Sputnik? What the hell?

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Hello everyone,

so, uh, I checked the special event for the weekend and one thing really hit me: Sputnik? What the hell? What does Sputnik satellite have to do with tanks? Who makes up this stuff?

Anyway, so I guess there is nothing to “celebrate” (or – more like – remember) this weekend? Oh, wait, that’s right. On Sunday, it’s the 40th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most destructive conflicts after World War 2, the Yom Kippur War!

Yea, the biggest armor clashes since Kursk, including one of the most famous tank warfare events in history (Zvika Greengold’s one-tank rampage, fully comparable to the legendary Villers Bocage action of Michael Wittman) are surely totally insignificant compared to fucking Sputnik.

Anyway, so I checked the October calendar again. You know, there was this thought in my mind: last year, WG remembered German Unification and Polish Independence, so uhhhh… where is the Czechoslovak Independence Day, celebrated on 28.10.? With Czechoslovak community being 3rd largest in WoT EU and Czechoslovakia being World’s biggest arms (including armor) exporter in early 30′s, I kinda thought they’d remember. Or Hungarian, French, Italian and other events? Is it such a problem to actually include such events instead of a fucking Sputnik? It’s not like WG doesn’t have time to prepare such stuff in advance.

Anyway, rant over. This weekend I think I’ll write a special on Yom Kippur.

127 thoughts on “Sputnik? What the hell?”

  1. I said this on the EU forums…

    “Trouble is that there are plenty of tank or WWII related things on or around that time.
    1941 The Battle of Moscow

    1944 The Battle of Debrecen

    1943 The Allies cross Italy’s Volturno Line.

    1950: US Army crosses 38TH Parallel near Kaesong. “

    • So it’s a case of being too many things happening as opposed to too few. So they went with neutral .And mankinds 1st step into space is no trivial matter .

      • it’s a case of Silentstalker trying to undermine Russia and defend jews, polacks, etcetera, as usual.

          • The last I checked the Russians needed no help undermining themselves, the Polacks were a bunch of whiners and Israel pretty much perpetually blacklisted by the UN for a whole laundry list of naughty things.
            Yeah, I think I prefer Sputnik. If nothing else that thing is *kewt* ~<3

            • It’s National Day Holidays for me. And we have 150% credit gain for victories from Oct.1st-3rd, 2 times exp gain for all battles from Sep.29th to Oct.7th!
              (Oh, and three collection packs appeared in the gift shop — 298 RMB for all 14 tier 2-3 prem/gift tanks, 998 RMB for all 20 tier 4-6 prem/gift tanks, and 5,888 RMB for all 51 prem/gift tanks that have ever appeared in game, except Type 59G!)

            • Puhleeze. It’s a shiny little metal ball with funky antennae sticking out that went “beep beep”, it’s cute by any measure. The contemporary US Vanguards try but the more haphazard-looking distribution of the six antennae and the solar cells kind of ruin the impression (being kinda obscure in comparision doesn’t help either ofc).

      • They have stated that they won’t do the same special every year… so they could choose one and use another a year later… so they could choose something tank related… In WOWP I can kind of understand Sputnik but not really for tanks…

          • Pft to me it’s clear why they did Sputnik instead of Yom Kippur war!

            In the Yom Kippur inferior numbers of western tanks kicked the rusky tanks in the nuts. So russian biased WG can not make an event about it and tries once more to glorify “russian achievements in space program” that wouldn’t be possible without the German rocket science they stole at the end of the war.

            So yeah WG going full retard to pamper eternaly butthurt russian fanboys!

            • Oh you mean just like we did in the USA? Haha

              The only butt-hurt person I see is you.. that apparently has to put down Russians (that are not even running WG) to feel better about yourself.

              What country are you even from to be so proud of? Please do tell about your glorious homeland and it’s many achievements!

            • At least in every US article they do give references to von Braun and stuff.
              And if you don’t see how WG is pampering it’s butthurt russian fanboys I can’t help you either!

            • …and the rockets von Braun built for the US basically had fuck-all to do with the ones he built for Hitler, as the V-2 in general represented something of an evolutionary dead-end. IIRC about the only practical application still around are the SCUDs which aren’t exactly hot shit by any criteria.

              Also how many Soviet rocket engineers can YOU even *name* without consulting Wikipedia? Or, you know, US ones for that matter?

    • You all make such a big deal out of nothing… You have no other worries in your life?

  2. only complaint is the lack of 7 premium weekly mission. I was getting used to them.

  3. Can’t help but notice that on the Sputnik in Space Weekend Special on the US server that they get 50% off the SU-100Y and the SU-122-44, while those of us on the EU server get 30% off. Logic?

    • I blurry remember some time ago I read on forums that the sales of Premium vehicles are also affected by the numbers of how many such vehicles are in garages, how many are being played in given periods of time and how many they wish people have and play. I do not remember if it was said by developer or whoever, but it would make sense in this matter.

  4. Ruskietanks on the discount credit special so what do we do for the mission? More credits for same tanks.

    So nowt for my Yankee tanks other than the x3.

  5. Obirian declared that noone outside of germany would be interested in the german unification, in fact others would even rage about such specials. Same would hold for national days of other nations. Of course it’s just the dumb and loud ultranationalist idiots crying about such things, not able to respect sovereignty of their neighbour countries in a modern united europe, but the brainless seem to be a too big economic factor for wargaming.
    On the other hand it’s of course not any problem at all to celebrate all those great soviet achievements, who would rage about that stuff at all?…

    • Interesting, in War Thunder most people was happy yesterday during the German Unification special (every German plane -30% including premium ones…).
      Ofc. in that game they have specials for every nation equally, not 80% Mother russia…

    • A modern united Europe ? Do we even live on the same fuckin’ continent or is that just the typical wishful thinking that’s rampant in the community ?

  6. When we had the German Steel Special there were much less tanks in the special and the highest tier was 4 or 5. Now the highest tier is 7 and there is much more tanks in the special.

    Nice propaganda game…

  7. They did Sputnik so they can celebrate a Russian only event, and thus give boosts to Russian only tanks because this is a Russian game.

  8. Easy answer: Soviet style doctrine got the beating of its life, with Commie tanks ending up burning en mass when met with western tanks.

    BTW, SS have a read of the text of the special, the background. There’s some very clever turns of phrase and implication in that article…

      • Western style style doctrine got the beating of its life, with western tanks ending up burning en mass when met with Commie tanks.

        • Remind me again, which side was rampaging through the other side’s territory? Fairly sure it was the Israeli’s on the West side of the Suez Canal…

          • The breaking point came only after the Egyptian forces pushed into the sinai desert out of their SAM umbrella where the IAF bailed the Ground forces out . The overall objective of the egyptians was to just hold the eastern bank of the suez to some depth and only advanced when pressured by the Syrians . The entire duration of the operation (Oct 6-8) where the egyptians crossed canal and defeated Israeli counterattacks , soviet equipment handily stomped Western .

            • Continued : Israelis around 400 tanks in just 3 days , compared to almost minimal losses to the egyptians . So much for stronk western tanks .

            • 400 tanks lost in tank on tank engagements or … ehm … tanks rushing into prepared defensive positions and the Egyptians using state of the art (back then) Soviet ATGMS ?

            • Hmmm..what?
              First of all, The attack was a Surprise.
              Second,Egypt even could not advance A lot, And Israel Pushed them back in less than a month.

              What You say?

            • Yes, then what happened?

              I seem to recall the Israeli’s sat down and had a hard think about what very naughty boys and girls they’d been in ignoring proper armoured doctrine, and then beat the Arab nations into a pulp.
              Mainly by doing some no holds bared tank using fire, manoeuvre and shock effect.

              Unless you want to claim the Arab nations won the Yom Kippur war?

            • @SI8 .. Atgms are only a part of it .When beating back an attack tanks are used to regain the lost position .

              @Kraken1 . So what if it was a surprise . The Israeli movements were greatly helped by Sr 71 recon from the US. They were able to find the gap between the Egyptian armies to attack across the suez based on this recon and took them by surprise. To the point where the israelis knew the positions of the egyptian armies better than sadat. It was not untl the soviets showed them their satellite photos of the area that the egyptianswere made aware of how grim their position was.And .. I was referring to days 6-8 or even 9 where the Egyptian bridgeheads came under Israeli attacks but failed . Israeli success occured only when they left their defensive positions and SAM umbrella (contrary to the pre war plan that aimed at just holding both banks of the canal)
              PS : a month is a very long time considering the area we are talking about .
              PPS:The point of all this write-faggery is that israeli success was not because of superior tanks . Using the initial phase as a case in point that any side can screw up and lose a lot of tanks .

            • You’re talking out of your ass. Success or failure on both sides largely depended on tactics employed, not the equipment used. Israelis lost most tanks in early stages of the war by charging defended positions, while being heavily outnumbered in the first place.

              Why would you limit the whole story on the first 2 days of the war and only to the Sinai front? Golan was much more of an immediate threat to Israel than Egypt. To use your arguments, M51 Super Shermans stomped T-55s so they are clearly superior tanks.

              So typical, discussion of something that was an epic struggle with consequences reaching to this day coming down to idiotic “we kicked your ass” point of view.

            • …said consequences mainly amounting to Egypt getting its territory back and promptly losing interest in further feuding with Israel and the Syrians, who *didn’t* get the Golan back, remaining all bitter and quarrelsome about it until they recently got other things to worry about. The other “Arab” states could barely be bothered to make symbolic contributions even at the time.

          • @deveen .. That was the entire point . “depends on tactics” situations . Israeli super shermans also stomped jordanian m48. You agree with me while insulting me .. .Amazing

            • I still have hard time understanding how you came to conclusion that commie equipment was superior to the western.

  10. The problem might be the dating – pretty much all the tanks that WG uses end up around 60s at most, so a war starting 1973 is kinda late. The same reason they shouldn’t use Gulf War or others (not sure whether they didn’t do it, though).

    And really, Sputnik is fine with me. The development branches of space and tanks development are so tightly intertwined, that neither of them would be so far ahead today without the other one.

    • But the Israeli’s and the Arab nations were all using old kit. from the Soviet or Western side, even in 1973.

    • Plus, if we celebrate Valentine’s Day, why not Sputnik launch? Besides, any excuse is good for a party, they even put that in news :)

    • Arabs mainly used T-54/55s as well as T-62s, Israelis used Centurions, M48 and M60 Pattons, Super Shermans. All of those (in different variants), save for Super Shermans, we have in the game. And it was one of the largest tank clashes in history…

    • How are exactly tanks and satellite development intertwined ? They both use metals ?
      How is high powered diesel engine development tied to rocket science ?

      Maybe you can tie in ballistics with orbital trajectories and maybe the basics of radio emitters are common points. Other than that …

  12. Uhm, ok, I can understand you….well, but there are couple of things…

    First, israeli tanks have yet to be introduced. Until then, we are stuck to some soviet tanks and some british and US tanks. Another problem is that it would exceed the tier 7 limit for specials, tanks that were in that war were at least tier 8 (to be fair specials with tier 8s existed, but were rare while there are almost no discounts on tier 9s and 10s)

    The other problem is…I am sorry to say it, but if you do not like their special, could you at least think of a better one? Could you write how your special would work, within reasonable limits (tier 8 max)?

    To give an quick idea…
    -M4A3E8, Centurion Mk1, T-34-85, SU-100, SU-152. And then a couple of more tanks but they would be at least tier 9 and WG does not want that..(Nice how an upgraded Sherman could still hold up against newer tanks though)

    To be fair, I am not a historican, so I cannot post any further. Sorry :/

  13. SS, don’t ask obvious questions. In the Yom Kippur War Soviet tanks were humiliated, so don’t expect any acknowledgement of such conflict by the idiots from WG. Russian tanks are “stronk”, and if they fail it is because of weakly trained Arab crews, poorer export versions, and other made up bullshit.

  14. One of rocket designers that enabled sputnik, certain engineer Ganin also did a ST-I design. There is your connection.

        • Thx bojan. Not meant that as in insult :P.

          “However, he (eng. Valentin Asikritovich Ganin) is better known as a rocket scientist, in particular, that he originated the idea of ​​underwater launch rockets. Ganin owns a total of 62 works in the field artillery, aviation, rocketry, including 24 patents. In short, the man is very difficult.”

          Google Translate is The shit.

          • Instead of very difficult better translation would be very interesting.
            He was on R-7 design team and he worked on engine start mechanism (which is not that simple thing at all).

  15. this especial its another excuse to make soviet propaganda…

    nobody cares about their stupid sputnik…

    made by captured german scientists… (cof cof)

    • Actually, the big innovation wasn’t the satellite. It was the rocket that carried it into low orbit. Which had some inspiration from German designs but also many original innovations that actually made it do what it did.

    • Lol .. Made by captured German scientists ? You are mistaking USA with USSR ..Most of the soviet advances were made after they released their scientists from the gulag (fuck stalin right ). The most significant being able to cluster their rocket engines .

  17. Well some more bullshit coming out.

    Sure, Sputnik had NOTHING to do with tanks, but it has a lot to do with WORLD of Tanks.

    Without Sputnik, we would not have modern telecommunication satellites in space, and no satellites to relay information for WoT servers, resulting in either no WoT or single player WoT.

    Sputnik is completely relevant, and I am a full hearted American capitalist :)

    • So, looking forward then for celebrating the invention of the microprocessor, fiber optics, IP protocols, and why not copper wire.

    • The concept of a satellite was hardly a Soviet idea. It was a British one, just like the Centurion, which we could be celebrating this weekend.

      • Yes, but it is still a Soviet invention. Did the British shoot a satellite into space? No, the Soviets did.

        People don’t get credit for “thinking” of an idea. They get credit for putting that idea into action, which the Soviets did first, not the British.

  18. i guess they dont want to celebrate the START of a war, rather the end or a specific battle.

    and national days werent that great, few discounts on low tiers and nothing else, altrough i guess it wouldnt hurt make a cz day(if its not on weekend), by example last year hispanic
    http://worldoftanks.eu/en/news/44/hispanic-day-special/
    this year isnt on the calendar, i think mostly because is on a weekend and a bigger event will take over.

  19. My Russian friend who’s dad was a scientist on the original programme said to me another meaning for Sputnik is “Commrade” or “Companion”.

  20. its easy, soviet used their tanks to defeat germany
    in germany, they took the V2 design
    they use the V2 design to produce rocket which make it to the orbit
    => sputnik special totaly legit!

  22. I totally agree, Czechoslovak Independence Day should be celebrated this year. Greetings form Poland.

  23. If you can’t figure out for yourself why we don’t celebrate the outbreak of a war, then there is probably little point in trying to explain it to you.

    Give the whining a rest, its a good special and you still cry.

  24. But a Yom Kippur special would mean celebrating a British Tier IX Tank in the hands of an Israeli destroying tons of Soviet Tier X tanks. I mean the horror of it.

      • Syrians and Egyptians used T-62s also, and Israelis used M48 (with 105mm guns) and M60/M60A1 also.
        Note that Israelis also used captured and modified T-54/55 sucessfully also, so I would say it had less to do with tanks and much, much more to do with training.

        IOW, play 50% crew T-62 vs 100% crew Cent 7/1 on hull down and see how it goes.

        • Not to mention leadership. What I’ve read of the manner in which the Syrian supreme commander at least went about his job was some pretty facepalm-y stuff (but then again IIRC Yom Kippur was the first tussle in which the Israelis considered the Syrians to have found their collective arses in general…).

            • Dude parked his main headquarters halfway between the capital and the frontline solely to stay in touch with Le Politics and managed to be off kissing El Presidente’s ass when the main IDF counterattack started, IIRC. Not really how you’re supposed to go about these things.

  25. What is wrong with celebrating Sputnik? It fits the theme although, no, it’s not a tank.

    I feel like some comments are just for the sake of whining.

    • So true. It is sad that people can get THIS offended for simply commemorating a Russian space vehicle….

      First world problems FTW. We won’t complain about how children in Africa don’t have food, or that people in the Middle East die like flies to terrorism. No, we will complain about a Wargaming special even that commemorates a little blinking ball in space because it is so evil and is an injustice to the rest of the world.

      • Had it been an European satellite or American satellite all the anti-Communists would be crying with tears and drinking bear and celebrate all day long. But when it’s Soviet it’s the most evil thing to have ever existed and bad karma to celebrate.

      • Who said it’s evil ? What do starving children in Africa have to do with WoT ? What has Sputnik to do with WoT for that matter ?

        That is the point in case you missed it. It’s like “Hey, let’s play some more matches of our racing game this weekend, by the way this Sunday is the aniversay of the invention of Mashed Potatoes, so have a carrot.”

        It’s not that the special is bad or Sputnik was evil in any way, it’s that it doesn’t have any connection to the game theme while other historical tank involving events are ignored.

        • So remind me again how are assorted holidays related to tanks? Valentine’s shares a name with one, but that’s about it…

          • They aren’t related to tanks. This Sputnik thingy is not a holiday special we’re talking about, which can happen any time of the week, but a weekend special.
            Didn’t get the point of the Valentine special myself, and those awful drawing contests combining tanks and pink hearts …. bleah … I shiver at the thought …

  26. clearly you dont’ play WarThunder folks,
    last week they had a Sputnik event, so WG just copy (to show that they are also very patriotic, bla bla)

    this stupid competition between WT & WG is getting on high gear, lol

    Russians…

  27. WG can’t have event about a Jewish war, WG realized there are to many fucking Right Wingers and Nazis around so they thought they should just ignore everything about Israel

    • Also for “one of the most famous tank warfare events in history” I sure hadn’t heard of it before… :|

  32. ok, I haven’t had time to read the other comments, but I’ll just throw out my own opinion: it is russian propaganda. politics. they want to increase the influence of russian culture, while creating a positive image of russia. wot is a game known worldwide, so there are all the reasons in the world to do that.
    this proves once again (as if it was necessary): 1. that World of Tanks is biased towards the russians. 2. they don’t give a fuck about the EU, who they treat merely as a market in order to make money. in general, the russians see other peoples as inferior. I am romanian (neighbouring country), so I know many examples from politics and real life.
    I only wish for an alternative to World of Tanks on the world gaming scene. fingers crossed for War Thunder!

        • Says the man whose ‘arguments’ basically started at xenophobia and ended at jumping to conclusions.

          BTW I’d personally recommend eating the garlic, but you rustics are ofc free to use the stuff however you wish.

    • On another note, by what exact logical brainfart would Gaijin be any better? WG is Belorussian, Gaijin bona fide *Russian* the last I heard – which according to your own bullshit world-explanation should make them propaganda-peddlers of the first order.

      • dude, you are very caustic and venomous for a reason I don’t really understand. you just jump out at me and insult me, when I just expressed my opinion. feel free do disapprove, but that doesn’t justify your offensive attitude. you don’t seem a very balanced person yourself.
        you got the wrong idea anyway.
        this conversation is not constructive, I’m done at this point.

  33. WG is really, really reaching now to pat the poor russians on the back. Will the NA server get “Moon landing day”? Will EU get, err, um, Earl Grey’s day? That’s right, NA and EU don’t need things like this because all of us living within those regions are proud of themselves and their achievements. RU though, they need to be treated to a pat on the back if they can correctly spell their name day.

  34. Let me put it this way: two words.

    Creator. Provincialism.

    Belarus used to be part of the USSR, so of course they’ll prefer to celebrate Sputnik over the Yom Kippur War. To add further insult to injury, the USSR supplied the Arabs with weapons and equipment, and were soundly defeated in an upset victory by Israel, who would have invaded Egypt if not for the fact that both NATO and the USSR threatened to intervene.

    So…yeah, of course they’re going to show favoritism towards the accomplishments of the USSR. That being said, Sputnik’s launch WAS a ground-breaking event, but as stated, it has NOTHING to do with tanks, at all!

  35. Someone told me that Sputnik was selected for commemoration over the the other finalist for the NA Event, the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia on October 3, 1993 (aka “Blackhawk Down”).

  36. Sputnik in Russia has a kind of cult status. The day is mentioned on television and radio and so on. It may be that outside of Russia people do not understand it. It has nothing to do with a celebration of Communism.

    WG just brings russian everyday life in the game they created.

  37. WG is a Bielorussian company and the vast majority of the players are Russians, stop acting like butthurt kids.