The ZiS-30 was a light self-propelled anti-tank gun built for the Soviet Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 in 1941. It was based on the Komsomolets

Komsomolets armored tractor

T-20 armored tractor Komsomolets was a prime mover vehicle used by the Soviet Union during the Winter War and World War II.-Description:The T-20 was designed in 1936 at the Ordzhonikidze Moscow Plant no.37. They were manufactured during 1937-1941 at Factory no...

 armored artillery tractor. They were successful vehicles, but production was limited by the number of Komsomolets tractors still in use.

Production history

The ZiS-30 was one of a few hastily-designed armoured fighting vehicles created by Soviet industry shortly after the German invasion

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

 of 1941. In August 1941 Grabin

Vasiliy Grabin

Vasiliy Gavrilovich Grabin was a Soviet artillery designer. He led a design bureau at Joseph Stalin Factory No...

's design bureau at the Gorky plant no. 92 mounted the 57 mm ZiS-2

ZiS-2

The ZiS-2 was a Soviet 57-mm anti-tank gun used during World War II. The ZiS-4 was a version of the gun meant to be installed in tanks. ZiS stands for Zavod imeni Stalina , the official title of Artillery Factory No...

 gun onto the chassis of a Komsomolets artillery tractor. There were problems with availability of both the chassis and gun and only about a hundred were built.