This paper explores the period of military cooperation between the Weimar Period German Army (the Reichswehr), and the Soviet Union. Between 1922 and 1933, four facilities were built in Russia by the two governments, where a variety of training and technological exercises were conducted. These facilities were particularly focused on advances in chemical and biological weapons, airplanes and tanks.
The most influential of the four facilities was the tank testing and training grounds (Panzertruppenschule in the German) built along the Kama River, near Kazan in North-Central Russia. Led by German instructors, the school’s curriculum was based around lectures, war games, and technological testing. Soviet and German students studied and worked side by side; German officers in fact often wore the Soviet uniform while at the school, to show solidarity with their fellow officers. Among the German alumni of the school were many of the most famous practitioners of mobile warfare during the Second World War, such as Guderian, Manstein, Kleist and Model.
This system of education proved highly innovative. During seven years of operation, the school produced a number of extremely important technological and tactical innovations. Among the new technologies were a new tank chassis system, superior guns, and - perhaps most importantly- a radio that could function within a tank. Prior to Kama, tank officers would use flags to communicate with their units. The implementation of radios in tanks gave the Germans a tremendous advantage when they invaded France and Poland, neither of whose militaries had fully adopted an in-tank radio.
The tactical and operational developments at Kama were also profound. The Germans began to experiment with the use of tanks in the context of Stosstruppen (stormtrooper) infantry tactics from the First World War. The result, fully developed by the Wehrmacht under the Nazi Regime, would come to be known as “Blitzkrieg:” lightening fast war focused on penetration, encirclement and close coordination between airpower and mobile forces.
Kama played an integral role in the development of the German war machine during the interwar period, giving the Nazis the tools to rapidly develop a mobile tank corps which would prove nearly invincible at the beginning of World War II. This paper, using both German and Soviet archival material, explores this surprising period of cooperation between ideological and geopolitical opponents, who would soon be embroiled in the bloodiest war in human history.