, romanized_name = , former_name = , type = Open joint-stock company , traded_as = , industry =

Machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecules ...

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, fate = , predecessor = , successor = , founded = , founder = , defunct = , hq_location_city =

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region of Southern Russia. Its administrative center is Volgograd. The populatio ...

, hq_location_country =

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...

, coordinates = , locations = , area_served = worldwide , key_people = , products =

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

Artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, ...

Combat vehicle A combat vehicle, also known as a ground combat vehicle, is a self-propelled, weaponized military vehicle used for combat operations in mechanized warfare. Combat vehicles can be wheeled or tracked. History Ancient The chariot is a type of ...

s , services = , revenue = RUB 873 million , revenue_year = 2011 , operating_income = , net_income = RUB 229 million , net_income_year = 2011 , aum = , assets = , equity = , owner = , num_employees = , num_employees_year = , parent = Concern Tractor Plants , divisions = , website = , footnotes = , intl = The Soviet Union 1947 CPA 1203 stamp (Stalingrad Tractor Plant)

The Soviet Union 1947 CPA 1203 stamp (Stalingrad Tractor Plant)

The Volgograd Tractor Plant (russian: Волгоградский тракторный завод, ''Volgogradski traktorni zavod'', or , ''VgTZ''), formerly the ''Dzerzhinskiy'' Tractor Factory or the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, is a heavy equipment

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

located in

. It was once one of the largest

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

manufacturing enterprises in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. It was a site of fierce fighting during World War II's

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later r ...

. During its lifetime, VgTZ has supplied more than 2.5 million tractors to the farming industry, making a huge contribution to the

mechanization Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows: In some fields, mechanization includes the ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. VgTZ tractors operate in 32 countries throughout

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, Europe,

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

, and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. Also used for the production of

military vehicles A military vehicle is any vehicle for land-based military transport and activity, including combat vehicles; both specifically designed for, or significantly used by military and armed forces. Most military vehicles require off-road capabilitie ...

, VgTZ is inextricably linked with the history of Soviet tank building. The plant continues to operate on a small scale, but much of it is now derelict or has been demolished.

History

Until 1961, the plant was called the Stalingrad Tractor Plant named for F. Dzerzhinsky (russian: Сталинградский тракторный завод им. Ф. Э. Дзержинского, ''Stalingradski traktorni zavod im. F.E. Dzerzhinskogo'', or , ''STZ''). It was one of the first industrial facilities to be built as part of the planned rapid

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...

of the USSR, which was adopted in the late 1920s. The foundation stone was laid in a

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies ar ...

ceremony on July 12, 1926. Construction of the plant was carried out with the involvement of experts from Western countries, primarily the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. It was designed by Albert Kahn Associates Inc., the company started by Albert Kahn, the architect for

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

. In 1928, a group of Soviet engineers visited Kahn's office with an order for designing and building the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, and in April 1929, the Soviet trade representative Saul Bron signed the contract with Albert Kahn. The full value of the contract, including equipment, was

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

30 million, which would equate to about US$450 million in today's money. Once the contract was agreed, design and construction of the plant proceeded without delay, and the entire facility was installed within a period of six months under the supervision of American engineers. The steel structures were manufactured in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

by the McClintic-Marshall Company, and then transported to Stalingrad for field assembly. The huge flow of cargo was shipped via the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

and Black Sea, then by river and over land to the place of construction. The plant was kitted out with equipment from more than eighty US engineering companies and several German firms. The new factory was officially opened on June 17, 1930, and the first tractor to begin production on the assembly line was the 15-30, manufactured in the USA by the McCormick Deering company; in the USSR, it became known as the 15/30 STZ (or STZ-1). By April 1932, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant was working at full capacity, with 144 tractors a day rolling off the conveyor. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B22703, Russland, Kampf um Stalingrad, Zerstörungen

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B22703, Russland, Kampf um Stalingrad, Zerstörungen

Tank production began in 1932 with the launch of the

T-26 The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its ligh ...

light infantry tank, which was easy to manufacture and operate, and considered to be more reliable than foreign equivalents. In 1939, the first automated machine tool line in the USSR was designed and commissioned at the Volgograd Tractor Plant on the initiative of I. P. Inochkina, a design engineer who worked at the plant for 35 years. By the end of the 1940s, dozens of such lines were in operation at bearing and automotive plants. By the time war broke out in September 1939, the tractor plant had produced a quarter of a million standard tractors as well as 40,000 tracked versions. During World War II, the plant was retooled to produce military equipment and weapons for the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, most notably the

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The Ch ...

tank. The plant became world-famous during the

. When the German '' Wehrmacht'' reached the city in the summer of 1942, the tractor plant was their first target, and it was largely destroyed during the fierce fighting that ensued over the next few months. Once the hostilities had ended with the final victory in February 1943, the site was cleared of shells and debris so that restoration work could begin immediately. Full-scale production resumed at the plant within months of the city being liberated.

Decline and regeneration

In 1992, the Volgograd Tractor Plant became a private

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...

, and entered a period of economic uncertainty with a decline in productivity. The company was floated on the public stock market in 1995 and became an OJSC. By the late 1990s, the plant was producing fewer than 3,000 tractors per year. In December 2002, following rising debts and many changes in ownership, OJSC Volgograd Tractor Plant was divided into four separate business units within the group: *OJSC Tractor Company VgTZ (''Traktornaya kompaniya VgTZ'') *OJSC Russian Engineering Components (''Rossiyskiye mashinostroitel'nyye komponenty'') *OJSC Territory of Industrial Development (''Territoriya promyshlennogo raszvitiya'') *OJSC Volgograd Tractor Plant (''Volgogradski traktorni zavod'') Responsibility for military technology projects was allocated to a separate concern, the Volgograd Machine Building Company VgTZ (''Volgogradskaya mashinostroitel'naya kompaniya VgTZ''), which was not connected to the "Volgograd Tractor Plant" group of companies. In 2003, the OJSC Volgograd Tractor Plant group became part of OJSC Agromashholding, which specializes in the production, sale and service of agricultural, municipal and industrial equipment. The OJSC Volgograd Tractor subdivision of the group was declared

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

in 2005. Then in 2006, OJSC Tractor Company VgTZ was acquired by the non-commercial partnership Concern Tractor Plants, a leading Russian machine building company, of which OJSC Agromashholding is an agricultural division. VgTZ thrived under its new owners, and achieved a stable monthly performance for the whole of 2006, with almost 3,000 tracked tractors leaving the conveyor, including 768 of the promising VT series and 1,290 tractors with industrial modifications. The OJSC Tractor Company VgTZ subdivision eventually ceased tractor production altogether in November 2015. In April 2017, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense,

Yury Borisov Yury Ivanovich Borisov (russian: Юрий Иванович Борисов; born 31 December 1956) is a Russian politician, former military strategist, and mathematician currently serving as Director General of Roscosmos. From 2018 to 2022, he ...

, visited OJSC Volgograd Tractor Plant to check on progress of the State Defense Order for new military vehicles. According to Borisov, the company was experiencing financial difficulties at the time. A decision was taken to merge the military side of the concern with the state-owned

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Rostec Rostec ( rus, Ростех, p=, r=Rostekh), officially the State Corporation for Assistance to Development, Production and Export of Advanced Technology Industrial Product Rostec (russian: Государственная корпорация по � ...

, in order to stabilize the plant's financial position. The separate Volgograd Machine Building Company, which is still based at the plant, continues to manufacture Sprut-SDM1 self-propelled anti-tank guns and BMD-4M airborne combat vehicles for the

Russian Airborne Troops The Russian Airborne Forces (russian: Воздушно-десантные войска России, ВДВ, Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Rossii, VDV) are the airborne forces branch of the Russian Armed Forces. It was formed in 1992 from units o ...

. In the spring of 2019, reconstruction work began on the ruins of the tractor plant, with plans to regenerate the area into a multipurpose center, including shops, office buildings, and apartments. All that remains of the VgTZ works is a series of walk-through plants and two monuments in the square. The workshops have been demolished and the new owner rents the former factory management premises as office space. There is a small museum dedicated to the rich history of the Volgograd Tractor Plant. The northern terminus station on the

Volgograd Metrotram The Volgograd Metrotram (Skorostnoy Tramvay, ST) is a light rail surface/subway line operating in Volgograd, Russia. It was inaugurated on 5 November 1984, and had served 50 million passengers per year at the time the 2011 extension was opened. ...

still bears the name ''Traktornyy Zavod'' ("Tractor Factory").

Awards

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

(May 17, 1932) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labor The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

(February 8, 1942), ''for the exemplary fulfillment of the government's assignment for the production of tanks and tank engines'' *

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisan ...

, 1st degree (February 7, 1945) *Order of Lenin (January 14, 1970)

Products

Military vehicles

(1932–1940), light infantry tank *

(1940–1944), medium tank *

STZ-5 The STZ-5 artillery tractor was a product of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ) (Russian: Сталинградский тракторный завод) from 1937 to 1942 in the Soviet Union. The tractor was designed to tow division to corps lev ...

(STZ-NATI 2TB) (1937–1942), tracked artillery tractor, nicknamed "Stalinets" *

PT-76 The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious light tank that was introduced in the early 1950s and soon became the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the other Warsaw Pact armed forces. It was widely exported to other friendly states, like I ...

(1951–1967), light amphibious tank *

BTR-50 The BTR-50 (BTR stands for ''Bronetransporter'' (БТР, Бронетранспортер), literally "armored transporter") is a Soviet amphibious armored personnel carrier (APC) based on the PT-76 light tank. The BTR-50 is tracked, unlike most ...

(1954–1970), armored personnel carrier (based on PT-76 chassis) * BTR-D (from 1974), armored personnel carrier *

BMD-1 The BMD-1 is a Soviet airborne amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle, which was introduced in 1969 and first seen by the West in 1970. BMD stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Desanta'' (Боевая Машина Десанта, which literally ...

(1968–1987), tracked amphibious

infantry fighting vehicle An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct-fire support. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forc ...

(IFV) *

BMD-2 The BMD-2 is a Soviet airborne infantry fighting vehicle, introduced in 1985. It is a variant of BMD-1 with a new turret and some changes done to the hull. BMD stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Desanta'' (Боевая Машина Десанта, wh ...

(from 1985), tracked amphibious IFV *

BMD-3 The BMD-3 (''Boyevaya Mashina Desanta '', Russian "Боевая Машина Десанта", literally "Combat Vehicle of the Airborne") is a light infantry fighting vehicle originating in the Soviet Union that is fully amphibious and air-drop ...

(1985–1997), tracked amphibious IFV * BMD-4 (2004–present), tracked amphibious IFV * 2S25 Sprut-SD (1984–2010), self-propelled anti-tank gun File:Soviet tank model Т-34-85, Kharkiv, Ukraine.JPG, Т-34 File:Katusha BM-13 STZ-5-NATI.jpg, Katusha BM-13 STZ-5-NATI File:PT-76 B.jpg, PT-76 File:2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade - BMD-4.jpg, BMD-4 File:2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade (59-18).jpg, 2S25 Sprut-SD

Tractors

* STZ-1 (STZ 15/30) (1930–1937), wheeled tractor * STZ-3 (STZ-NATI 1TA) (1937–1949), tracked tractor (same chassis/engine as

) * STZ-8 (1938–1941),

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

tractor * DT-54 (1949–1963), diesel tracked tractor * DT-55 (1955), swamp tractor * DT-75 (from 1963), tracked tractor, hydraulic suspension system * DT-75M (from 1963), tracked tractor * VT-100 (from 1994), tracked tractor * VT-150 (from 2005), tracked tractor * DT-175 (1986–1994) * Agromash 90TG (2009–present) * Agromash 315TG File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-V8393-009, Schwerin, Feldarbeit.jpg, STZ-NATI File:Трактор ДТ54 Сокол гора1.jpg, DT-54 File:2011-04 Wola Górzańska 4.jpg, DT-75 tractor of early production in Poland File:Spycharka DT 75.JPG, DT-75 File:VT-150.jpg, VT-100

References

External links

Concern Tractor Plants, official website
(in Russian) – latest archive dated October 19, 2018
My Stalingrad Childhood
A memoir by Edward Ochagavia (reprinted from ''East-West Review'')
Volgograd's top tractor plant
– aerial views of factory ruins (2016

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...

video)
Stalingrad Tractor Plant, photograph of a bird's-eye perspective drawing, Albert Kahn Associates, 1930s
Canadian Centre for Architecture {{coord, 48, 48, 0.7, N, 44, 36, 37.03, E, display=title, type:landmark Agriculture companies of the Soviet Union Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Industry in Russia Defence companies of the Soviet Union Concern Tractor Plants Companies based in Volgograd Oblast