In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, the heavy tank KV-1 was considered one of the most powerful and technically advanced combat machines of its time. Its impressive armament and reliable, thick armor often gave it an advantage in battles against German tanks, for which the appearance of the KV-1 was unexpected.
The role of Soviet heavy tanks in achieving Victory is hard to overestimate: it was they who took the main onslaught of the enemy in the war’s most difficult first year for the country. The design solutions laid into the KV-1 became the basis for subsequent tanks of the IS series, which, after replacing the KV-1, reached Berlin and ended the war with a victorious march.