UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2017. Two tanks and a self-propelled artillery unit belonging to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) are going to head the wheeled and tracked military vehicle parade in Chelyabinsk on May 9, Victory Day. All the three machines date back to the Great Patriotic War times, the corporation’s press service reports.

These are the only functioning historic samples of wartime vehicles in the area, which is why they get used by Chelyabinsk Station in the annual V-Day Parade during May break. The procession rehearsals take place well in advance to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Foreman Leonid Shabalin from ChTZ Loader Assembly Department 113, who has to see to it the vehicles are fully ready for the 73d V-Day celebrations, says not a lot of preparation is involved this year. All that needs to be done is the regular maintenance jobs like checking the oil, filling the vehicles with fuel, charing batteries, testing the control system, and doing a trial run of the running gear, whereupon tanks will make a tour of the plant’s premies just to make sure the seventy-year-old armored vehicles are still fine. The tank crews will undergo the necessary training as well. They need to make sure they can easily turn on and smoothly operate all the three historic pieces - T 34, IS 3 and ISU 152.