John Christie's Tanks and their Fate in the USA and the USSR in the 1930s

The 1930s were a period of preparation for the impending world war, a time that witnessed the creation of new types of weapons. The tank and mechanized forces, which would assume the role of the main strike force in future battles, counted among these. Each of the leading military powers developed their own type of tank for use in future conflicts. In this contest, England and France, with their compliment of skilled engineers and military-technical personnel, their preponderance of tanks, and their experience in using them, were considered the favorites. In the early 1930s, the USSR could claim none of these advantages. The Soviet military's only chance to create in a short time the new type of troop formations required purchasing the latest tank models from abroad. The tank designed by the American, John Walter Christie, was among those purchased in 1930. Based on this prototype, several thousand BT tanks were built in the USSR, from which were later developed and produced in series the famous T-34 tank-one of the best tanks of World War II. At home, in the United States, however, the American designer failed to receive recognition, and the US Army refused to accept his tank designs. This article, which is based on Russian archival documents and US historiographical materials, focuses on the nature of the appeal of the Soviet military leadership for an American engineer with a scandalous reputation. The author also analyzes the reasons leading to the Soviet purchase of experimental samples that had been rejected by the armies of the leading military powers, including the US Army. Finally, John Christie's attempts to sell his designs to his own government and the reasons for his failure are investigated. The article concludes that the Soviet military, unlike their US counterpart, recognized in Christie's design the tank of the future.