Tankid külmas sõjas ja veidi hiljemgi

Mati Õun's new book introduces the Cold War-era tanks used by various countries around the world in the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the major powers, smaller countries also designed and built their own tanks.

The Soviet Union's pre-World War II idea of reaching the heart of Europe and the western frontiers with an all-purpose tank armada was not buried until the mid-1980s, even though nuclear weapons, which had become mass-produced by then, rendered the venture pointless.

But tanks, artillery, planes, missiles and the like continued to be built by tens of thousands, in accordance with well-established practice, and by 1990 almost all the assets of the world's largest country had been accumulated in its weapons; there were none to be found elsewhere. And, as we know, this pointless empire collapsed. This book deals with the vast majority of tank-building countries in Europe, America and Asia in the second half of the 20th century, going beyond the Cold War. The tanks covered here missed out on participation in World War III, but they had to take part in dozens of local wars, which occur again and again in our world. In all, nearly 221 000 tanks were built in the world in the 45 years of the Cold War, of which 121 000 were built by the Soviet Union, which occupied us. This burden was one of the reasons why the Eastern Empire, which had been oppressing us, collapsed and why much of Eastern Europe was freed from this oppression.