The ISU-152 is a Soviet self-propelled gun (also classified as a tank destroyer) from the Second World War. The first prototypes of this vehicle appeared in 1943, and the weapon entered mass production and the line in the same year. The weight of the vehicle in the basic version was 46 tons. The drive was provided by a single 520 HP W-2-IS engine. It was armed with a 152.4 mm ML-20S cannon-howitzer and one 12.7 mm DSzK machine gun. The self-propelled gun ISU-152 was developed at the Fabryka im. Kirov in Chelyabinsk. Initially, it was assumed that the new vehicle would be structurally based on the KW-1s tank, but it was quickly decided to use the new IS-2 heavy tank for this purpose. It is worth adding that the ISU-152 shared many structural elements and components with the ISU-122 self-propelled gun, which of course greatly facilitated the production and operation of both types of vehicles. As the ISU-152 showed high combat value in the course of combat operations in 1944-1945, the vehicle remained in the line or reserve of the Soviet Army for a good part of the Cold War. After 1945, two modernized versions of this vehicle were built. The first one was called ISU-152K and was developed in 1953. It had a new engine (the same as in the T-54 tank) and an increased supply of fuel and transported ammunition. In 1959, a version of the ISU-152M was created, which differed slightly from the ISU-152K. Among other things, she used another machine gun as an additional weapon.
In the 1920s and - especially - in the 1930s, the Red Army underwent a rapid development in terms of increasing its posts, as well as increasing saturation with technical weapons, primarily armored weapons. Still, the infantry was the primary and numerically largest element of the Red Army. The intensive quantitative development of this type of weapon began at the turn of 1929/1930. In 1939, even before the aggression against Poland, the Soviet infantry was formed into 173 divisions (so-called rifle divisions), most of which were grouped in 43 corps. It is worth adding that after the September campaign in 1939, this number increased even more. The Soviet rifle division in 1941 consisted of three rifle regiments (three battalions each), an artillery regiment, after an anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery division, as well as reconnaissance and communication battalions. In total, it numbered about 14,500 people. However, by 1945 this position underwent significant changes, leading to a division of approximately 11,500-12,000 people, consisting of three infantry regiments, an artillery brigade consisting of three regiments, a self-propelled artillery squadron and many support units, including anti-tank, anti-aircraft weapons or communications. The saturation of infantry units with machine weapons has also increased significantly - for example with the submachine guns APsZ 41, and later APsZ 43.