57 mm anti - tank gun M1943 ( ZiS - 2 ) The ZiS - 2 ( Russian : ЗиС - 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 " ( Russian " Завод имени Сталина " , " Factory named after Stalin " ) , the official title of Artillery Factory No . 92 , which produced the gun first . Development . In the beginning of 1940 the design office of V . G . Grabin received from the Artillery Department the task to develop a powerful anti - tank gun . The head of this department Marshal Kulik and its subordinates estimated that the use of heavily armored tanks by the USSR in the Winter War didn ' t go unnoticed in Nazi Germany and would lead to development of similar fighting machines there . There is also a chance that the department was influenced by the German propaganda about the experimental multiturreted " supertank " NbFz . To this vehicle heavier armor was attributed than it actually had . Therefore Grabin and its office were guided by the characteristics of the domestic heavy tank KV - 1 with 40 – 75 mm armor . In the opinion of developers , the optimal calibre in this case was 57 mm . The velocity and mass of the armor - piercing 57 mm projectile allowed it to attain sufficient kinetic energy to penetrate up to 90 mm of RHA while keeping the gun sufficiently light , mobile and easy to conceal . However the decision also had a downside : this caliber was new to the Red Army , so the manufacturing of the projectiles had to be started from scratch . Development started in May 1940 and in the beginning of 1941 the gun was adopted as 57 - mm anti - tank gun model 1941 ( ZiS - 2 ) ( Russian : 57 - мм противотанковая пушка образца 1941 года ( ЗиС - 2 ) ) . Production began on June 1 , 1941 but on December 1 , 1941 it was stopped by marshals N . N . Voronov and G . L . Govorov , their explanation being that ZiS - 2 shells go right through weakly armored German tanks without doing much harm inside . Other possible reasons for the decision were high cost of the gun and problems with shell production . By then , 371 pieces were built . The production lines were switched to manufacturing of the ZiS - 3 76 . 2 mm divisional gun , while Soviet anti - tank artillery received cheaper 45 mm guns . Some anti - tank regiments also received the ZiS - 3 , which was able to defeat any German vehicle until late 1942 . Appearance of the heavy Tiger I and then the Panther changed the balance in favor of the Germans . 45 mm guns model 1942 could only pierce the side armor of the Panther , while the ZiS - 3 only managed to penetrate the sides and the gun mantlet . Against the Tiger , the ZiS - 3 was effective only from the side at close range ( up to 300 m ) , and 45 mm pieces were nearly helpless . A more powerful gun was needed and on June 15 , 1943 the ZiS - 2 once again entered service as 57 - mm anti - tank gun model 1943 . Until 1945 9 , 645 units were produced . Description . It is a semi - automatic gun with vertical block breech . When firing the block opens and closes automatically , the loader only has to put a round into the receiver . Due to this feature the rate of fire can reach 25 rounds per minute . The split - trail carriage with gunshield was shared with the ZiS - 3 divisional gun . The carriage has coil spring suspension , which allows towing with a speed of up to on highways , on unpaved roads and off - road . The gun can also be attached to a limber and towed by a team of six horses . ZiS - 2s are equipped with PP1 – 2 panoramic sight . Service . ZiS - 2s were employed by anti - tank artillery platoons of infantry units and by anti - tank artillery units of the Reserve of High Command , the most numerous of these being anti - tank artillery regiments ( Russian Истребительный Противотанковый Артиллерийский Полк , abbreviated ИПТАП ) . Self - propelled mounts . The ZiS - 2 was also mounted on a few vehicles . In 1941 about a hundred ZiS - 2 guns were mounted on Komsomolets armored tractor chassis to create the ZiS - 30 tank destroyer . The ZiS - 2 gun was also mounted in at least three different prototypes based on the SU - 76 assault gun ( SU - 74 , SU - 76D , and SU - 57B ) . None were accepted for production . There was also a tank gun version of ZiS - 2 , called ZiS - 4 . In 1941 , trying to improve the anti - tank performance of the T - 34 tank , members of the Morozov Design Bureau experimentally equipped it with the ZiS - 4 . Only a small number of these T - 34 - 57 tanks were built and used as tank hunters . The idea resurfaced in 1943 , after Germany fielded heavily armoured Tiger and Panther tank s . Again only a limited number was produced , equipped with a slightly modified version of the gun , the ZiS - 4M . Although the high - velocity gun had superior armour penetration to the F - 34 , the small weight of its shell meant that it could not fire an adequate high explosive round for general use . The ultimate solution for the tank was to design a new turret allowing the use of an 85 - mm gun ; the new model was called the T - 34 - 85 . A modernized version of the ZiS - 2 was used in the ASU - 57 , a post - war self - propelled airborne antitank gun . Post - war history . Due to fast improvement of tank armour protection ZiS - 2 quickly lost its anti - tank value . In Soviet anti - tank artillery by mid - 1950s ZiS - 2 was replaced by more powerful 100 mm guns . However , its small size and weight kept it in active service with Soviet airborne troops for much longer . It was the fast improvement of rocket - based anti - tank weapons that eventually phased ZiS - 2 out of use . All surviving ZiS - 2s are believed to be memorial pieces or museum exhibits . A North Korean ship smuggling weapons from Cuba on July 15 , 2013 was discovered to be carrying carrying Zis - 2 ammunition among other Soviet era weaponry and indicative that some examples remain active inside the North Korean Arsenal .