Hello everyone,
do you know the name of Mikhail Svirin? No? Perhaps you should. He was one of the most important Russian armor historians, writing many books as well as articles on (not only) Soviet vehicles. He passed away this year unfortunately. To celebrate his legacy, Wargaming (RU) decided to name an event after him, since SerB admitted that Svirin’s work was instrumental to the creation of World of Tanks, as early on, Wargaming was taking a lot of data from his books. In his last years, Mikhail Svirin stopped writing and instead worked with young people, teaching them history and patriotism.
Of course, not everyone at Wargaming thinks well of Svirin and of the huge amount of work he made, take for example Yuri Pasholok’s quote (source):
About Svirin. After almost 3 years of “deep drilling” in Central Defence Ministry archive i have only two words about this man – story teller. Svirin’s tales and real documents – it’s two big differences. I don’t know what drugs he use when he made books like “Tankovaya Moshch”. He is shame of russian WWII AFV historians.
In any case, that got me thinking… on December 30th, 2012, Mr. Thomas Jentz passed away, soon it will be two years. Thomas Jentz, along with Hilary Doyle, was responsible for possibly the best source for German tanks there is, the legendary Panzer Tracts. I do think Wargaming (EU anyway) should honor his legacy as well (plus, I wouldn’t mind some German discounts :)), just as WG RU honors the legacy of M.Svirin. Mr.Jentz definitely deserves at least an article. Well… just a thought anyway.