What if the T34 never existed

What if the T34 was never designed built or even thought of. How does the war play out? Do the Germans design anything like the panther? And how is tank design influenced years after?
The Soviets still have the KV1 and other tanks but nothing descended from the T34 or anything similar.
 
Really depends on how you plan to eliminate it. I mean a POD of the desingers or whatever dying, all you're going to do is have a different set of designers try to design a tank with the same needs in mind that the T-34 filled.

They may or may not be successful in this.
 
Soviet doctrine called for light(medium)/heavy tank mix so something would develop in T-34 range. May not be so good but it would still be around
 
I assume they would just stay with the BT series (and further developments thereof) for a longer time until the IS series are developed. However, like someone else said, they would probably have to make something similar in capability to the OTL T-34, but ITTL it would probably be an improved BT model.
 
Maybe they make a M4 'Sherman' copy?

Or that, though Sherman had too many fancy bits in the design that weren't directly useful for combat and were difficult to reproduce on Soviet facilities. It would be Sherman's diesel-guzzling, machine-oil-spewing, radio-less cousin. But something like that could well happen.
 
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The T-34 represented a natural evolution in Soviet tanks going back to the early 30's... the T-26 and BT-series from a technical perspective where better than most German tanks in 1941 anyway... and still represented useful platforms for developing proper medium tanks equipped with high velocity guns... so if it wasn't the T-34, you would still end up seeing mediums combining the ground pressure profiles of the BT and a larger turret than the T-26
 
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Did not the design of Soviet tanks start with 1 American design? 1 man(his name escapes me) designed and built for US Army. They had a falling out and he sold 2 to the Soviets? ah, his name was Christie!
 
The T-34 represented a natural evolution in Soviet tanks going back to the early 30's... the T-26 and BT-series from a technical perspective where better than most German tanks in 1941 anyway... and still represented useful platforms for developing proper medium tanks equipped with high velocity guns... so if it wasn't the T-34, you would still end up seeing mediums combining the ground pressure profiles of the BT and a larger turret than the T-26

The vehicle that became the T34 wasn't the only prototype tested to fill the medium tank role. If that was available the Soviets would just have picked one of the other vehicles and built it.
 
Did not the design of Soviet tanks start with 1 American design? 1 man(his name escapes me) designed and built for US Army. They had a falling out and he sold 2 to the Soviets? ah, his name was Christie!

More specifically, they used the suspension system. But yes, Christie.
 
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