Egregious wrote:http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/945RAAE.pdf
Intricate guide to the numbering on Soviet tanks (late-war, anyway).
Wow, that's awesome, thanks for posting that!
That does explain the meaning behind the markings, though it doesn't explain *why* they are so varied. Unless I'm mistaken however that was the official policy, my understanding is whereas many other nations tried to come up with standardized army-wide marking systems the Russians felt that this made things too easy for enemy intelligence, so instead decreed that each unit was to come up with its own markings.