T-44
In service 1945 - 1970s in training use
The transitional Soviet medium tank between the T-34 and the T-54, whose transverse engine and torsion-bar suspension became the template for every postwar Soviet tank.
Built byFactory No. 75, Kharkiv
Development history
Morozov's team knew the T-34 layout was at its limit: the sloped sides ate interior space and the Christie springs consumed the hull sides. The T-44 turned the engine sideways, adopted torsion bars, moved the driver to the left front and deleted the hull machine-gunner, producing a shorter, lower tank with far more room for a bigger turret. Around 1,800 were built from 1945 but the type was kept away from front-line units and never saw combat, because the same hull with a 100 mm gun was already becoming the T-54. T-44s served as training vehicles into the 1970s and appeared in Soviet films standing in for German tanks.