Already during the First World War, almost all over the world began to understand that horse-drawn field artillery did not meet the sharply increased requirements for warfare. Artillery guns of that time were very vulnerable on the march from enemy fire, did not have sufficient mobility and required time to prepare for shooting. And the armies of all countries at that time especially needed new models of artillery weapons capable of quickly changing their location, moving freely off-road with the infantry and reliably protecting their crew from enemy fire. Looking at the first unpretentious samples of self-propelled artillery, more like pieces of armored trains on a wheeled or tractor chassis, hardly anyone could have imagined that they would transform over time into a whole cohort of combat vehicles of different appearance and use. In Mikhail Svirin's new book, you will learn about the main key points in the history of Soviet self-propelled guns, about how Soviet military theorists conceived this type of artillery, get acquainted with the states of units and formations of Soviet self-propelled artillery, from the very first, still timid experiments to "The decline of the era of barrel artillery" in 1955-1960. Special attention is rightfully paid to the development of self-propelled guns during the Great Patriotic War, since many researchers rightfully consider it "the crown of self-propelled artillery."