The IS (Ioseph Stalin) Heavy Tank

The IS series of Heavy Tanks were a direct development of the KV series, after the early KV's were critised by their crews for poor Mobility. By now Voroshilov had fallen from favour with Stalin so he adorned his own name to the new Tanks. They were to prove the equal and in the later models superior to the German Tiger & Panther which they were pitted against. From the IS-3 onwards the shape of today's modern Russian Tanks can be discerned.






From Left to Right. IS-85 prototype for IS-1. IS-2 of 1944 & IS-3 of late 1944.