Posted on

KV-4

Object 901 (Project Shashmurin) with cast turret

After Object 223 was finalised as the design for the KV-3, the 107mm ZiS-6 cannon was made a requirement for the main weapon of a new super-heavy tank to be produced as the KV-4. Twenty-seven different designs were submitted for the project, some very similar to each other, while others were radically different from any tank yet built, Soviet or otherwise. Among the designers to submit a proposal for the KV-4 project was Nikolai Fëdorovich Shashmurin, who had already worked on both the SMK and KV-1. Shashmurin showed his apparent preference for the SMK in his KV-4 design, Object 901, which was one of the largest submitted (but far from the heaviest), with nine pairs of road wheels supporting 92 tonnes. According to Shashmurin’s own memoirs, his design was ultimately selected for the KV-4 project, in spite of other designers deriding it as a glorified self-propelled gun. However, regardless of which design was selected, the KV-4 project was cancelled when the Wehrmacht attacked Leningrad, and no prototype was ever constructed.

Nikolai Shashmurin’s original design proposal
The drawing I used to make Object 901
Unknown engineer’s design № 1
K. Buganov’s design, estimated to weigh 93 tonnes
N. Dukhov’s design, the smallest and lightest submitted, estimated to weigh 82 tonnes
S. Fedorenko’s design, weight estimates never completed
M. Kreslavki’s design, estimated to weigh 93 tonnes
G. Kruchënykh’s design, the heaviest submitted, estimated to weigh 108 tonnes
Design submitted by K. Kuzmin, P. Tarapatin, and V. Tarot’ko, estimated to weigh 88 tonnes
P. Mikhailov’s design, estimated to weigh 86 tonnes
L. Pereverzev’s design, estimated to weigh 100 tonnes
N. Strukov’s design, estimated to weigh 92 tonnes
N. Zeiz’s design, estimated to weigh 90 tonnes

You can see more information about all the designs submitted here. This is a Russian Wikipedia link, and while there is an English page titled “KV-4,” it shows only the drawings, and does not contain any of the information that the Russian page does.

Models available:

Unknown № 1

Project Buganov

Project Dukhov (the KV-4 as it currently appears in World of Tanks)

Project Fedorenko

Project Kreslavski

Project Kruchënykh

Project Kuzmin, et al (known as KTTS in World of Tanks)

Project Mikhailov

Project Pereverzev

Project Shashmurin

Project Strukov (the KV-4 as it used to appear in World of Tanks)

Project Zeiz