Kubinka Museum says “Fuck You” to Maus Restoration Hype

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Hello everyone,

this is actually pretty entertaining. Looks like things will be not as “hot” with the Maus restoration as Wargaming would have the world believe. At first, I ran into this post in the LJ community, reprinting the Kubinka Museum VK status.

For those who do not know – VK means “Vkontakte”, it’s basically a Russian Facebook service, a social network largely used in the CIS. Kubinka has a webpage there and as you can see, it’s quite popular (over 6000 “likes”). Yesterday, a status appeared on the webpage (by then it was still accessible to outsiders and not a “closed group”, you can see that in google cache):

kub1

It says:

“Central Museum of Armored Vehicles” of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation officially states, that the information of the restoration works on the tank “Maus”, which appeared in various mass media, is not true. It’s a perspective project, which is in the state of negotiations and approval. The Museum staff is outraged by the insolence, ignorance and absolute lack of patriotism of the employees of the aforementioned mass media.

The Museum will never prioritize the restoration of the German tank “Maus”, or any foreign tank to any of the Russian military anniversaries, let alone the Day of Victory celebration, which is the most important celebration for us. The restoration of the German tank is not “a great honor for us” as the journalists write, but a simple planned work. Restoration works on this projects, if they happen at all, will be carried out following the order of work.

Currently, the Museum, exclusively on its own, restores the legendary Soviet tank T-35 to be ready for the 70th Anniversary of the Great Victory, for which we are rightfully proud.

Furthermore, the information about our exclusive partnership with company Wargaming is not true. An “exclusive” partnership with any organization is out of the question, as the Museum is a public institution, that in the past cooperated and always will cooperate with all organizations and institution for the good of our Motherland within the framework of joint projects and programs, aimed at the Museum development, patriotic education and prevention of historical facts falsification.

With kind regards
Administration of the Museum”

This harsh text is apparently a reaction on earlier news articles (here for example), bombastically claiming the exclusive partnership of Kubinka with Wargaming. Bravo, WG PR department!

Shortly after this post, the group was closed for public (since this angry post got widely reposted on Russian forums and blogs) with one last message:

kub2

“Dear friends, the Museum is asking for your help with maximal spreading of the news, posted below (SS: the angry post). Thanks to the companies, that sponsor the spread of false information in mass media, the Museum loses its credibility and respect of its visitors and of all those, who follow our work. Thanks in advance! With kind regards, the group administration”

Looks like the future of the Maus restoration future is as gloomy as the proverbial Teutonic genius… if it will happen at all.

130 thoughts on “Kubinka Museum says “Fuck You” to Maus Restoration Hype”

    • ahh now i know its all a plot about the new thing, i have good news guys, i will be returning to save earth.

      so does this mean half life 3 confirmed ?

      • These dumbfucks are just like those poor guys sent to Vietnam, ending up traumatized, getting home and still thinking the war is not over.

        Looks like for Kubinka staff the stalinistic patriotic brainwash is in full effect. USA is still the evil country, Germany is still fascist, Rusia is the best country in the world. That’s all they need to know apparently.

        Someone should ask them : then why do you still keep Maus you commie lunatics? if you’re so up against german tanks.

        PATHETIC STALINIST FUCKS!

        • “USA is still the evil country, Germany is still fascist, Rusia is the best country in the world. That’s all they need to know apparently.”

          if you change order of just few words you get the exact truth for others:

          typical westerner:

          “Russia is still the evil country, ex-ussr is still communist, USA is the best country in the world. That’s all they need to know apparently.”

          just because they dont see the glory of a maus tank as you doesnt mean they are stalinists…

          jezz, grow up, if you think there is a a part of the world where country=regular people, you are delusional. We are all just puppets for their entertainment.

          $$>government>$$>people

          • “just because they dont see the glory of a maus tank as you doesnt mean they are stalinists…”

            But I thought that WG were paying for the entire restoration. What reason does this museum have to turn them down? A restored Maus would make them even more famous and get them more visitors if they had it running on special days.

          • Yeah they are so nice, the bring war ehhh i mean freedom to all eastern countries (with oil) :P

  4. Legendary T-35 :D :D :D, best known for use in military parades… srsly this is russian bias

    • The T-35 were actually used in combat, though the vast majority were taken out of action by mechanical breakdown before seeing any action. They certainly were prestige objects with only minimal actual military value but the very same could be said for the Maus… and that didn’t even make it to any parades.

    • legendary maus, legendary for being a fail before it was destroyed without so much a single shell firing.

      since you compare what both tanks did the t-35 did more than maus, but thats just me nitpicking… is it?

      • You can look at the potential instead.

        Maus had some potential. Even though it’d get bombed really easily. T-35 clearly did not.

        • potential of T-35 oh lets put as many turrets as we can at overloaded suspension… We can make 3 tanks instead of 1 ? fuck it build more T-35′s !

          p.s.: even before military parade soviets had to triple check every T-35 because it could just break down in middle of red square :D

  5. OMG. I can’t imagine any British or German museum saying that they’re not proud of restoring Russian tank, but they are proud of restoring tank from their own nation.

    And yea… Museum – perfectly right institution to be outraged by supposed “lack of patriotism”. *facepalm*

    • yes ! and also it says that they are there to teach patriotism …. I thought museums are there to teach history but in russia they are a pure propagandistic tool.

  7. They should blow that Maus up next year on Victory Day to show their huge patriotism!

    • Better: T-35 vs Maus duel on a next parade. I already see these news in Russian media: “After the first salvo from mighty Russian guns fascist Maus exploded in a gigantic fireball”

  8. Greatly typical for russian nature. Military legend? Maus? Who the fuck cares, we are Russians, we will restore primarily OUR tanks. And WG? No comment…
    #facepalm

    I personally visited Kubinka last year and YES, the local people really HATES WoT players.

    • Interesting lol… I always thought that restoring a Maus into a functional state would be the ultimate dream goal for any tank museum… A Maus rolling around would attract a shitload of ppl I guess.

      • in russia, how many people would rather see maus instead of t-35?

        If by any miracle usa had some “legendary” russian tank, do you think americans would hurl to see the legendary rus or legendary american tabk?

        • If someone would offer them money and support with restoration for russian tank – they’d be delighted.

        • There are plenty of museums in the U.S. that are proud to have restored and operational soviet armor. I know individual collectors who own functional soviet armor, that has been lovingly restored. You’ll find the same with aircraft, soft skin vehicles, etc. It’s not a matter of politics with them.

          Kubinka likely has Maus on a back burner because of preexisting restoration projects (the T-35 for example) and the sheer scope of the work required.

      • Amount of visitors grew 3-4x from WoT launch. At old times they had few fans of military and modellers. What they have now are waves of WoT players, who sprint from the gate directly to the german hall to see ‘the devil fascist machines from the times of slavery of the russian nation’.

        They feel that so. And they dont like that. Trust me deeply.

  10. “The Museum staff is outraged by the insolence, ignorance and lack of patriotism of the employees of the aforementioned mass media”

    Seems like abovementioned mass media is in dire need of… correction.
    http://imgur.com/ORHyoXq

  11. The hell? How bigoted can you be?

    With kind regards my ass… The Maus is far more famous than some T-35, Armor is armor, country of origin holds minor relevance for me.

    I also found this comment that got google translated on the linked page

    “Americans know that their Abrams worse than our T-90?”

    Can anyone here dispute that? mainly cause I would not know.

    • Well, define “worse”. The M1A2 has comparable firepower and armor, but the T-90 has access to gun-launched guided missiles, HE shells and related munitions (HE-FRAG for instance), and is smaller, as well as having ERA over more than the suspension.

      On the other hand, the M1A2 has better crew comfort, gun depression, and presumably protection vs. kinetic energy rounds.

      I do, however, consider the BMP-3 ICV to be superior to the M2 Bradley IFV.

      • Well, there is a motive to mount a missile launcher in a tank with gun… and ammo… i dont see where is the problem, made the shells and introduce balistic info in the computer.

        True, T-90 is smaller but this is not a great diference in computers era but you continue with the horrible internal configurations that force you use gnomes inside a big gas can sorrounded by explosives.

        To be fair, ask to a guy what prefer if be fighting in a T-90 or in an Abrams… and i need say i prefer other designs like Leo II or Merkava… even Challenger but sure i dont like be inside a T tank… one thing is in send thousands to T tanks to fight when you are sit in rear and other do it inside one of them.

  13. I’m actually glad Kubinka has said the Maus will not be restored – it deserves to remembered as the failure it is, not as some supertank from the era of Teutonic Ubermensch in Kruppstahl as some sort of corrupted, twisted ideal of the average Wehrmacht soldier.

    Let Maus Rust.

    • “During Operation Barbarossa, ninety percent of the T-35s lost by the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments were lost not to enemy action but through either mechanical failure or because they were abandoned and destroyed by their crews. The most common causes of breakdown were transmission-related.”

      Doesn’t seem that T-35 was more succesfull too. There are many tanks which were a failure because of how they were built, or how they were designed, that doesn’t mean they have to be left to rust to banish the concept, and political ideology, the designers had in mind when they created them.

    • The T-35 “deserves” to be retored according to you then? It’s a failure, not some supertank from the era of Great Soviet Union Happiness and Freedom in Tankograd as some sort of corrupted, twisted ideal for the average brainwashed communist man.

      I think both deservers to be restored. Especially the Maus. It’s all about how impressive-looking the tank is. T-35 is quite impressive-looking with multiple turrets. But Maus is huge with big guns and such, very impressive. Any tank museum worth a day would be glad to have both in running condition. And by favoring their “own” tank designs, the people at kubinka only show how bigoted and childish they still are so long after the war.

      • It deserves it more than Maus, but IMO neither particularly deserve it when there are T-34s, T-70s, Tigers, and Panzer IVs that deserve it more than either.

        • Why? The T-35 had turrets. That’s the impressive thing. The Maus is gigantic and heavy. Everyone knows it’s not particularly effective at anything really. But when you compare both of them and see which one is more impressive to have, I just cannot for the life of me understand how you can say that the T-35 still deserves to be restored more than the Maus.

          It’s not about which tank was the “best” as both of them are crap, more or less. It’s about having something impressive in your museum. In that sense, the Maus is worth more than T-35, especially since the T-35 were made in bigger numbers.

          There are also very (VERY(!)) many T-34s out there already, some are even being sold for a quite “cheap” price. What would be interesting to see would be a KV-1s, IS-1/2, Panther, Tiger and Tiger IIs, rarer tanks in general, and like you said, PzIV or PzIII would be nice to see too. Almost forgot about the Su-122, Hetzer, Su-152 and JagdPanthers.

    • The T-35 was just as big of a failure, if not even more of one. The Maus’ biggest flaw was being too heavy, but it was a sound concept on paper besides that. The T-35, however, was flawed in concept AND in practice, largely due to the completely pointless multiturret design they decided to go with. The only reason it accomplished anything more than the Maus was because the USSR was in a position to be able to build them, while Germany struggled to build two prototypes, one of which only had a dummy turret made of concrete on it.

  14. “patriotic education and prevention of historical facts falsification.”

    When a public museum says that kind of crap, you know you’re not living in a free thinking society..

    • I liked ” The Museum staff is outraged by the insolence, ignorance and absolute lack of patriotism of the employees of the aforementioned mass media” as well.

    • And that Russian international tensions are reflected in internal ones as well. That post is new.

  15. This is just disappointing, to let the largest land moving battle machine rust in some fucking garage is an insult to tank lovers, give it away to someone who fucking wants to restore it fucking Kubinka, this is going too far

    • The problem with the Maus was that it was never a “land moving battle machine”, it was neither moving, nor was it a battle machine. It was a propaganda tool

      • Panzer IX and X were, Maus was a, cancelled yes, but proper intended fighting vehicle, 9 hulls and turrets were built, and production was delayed, and later cancelled, by the english bombing of the factory. It actually moved for a short trip, don’t remember which prototype.

        • Too late to Edit.
          If it were a propaganda tool (still a too expensive one in my opinion), it would have been showed to troops after the project was canceled, like T-35 or Fiat 2000, but it wasn’t, and apparently the soldier who fought till the end didn’t need it…

          • Well, Maus was suppose to be a mobile bunker, basically. It had a very little to deal with propaganda – if anything it’s sheer size and armor were suppose to demoralize enemies while keep morale of friendly troops high.

      • Um…the Maus WAS intended to actually be used, specifically as a ‘mobile pillbox’ to defend the Atlantic Wall. Unfortunately, the second prototype was completed too late to be used in that capacity, and so Germany canceled its development in 1944.

  16. From a Western European POV it’s a load of bombastic bull…..and a frigthful insight into the situation over there atm……

      • I see it more like 1939… somebody push to far and now situation is out of control… maybe in certain countries need learn about what is going on when you are bluffing.

        • Na, it’s not that bad. I know some media and politicians try to picture it like that, but I’d be more inclined to think about ’37-’38 period. The amount of parallels is astonishing.

  19. Ha ha, I joked about the lack of patriotism when the Maus restoration was first announced… Russians took it seriously. -_- Please join the 21st century.

    • ^ This. I can’t say that I’m much of a patriot myself but when a Russian war museum talks about “lack of patriotism” while Russia, at the same time falls back into Cold-War-Era thinking and sees annexing foreign countries as a legal way to enforce their foreign-policy agenda, I’m proud that politics in my country are no longer dominated by a bunch of agitators with their heads stuck somewhere between 1945 and 1989.

  20. This kinda pisses me off. Restoration of the Maus is for education and history. Restoration of the Maus is not promoting nazitism, even the Tank itself don’t have the Wehrmacht logo.

  21. If theese dicks dont want the maus, np, give it back to germany we will find a place so your glorious halls of the great motherland dont got such a facism tank in it!

    Np WG so put the money in the game, its more usefull anyway.

    • the problem is tha we wont find a place for it here in germany because our governments have a nazi phobia…

  23. This makes me very sad. Letting history rot because of nationalism and hate is a tragic thing.

    That post would be a great parody of blind nationalism that still runs rampant in the former sovjet union as percieved by us outsiders. Sadly it is real and it probably will take a century before it dies there and around the world.

  24. Patriotism and LEGENDARY RUSSIAN tank T-35? Oh, please this is just fucking ridiculous. What are we living in the past? Get your head out of your butts Russians and wake up.

    All this patriotism and other BS is just really getting my brain. “We are RUSSIANS ODE TO STALIN!” pfffft, seriously.

  25. Wow just wow…..

    So those Russky are so butthurt much that they dont agree to restore the one and only Maus exsited,
    Because of patriotic reason? lol how stupid can people be

    Btw from your believe stand point why not just change your name from Kubinka Museum to Kubinka Glorious Soviet tank hangar or some crap like that

    for some reason evidence of russian bias are piled up and up…….

  26. blablabla patriotic….blablabla motherland…blablabla… legendary T-35…They are full of shit.Brilliant.

    Is it really that bad over there?Are they stepping back in time going back to the good ol` “values”?

    This is a very sad state of affairs…

  29. A museum that doesn’t want to restore a one-of-a-kind historical vehicle that holds the record for heaviest tank ever built. Seriously? Aren’t museums supposed to be places when historical things are kept as well taken care of as much as possible?
    Not doing it because of patriotic reasons? Seriously?
    Then why do you keep the Maus if you don’t like it? To quote SerB, “Don’t like it? Don’t play.” In this case, give it to another museum that wants it. It’s a tank waiting to be restored.
    Did the British complain about patriotism when they were restoring the Dornier 17, a german aircraft? They didn’t.
    This is why we can’t have nice things, people that can’t let go of the past.

  31. Even 70 years on they are butthurt over the fact German tanks were 10x better than anything they had.

    • Ten times as heavy, ten times more breakdowns! A lot to be jealous of, no?

  32. “patriotic education and prevention of historical facts falsification´´ so they are saying that they are doing 2 opposites at the same time?

  33. Well, the Maus and T-35 were both failures from a military/strategic viewpoint, so it’s a simple shift in priorities. Either way, one failed tank project will be restored soon.

  34. Pingback: Kubinka Museum Situation Followup | For The Record

  35. Poor WG

    German Museum hates them because they are Russians.
    Russian Museum hates them because they are not enough Russians.

    • Didn’t know that WG is a Russian company….

      They didn’t reject them because they are a Belarusian company but because they feel their game is portraying real life war too steril. I don’t agree with that reasoning either but its a lot different than your claim.

      • Given how Belarus is basically Russia’s bitch in terms of international politics, it’s not that far from the truth.

  36. They’re probably butthurt that an Austrian drag queen won Eurovision and are trying to think of ways to get back at the west. We all know what Russians tend to think of homosexuals.

      • To be honest, i’d much rather prefer Tomalchevy as winners – and they would get much higher if Putin haven’t done them with all that’s happend and is happening on Ukraine.

  37. It saddens me to see how our Russian brothers and sisters are being brainwashed into thinking that Russia is the greatest, the best at everything etc.etc. (Obviously there are those that see through it)
    The question is: will the oligarchy die with Putin or will it continue?

    • I guess it all depends how it dies. If it dies in the same way as the USSR, then no, it will continue on. If it dies in the same way as Nazi Germany, however…

  39. They’re just pissed that they are a “Public” institution and not getting the funding they need from the government.

    They’ll end up sucking WG off for the money. Just watch. Every “Public” institution does it. They have to or they die.

    But hey, if Kublinka wants to cut it’s own throat, there’s always Aberdeen. Lots of neat stuff there to fix up.

  40. if you don’t want the maus, send it to fking ameria or germany!
    I’m sure those museums would LOVE to have a one-of-a-kind-largest-fking-armored-vehicle restored free of charge any day, not letting some patriotic bs stop them.

    • pls dont give it to americans, it was terrible what they have done to that Ferdinant…

  42. So they don’t want to restore a war trophy?

    I thought the brought it back from the war as a sign of victory.