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kravietz, 1 hour ago to Russia

The turtle tank’s name as painted on the “turtle shell” is really ГРОМОЗЕКА (Gromozeka) from a Soviet cartoon, not ГОМОЗЕКА (Homozeka). The original name Gromozeka is about thunder (гром) but on the tank it’s still likely a word play (read below). The name twisted as ГОМОЗЕКА is a word play too and it’s much more complex than “haha tank gay”. Гомосек (homosek) is Russian for “homosexual”, but it’s masculinative word and spelled differently (-zeka versus -sek). And зека (zeka) is a word on its own, more precisely an phonetic for acronym ЗК (ZK) or заключенный meaning “locked up person” or simply a prisoner. And Russian army uses prisoners on mass scale, forming whole Storm-Z units of them, where Z also denotes the use of “zeks” (prisoners). And #Russia military circles are indeed totally obsessed on male homosexual practices which is seen both as a popular insult and phobia, but also as an unavoidable part of social life in prison and army, where whole social hierarchies are built on who submits to whom. So the tank name is likely a tongue in a cheek insult some Russian soldiers made towards others or just self-ironic.

P.S. an advanced quiz for those interested in etymology of Russian language: why modern Russian writes Г (G) in foreign words and names that start with H, like Гитлер for Hitler, гомосек for homosexual, гомеопатия for homeopathy etc?