The T-64 is a Soviet second-generation main battle tank introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served tank divisions, while the T-62 supported infantry in motorized rifle divisions. Although the T-62 and the famous T-72 would see much wider use and generally more development, it was the T-64 that formed the basis of more modern Soviet tank designs, such as the T-80.
The T-64 was conceived in Kharkiv, Ukraine as the next-generation main battle tank by Alexander A. Morozov, the designer of the T-54 (which, in the meantime, would be incrementally improved by Leonid N. Kartsev's Nizhny Tagil bureau, by the models T-54A, T-54B, T-55, and T-55A).
A revolutionary feature of the T-64 is the incorporation of an automatic loader for its 125-mm gun, allowing one crew member's position to be omitted and helping to keep the size and weight of the tank down. Tank troopers would joke that the designers had finally caught up with their unofficial hymn, Three Tankers—the song had been written to commemorate the crewmen fighting in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, in 3-man BT-5 tanks in 1939.
Nikomu nikto ne vinovat
Kazhdoi luzhe po svoyei lune
Tol'ko bol'she net koordinat
Na kotoryh ty naidyoshsya mne
(No one can blame anyone
The moon is reflected in each puddle
There are no more coordinates
That I can use to find you)
Ya uzhe ne tam a ty ne zdes'
Razminulish' glupo oblaka*
Obez'yanka, ty poka chto yest' **
Obez'yanka, ya zhiva poka
(I'm still not there and you're not here
The clouds foolishly miss each other
A monkey, you are for now
Monkey, and I'm alive for now)
Moya veselaya
Moya smeshnaya bol'
Ya obez'yanka-nol'
Ty obez'yanka-nol'
(You're my cheerful pain,
You're my funny pain
I'm Monkey Number Zero
You're Monkey Number Zero)
Chestnyh psihov mozhno ne lechit'
Ne otpustit ni tebe ni mne
S etoi grusti nam ne soskochit'
Obez'yanki budut zhit' v tyur'me
(Honest pyschos don't need healing
Neither of us will be set free
We can't give up this anguish
Monkeys will live in prison)
Obez'yanki budut zhit v tyur'me
Vsem lyubov', a obez'yankam grust'
Obez'yanka ty prisnishsya mne
Obez'yanka ya tebe prisnyus'
(Monkeys will live in prison
Love for everyone and anguish for monkeys
You're the monkey in my dreams
Monkey - I'll be in your dreams)
Moya veselaya
Moya smeshnaya bol'
Ya obez'yanka nol'
Ty obez'yanka-nol'
(You're my cheerful pain,
You're my funny pain
I'm Monkey Number Zero
You're Monkey Number Zero)
Moya veselaya
Moya smeshnaya bol'
Ya obez'yanka nol'
Ty obez'yanka-nol'
(You're my cheerful pain,
You're my funny pain
I'm Monkey Number Zero