Book review - "Уральский Букет - Уралтрансмаш"

"Уральский Букет" Ural Bouquet written by Bobkov A.V and Ustyantsev S.V is the 3rd instalment of books published by Uraltransmash. This collection of books is focused on the development and production of various Soviet SPGs derived variants and prototypes produced by Uraltransmash and its associated bureaus, factories and others. 

These books aim to provide anyone interested in Soviet SPG development with a timeline of how said vehicles were developed, occurring problems and how they were solved along with a plentiful amount of visual aid to help the reader understand. 

A short summary of the book. 

Prologue:

The prologue in this book covers the development of counterpart SPGs by the United States in the 1950s and 60s. This created the necessity for the Soviet Union to revive its SPG development program. Various US systems are mentioned like the M107 (175mm), M108 (105mm), M109 (155mm) and more obscure design proposals like the "SELF-PROPELLED HEAVY ARTILLERY FAMILY T-236 & INTERCHANGEABLE KITS", which was to use various gun calibres. 

Chapter 1: "Akatsiya" and "Tyulpan". The beginning

Chapter 1 discusses the revival and continuation of the development of the next generation of SPGs for the Soviet Army. In preparation for this new generation, designers proposed possible vehicles that could exist in the near future. Most of which were never considered. This chapter has a lot of diagrams and drawings depicting early designs of the 2S3 and 2S4 along with their prototypes and testing models. 

Chapter 2: "Akatsiya" and "Tyulpan". On the way to serial production

Chapter 2 is all about testing the 2S3 and 2S4. A large portion of this chapter is dedicated to active trials of these new SPGs and their problems that had to be ironed out before being accepted into service and mass production. Additionally, this chapter also focuses on the troubles of getting these new vehicles accepted into service with the designers having clashes with the higher committees responsible for service acceptance.

Chapter 3: "Giatsint-S" - third in the Ural bouquet

This chapter covers the development process of the "Giatsint-S", which requirements it had to meet to be considered a weapon system for long-range indirect fire able to deliver heavy munition payloads. 

Chapter 4: Lessons in Modernization 

A very information-heavy chapter covering the approach to modernising this new fleet of SPGs, and the difficulties of improving designs. This chapter covers several paper design proposals that unfortunately never got to exist beyond paper. Lastly, this part also reflects on the lessons learned from modernising SPGs. 

Chapter 5: On the chassis of the "Akatsiya" 

A short chapter all about very obscure prototypes based on the 2S3 "Akatsiya" hull. These being the Izdelie 315 "Sprut-S", Izdelie 312 (1K11 / Stilet-1)

Chapter 6: SZTrM - Factory for self-propelled artillery 

Background information about metallurgy, factory technology and production 

Chapter (7): In search of a new unified chassis

The final chapter replaces the conclusion with even more technical descriptions about finding a new unified chassis. Beginning with the MT-S, the creation of a constant-power engine unit and the problems with the development of a unified chassis. 

Personal review of the book

I rarely voice my opinion in the articles I write, to retain all articles as neutral as possible. A book review without some personal statements would not be a true book review. 

I was very impressed with how well the 3rd book has been written, structured and worded. While it follows the same core principles of the previous 2 books, it has improved in how well it explains certain topics and provides diagrams to assist the reader who may not be well versed in these topics. The diagrams are high-quality scans and are easy to read. 

The topic consistency is very good and easy to follow, by that I mean there aren't any random images or references to a different topic that isn't worth mentioning at a certain point, which is a partial tendency in some other Soviet AFV-related books I have read in the past. 

If you are a reader who is interested in collecting lots of diagrams and archive images, this book has it all. For anyone interested in reading about technical solutions to problems around engines, transmission or chassis, this book will cover it in good quality. 
As with all of these books, they heavily rely on archival resources, which are not usually accessible to the average person. 

This book is good for both Russian speakers and people with translators who are interested in reading about Soviet SPG history and its long development process. 

If you have a copy of this and haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, these books are produced in very small quantities and are difficult to get your hands on if you don't live in Russia. Of course, there are probably fully scanned versions of this book somewhere on the Internet and if you have a scan of it, read it and you will enjoy it. 

Uraltransmash plans on releasing the 4th and last book in this series, which will focus on the Msta-S. The release date at this moment is unknown along with how many copies will be available. I have a copy of the 2nd book and I will do a review for it in the near future along with the 4th book whenever I get my hands on it. 

I have enjoyed reading this book and look forward to seeing the 4th instalment in the series. 

To all my readers, you can expect more articles covering the topics in these books soon!