The first volunteers - the tankers of Ural

This article is the first work to analyze in details the aspect not enough illustrated in the scientific literature concerning forming the first Ural voluntary tank troop of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. On the basis of researching and analysis of the archive and published sources we have found out the unrenowned circumstances and details of its formation, the rules of the final selection of volunteers, the real number and fates of all the soldiers was determined for the first time. The author comes to the conclusion that the first voluntary tank command of 1941, formed in the Southern Ural, although having an insignificant scale, became afterwards the beginning of the mass patriotic movement in the Ural region. This experience will be used during the following years of the Great Patriotic War at forming new unique voluntary tank units or forces, including the Ural voluntary tank corps.