tricycle platform.
It could be described as something out of steampunk, yet it actually existed.
The concept was not without a number of issues.
The biggest problem was that battlefields arent typically firm ground.
The French Saint-Chamond, showing its long and heavy snout, was a more “conventional” tank of World War I. Visible is a field gun and two of its four machine guns. Image: IWM
Most designers saw armored cars as a solution Lebedenko apparently thought much bigger.
However, war broke out before those efforts could actually be reached.
Russia had vast manpower but still lagged behind in industrial power.
Modelers can build 1/72 replicas of the Tsar Tank using kits like this one from Kora Models. Image: Kora Models
It would be easy to see how a scale model could both impress and mislead the Tsar.
It was certainly well-armed with the numerous guns, but it was far from practical.
That first demonstration ended soon after, and it proved to be the last for the massive tricycle tank.
This photo is an accurate representation of the tank’s size. Compare it to the men on the platform, in the turret and on the ground.
In reality, the weight was too much for the power provided by two captured Maybach engines.
To this day, designers still struggle with the perfect balance between weight and power in armored fighting vehicles.
Attempts to Solve the Problem
The design team wasnt entirely defeated at that point.
Tsar Nicholas proved not to be much of a military leader, and he invested quite unwisely in the Tsar Tank.
Russian military planners werent as impressed with the full-size prototype as the Tsar had been with the mockup.
In addition to the costs, it was deemed too vulnerable to enemy fire.
It was far smaller, but with its caterpillar tracks was more ideally suited to the modern battlefield.
Tsar Nicholas II and Grand Duke Nicholas observe the Eastern Front during World War I. Grand Duke Nicholas was the commander of the Imperial Russian Army in 1914. Image: IWM
Within two years of that sole field test of the Tsar Tank, the Russian Empire was no more.
The February Revolution of 1917 brought down the centurys old regime one of Europes oldest.
Go to forum thread
Zebrano Viribus Unitis
This is believed to be the only surviving photo of the Tsar Tank from its field tests in 1915.
In World War I, Russian troops were equipped with foreign tanks like thisRenault FT-17, with this example belonging to U.S. troops. Image: NARA
Another model, this one from Zebrano Viribus Unitis, appears to dwarf the soldiers and landscape. Image: Zebrano Viribus Unitis
Compared to the Tsar Tank, the Putilov-Garford armored truck proved very effective during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Image: IWM
