The T-34-85 tank Rudy (Ginger) with the identifying number "102", a German Shepherd dog from Siberia Szarik (pronounced "Sharik" – little ball in Russian, a nickname in the vein of "furball"; in Polish, the word is similar to Szary meaning gray and szalik meaning scarf) and to a lesser extent the crew Jan Kos, Gustaw Jeleń, Grigorij Saakaszwili, Tomasz Czereśniak, and their commander and mentor Olgierd Jarosz, as well as other heroes of the series, have become icons in Polish popular culture.

After the first airing of the show, it rose in popularity quickly, leading to Przymanowski writing two other volumes of the book.

At the same time, the series was definitely not a comedy and contained many sad moments and intense battle scenes, while some of the main characters were wounded or killed.

Grigorij himself was a Georgian, representing numerous soldiers of the Soviet Red Army assigned to Polish tank units lacking specialists.

The first commander Olgierd Jarosz was a meteorologist and could forecast the weather (in the book he was Russian Wasyl (Vasiliy) Semenov).

An emphasis is put on the friendship between front-line Polish and Soviet soldiers, but little or no mention of the problems in general Polish-Soviet relations of that era (though they were often suggested in the background).