The Kirov Plant, Kirov Factory or Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) ( rus, Кировский завод, Kirovskiy zavod) is a major

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-eigh ...

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

and

agricultural machinery Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that ...

manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg,

. It was established in 1789, then moved to its present site in 1801 as a

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals ...

for cannonballs. The Kirov Plant is sometimes confused with another Leningrad heavy weapons manufacturer, ''

Factory No. 185 (S.M. Kirov) OKMO (''Opytniy Konstruktorsko-Mekhanicheskiy Otdel'', 'Experimental Design Mechanical Department') was the tank design team in the Soviet Union during the early 1930s. Located in Leningrad, it produced the design of the T-26 infantry tank, of whi ...

''. Recently the main production of the company is Kirovets heavy tractors.

History

In 1868 Nikolay Putilov (1820-1880) purchased the bankrupt plant; at the Putilov Works the Putilov Company (a joint-stock holding company from 1873) initially produced

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

for railways. The establishment boomed during the Russian industrialization of the 1890s, with the work-force quadrupling in a decade, reaching 12,400 in 1900. The factory traditionally produced goods for the Russian government, with railway products accounting for more than half of its total output. Starting in 1900 it also produced

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 sieg ...

, eventually becoming a major supplier of it to the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, Romanization of Russian, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the earl ...

alongside the state arsenals. By 1917 it grew into a giant enterprise that was by far the largest in the city of St. Petersburg. In December 1904, during the antecedent to the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, four workers at the plant, then called 'Putilov Ironworks', were fired because of their participation in strikes during Bloody Sunday. However, the plant manager asserted that they were fired for unrelated reasons. Virtually the entire workforce of the Putilov Ironworks went on strike when the plant manager refused to accede to their requests that the workers be rehired. Sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers up to 150,000 workers in 382 factories. By 21 January O.S. 8 January">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 8 January1905, the city had no electricity and no newspapers whatsoever and all public areas were declared closed. In February 1917 strikes at the factory contributed to setting in motion the chain of events which led to the February Revolution">The Putilov Strike of 1917"> strikes at the factory contributed to setting in motion the chain of events which led to the February Revolution. After the October Revolution of November 1917 the establishment was renamed ''Red Putilovite Plant'' (''zavod Krasny Putilovets'') and became famous for its manufacture of the first Soviet tractors, Fordzon-Putilovets, based on the Fordson tractor. The Putilov Plant had a reputation for its revolutionary traditions. In the wake of the assassination in December 1934 of

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov ( né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and memb ...

, the

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Communist Party head, the plant was renamed ''Kirov Factory No. 100''. Since 1962 the factory produces the Kirovets tractor. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the plant manufactured the KV-1 tank. The Kirov Plant de-listed from the Moscow Exchange in 2011.

References

* Peter Gatrell (1994), ''Government, Industry, and Rearmament in Russia, 1900-1914: The Last Argument of Tsarism'', Cambridge University Press, . * Workers Unrest and the Bolshevik Response in 1919 written by Vladimir Brovkin in Slavic Review, Volume 49, Issue 3, (Autumn 1990) page 358-361

External links

* *
St Petersburg Tractor Plant
Subsidiary that builds tractors and agricultural machinery.

@ globalsecurity.org (plant's military production) {{coord, 59.878655, N, 30.258429, E, type:landmark, display=title Agricultural machinery manufacturers of Russia Tractor manufacturers of Russia Defence companies of the Soviet Union Agriculture companies of the Soviet Union Buildings and structures in Saint Petersburg 1905 Russian Revolution 1789 establishments in the Russian Empire Manufacturing companies based in Saint Petersburg Companies formerly listed on the Moscow Exchange Ministry of Heavy and Transport Machine-Building (Soviet Union)

History

See also

References

External links