Soviets had in WW2 some very strong heavy tanks like KV, IS-1 or IS-2 and later they developed IS-3.
On basis of IS-3 they developed a prototype of IS-7 with a 68 tonns weight, 130 mm canon and strong armour.
Picture of IS-7.
Later, they build ( in relativly big numbers ) IS-10/T-10 tank, with 52 tons of weight, 122 mm cannon and strong armour.
Picture of IS-10/T-10
They had plans for even stronger tanks like IS-8 ( or T-10 M ) with 152 mm cannon, but- On July 22, 1960 at the demonstration of new technology on the range of
Kapustin Yar,
Nikita Khrushchev strictly forbade any tanks with a weight of more than 37 metric tons to be adopted by the military, having thus written off the entire program of heavy tanks which proven to be so successful.
So Soviets stucked with medium tanks like T-54, T-55, T-62, T-72 etc.
But, what if Khruschov decided just the opposite?
To introduce smaller number of more capable heavy tanks ( like T-10 or T-10 M ) and reduce overall number of tanks in Red Army service by reducing the number of medium tanks?
What consequences of that descision?
