MAZ-537 (another designation: KZKT-537) is a Soviet heavy wheeled truck of the post-war period. The first copies of this car appeared in 1959. Its production took place at two plants: in the period 1959-1965 at the Minsk Automobile Plant, and in 1963-1990 at the plant in the city of Kurgan. The car is driven by one D-12A-525A engine with a volume of 38.8 liters and a power of 525 liters. The MAZ-537 was originally designed as a heavy truck for the Soviet Army. In early versions, it could carry cargo up to 50 tons, but later the permissible cargo weight increased to 65 tons (MAZ-537E model)! The car is also characterized by an engine located in its middle part, an 8-wheel chassis and good off-road qualities. These qualities meant that the MAZ-537 was used for many heavy field tasks, such as transporting tanks or ballistic missiles. The T-54 is a Soviet main battle tank of the Cold War era. The first prototypes of this machine were built in 1945-1946, and serial production in the USSR began in 1946 and lasted until 1958. During its course, about 35,000 of these machines were created - only in the Soviet Union! The combat weight of the tank was up to 36 tons. The drive was provided by one W-54 engine with a capacity of 520 hp. The main armament was a 100-mm D-10T wz.1944 tank gun, and two 7.62-mm SGMT machine guns and a 12.7-mm DShK machine gun served as additional weapons. The work on the T-54 actually began during World War II and dates back to the T-44 tank. When developing the T-54, it was intended, on the one hand, to preserve all the advantages of the T-34/85 (especially its good maneuverability), but also to use clearly stronger main armament and more effective armor. Finally, a machine was created, which was probably the first to be called the Main Battle Tank (MBT). It was definitely a successful tank when it entered service. In the course of serial production, several modifications of this machine were created, in particular, the T-54 arr. 1946 (a variant with a tower similar in shape to the T-44), T-54 zr. 1949 (variant with a changed shape of the tower) or T-54A (variant with a weapon stabilizer at the same level and night vision devices for the mechanic-driver). It is worth adding that the T-54 was licensed, in particular, in Czechoslovakia and Poland.
