For the first time in English - photos and drawings from secret Sovlet archives and museums many never previously published! Recently translated documents are used to present the true story of the SU-152 and other self-propelled (SP) guns based on the KV tank chassls, including:

The plan for Sovlet heavy artillery SP guns began in 1931.

Competition to develop a "bunker buster" SP gun started in earnest in 1938 but Just missed a battlefield test in the 1939-1940 Russo-Finnish Winter War.

Soviet pre-war intelligence indicating that Germany was working on super heavy. tanks increased the urgency of the SP program--although the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 showed that intelligence to be wrong.

The Impact of evacuating factories and other Industry beyond the Ural mountains as German forces advanced.

Joseph Stall's personal Interest in the SP program and competition between factory design teams for resources and support.

How the destruction of the Barricades factory in Stalingrad (modern day Volgograd) severely reduced Soviet manufacturing of 152-mm and larger guns.

After it was deployed on the battlefield, the SU-152 became nicknamed
"Beast Killer" because Its big gun was the only anti-tank weapon able to damage or destroy the menagerie of German heavy armor-
Tigers, Panthers, and Elephants.

Why SU-152 manufacture stopped after only 670 were produced and why no new heavy SP artillery was deployed to help Sovlet armles batter their way through German fortifications in 1944-45.