Abstract <p>The history of Soviet tank building began in the 1920s under conditions of serious dependence on imports of individual parts and materials. However, in the early 1930s, a new tank building program was launched, implying the production of several thousand tanks per year. This required the development of domestic production of components not only for political and ideological reasons but also from an economic point of view. It was impossible to purchase such a number of units and assemblies abroad. However, the Soviet military industry, despite its high production rates, was characterized by low quality. Tanks produced by factory workshops remained unreliable. The loss of Western industrial centers and the creation of a tank industry in the east of the country during the Great Patriotic War exacerbated many old problems: the Soviet Union was again forced to resort to widespread imports of industrial equipment, materials, raw materials, and assemblies. The development of external supplies became one of the factors that allowed increasing the quantity and improving the quality of Soviet armored vehicles.</p>