The T-72, which entered production in 1971, was first seen in public in 1977. It was not intended as a further development of the T-64, but rather a parallel design chosen as a high-production tank complementing the T-64. The T-72 retains the low silhouette of the T-54/55/62 series, featuring a conventional layout with integrated fuel cells and stowage containers which give a streamlined appearance to the fenders. While the T-64 was deployed only in forward-deployed Soviet units, the T-72 was deployed within the USSR and exported to non-Soviet Warsaw Pact armies and several other countries. In addition to production in the USSR it has been built under license in Czechoslovakia, India, Poland and former Yugoslavia. The T-72A/M1 represents the export version of the basic T-72 tank.

This particular T-72 main battle tank served with the Soviet 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division and is painted in a parade configuration typically associated with Russia's "Victory Day" Parade, which commemorates the end of the Great Patriotic War. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 11 inches
Width: 4 inches
Height: 3.5 inches

Historical Account: "Moskva" - The 4th Guards "Kantemirovskaya" Tank Division, more commonly known as the Kantemirovskaya Division or Kantemir Division, is an elite armored division of the Russian Army. It is one of the key formations of the Moscow Military District, constituting part of the 20th Army under Lt. General Andriy Tretyak. It is one of the Russian Army's 'constant readiness' divisions, with at least 80% manpower and 100% equipment holdings at all times. Currently, it is headquartered, and all of its units are based, in the town of Naro-Fominsk, 70km south-west of Moscow.

The Division was converted from the previous 4th Guards Tank Corps after the end of World War II. That formation had formed part of Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front during the war, taking part in the southern assault on Berlin in April 1945. In autumn 1945 the Division returned to the Moscow area and has been stationed there ever since.

The division was one of the two major Ground Forces divisions deployed in Moscow in August 1991 as part of the attempted hardline coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup's failure strengthened Boris Yeltsin's position in the Russian SFSR, and soon afterwards in the Russian Federation, of which he became President. The Kantemirovskaya Division, together with the Tamanskaya Division which had also taken part in the coup but ended up supporting Yeltsin, was to form the basis of a de facto Praetorian Guard for Yeltsin throughout the 1990s, securing his political power throughout the time he was President. During the most serious crisis of Yeltsin's premiership, the 1993 constitutional crisis, the Kantemir Division was one of several key divisions that had given their reluctant support to Yeltsin by October 4th, the decisive point in the crisis.

Units of the division took part in the First Chechen War. In the early 1990s, the division came under the command of the famous 1st Guards Tank Army, along with the 144th Motor Rifle Division. The 1st GTA had relocated from the former East Germany to Smolensk when Soviet troops left Germany at the beginning of the 90s; it was disbanded in 1998, as was the 144th MRD. Thereafter the Kantemirovskaya Division came under the command of the 20th Army.

On May 9th, 2005, eight T-80BV tanks from the division took part in the parade in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of VE-day. On December 27th, the division was visited by Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defence minister. Most recently, in early 2006, the division's 13th Tank Regiment participated, along with other 20th Army units, in the joint Russian-Belorussian "Shield of Union" military exercises.