This Russian langauge book covers the history of the T-26 development.  It starts with the purchase of the British six ton Vickers tank before progressing to the Twin-turret (mod. 1931) and single-turret (mod. 1933, mod. 1938, mod. 1939) variants.

Other content includes the development, vehicle layout, and changes introduced during serial production of every tank variant. Then the book goes to the experimental, special and prototype vehicles built on the basis of the tank, such as: T-26-4 artillery tank, wheeled-tracked T-25 tank, chemical-flamethrower tanks, self-propelled guns (SU-1, SU-5, SU-6, AT-1), bridge-layer vehicles, armoured infantry carriers, artillery tractors, remote-controlled vehicles ("teletanks"), vehicles equipped with mine sweeping or underwater drive devices.

Finally, the use of the tank in the army including combat is listed. The tables showing amounts of different variants of T-26 tank (including their division into categories based on vehicle's technical condition) in different military districts of the USSR at the outbreak of the war are given.

The book content is available only for readers with Russian language ability, since the book contains no single word in English.  Those who do not speak Russian would be interested in the illustrative content of the book. It is illustrated with 9 colour photos of different vehicles preserved in museums, 96 black and white photos and many drawings. The value of black and white photos is diminished by the quality of paper they are printed on. The photos are mainly factory, training or parade shots. There are a few "in action" photos. Significant number of photographs was published before (in excellent Armada no. 20 book or in the "Iron Fist of the RKKA" by M. Kolomyets among others).

The book's strongpoint is undoubtedly the graphics. Four-view-1:35-scale plans of several variants of the tank (mod. 1931, mod. 1933, mod. 1938,  KhT-130 chemical tank, SU-5-2 and AT-1 self-propelled guns) seem very reliable (now it can be seen what wrong is with the Mirage T-26 conical turret). It is a pity that plans of mod. 1939 were not included. Apart from 1:35 plans there are side views and cross-sections of several other vehicles as well as the drawings showing some construction details of the tank.

SUMMARY

The book is the first publication covering the entire history of the T-26 tank, and at least for this reason T-26 fans may wish to have it on their bookshelf. However after reading the book I did not feel fully satisfied. The twin-turret variants of the tank, as well as many vehicles on its base, have received very extensive coverage in the Armada book. Therefore one could expect that instead of repeating the Armada's content, the book will give more comprehensive coverage to the single turret variants. This, however, is not the case.  Besides, I have the impression that the book was prepared in a hurry in order to be published before the T-26 monograph, announced by M. Kolomyets for the first half of 2003. An example of this is that the overall dimensions of the tank were passed over which is a serious neglect.