The Malyshev Factory (; abbreviated ), formerly the Kharkov Locomotive Factory (, ), is a state-owned manufacturer of heavy equipment in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It was named after the Soviet politician Vyacheslav Malyshev. The factory is part of the state concern, Ukroboronprom. It produces

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, farm machinery,

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

sugar refining Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

, and

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

equipment, but is best known for its production of Soviet tanks, including the BT tank series of fast tanks, the famous

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, ...

of the Second World War, the Cold War T-64 and

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72 and changing the engine to a gas turbi ...

, and their modern Ukrainian successor, the T-84. The factory is closely associated with the Morozov Design Bureau (KMDB), designer of military

armoured fighting vehicles An armoured fighting vehicle (British English) or armored fighting vehicle (American English) (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by vehicle armour, armour, generally combining operational mobility with Offensive (military), offensive a ...

and the Kharkiv Engine Design Bureau (KEDB) for engines. In 1958, it developed the Kharkovchanka, an off-road vehicle which reached the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

the following year. At its height during the Soviet era, the factory employed 60,000 of Kharkiv's 1.5 million inhabitants. , 5,000 people worked at the factory.Tank factory workers decry war that pits Ukrainian against Ukrainian
Al Jazeera America (27 February 2015)

Naming

The factory was renamed several times. First originally named in Russian,

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

sources variously refer to it as ''factory'', ''plant'', or ''works'', though now use the Ukrainian translation of the word ''zavod (works)''.

Timeline

* 1895—Establishment of the Kharkov Locomotive Factory ( / ) * 1923—Production line for tractors established * 1928—Renamed Kharkov '' Komintern'' Locomotive Factory (), and the tank design bureau is established * 1936—Renamed Factory No. 183 (''Zavod No. 183'') * 1941—Evacuated to

Nizhny Tagil Nizhny Tagil ( rus, Нижний Тагил, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj tɐˈgʲil) is a classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located east of the Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, boundary ...

in the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

and merged with the Uralvagonzavod Factory, to form the Ural Tank Factory No. 183 * 1945—Re-established at Kharkov Diesel Factory No. 75 * 1957—Renamed Malyshev Plant ()

History

The Kharkov Locomotive Factory (KhPZ) built about 20% of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

's railway engines. After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and the establishment of the Soviet government in Ukraine, the factory was put to work designing and building

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 (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

s and, after 1927,

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

s. The

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

's Bolshevik Factory and the Kharkov's KhPZ in 1929 became the first two Soviet tank factories to be modernized with German assistance under the Treaty of Rapallo, 1922.

Tank production

design bureau was established in the factory in 1928, one of several which would be responsible for some of the most successful tanks ever built, and eventually become the Morozov Design Bureau. The KhPZ designed and produced twenty-five T-24 tanks, then nearly eight thousand BT fast tanks. It also built a handful of multi-turreted T-35 tanks. Shortly before the German invasion of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

the KhPZ started series production of the

, the most-produced tank of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Series production began in June 1940 in Kharkov, and later in the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and Krasnoye Sormovo Shipbuilding Plant. In 1941, due to German advances, the factory and design shops were evacuated to the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

; the plant was merged with

Uralvagonzavod UralVagonZavod () is a Russian machine-building company located in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. It is one of the largest scientific and industrial complexes in Russia and the largest main battle tank manufacturer in the world. Etymology The name ''У� ...

into one enterprise called Ural Tank Plant No. 183. After Soviet victory over the Germans, it began production of the new T-44 tank in 1945, and the first prototypes of the T-54. After the war was over, the design bureau and factory gradually transferred all operations back to Kharkov. The "No. 183" designation was left in Nizhny Tagil, while in Kharkov the factory merged into Factory No. 75, a previously existing plant known for its T-34 diesel engines. T-54 production was started in the Urals and Kharkov in 1947–1948, and the move ended with the 1951 re-establishment of the Design Bureau, now called KB-60M, in Kharkov. In 1957, the Factory No. 75 was renamed Malyshev Plant, and next year it took up production of T-55, the most-produced tank ever. The bureau also designed OT-54 and TO-55 flame-thrower tanks, for production at the Omsk Transport Machine Construction Plant. In 1967, T-64 tank production began here, as well as in the Kirov Plant and in the Uralvagonzavod. The

tank, with a high performance

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

engine was produced beginning in 1983, followed in 1985 by a more conventional diesel model, T-80UD. Finished tanks were assembled in several plants, but Soviet industrial planning prevented any region from being able to establish independent arms production. Components and sub-assemblies were produced in different factories, the Malyshev

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or 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 ...

specializing in engines and transmissions.

In independent Ukraine

The Malyshev factory's million-square-metre facility produced 800 tanks in 1991, but underwent difficult times after the breakup of the Soviet Union, producing only 46 tanks until 1996, when a $650 M contract was signed to supply 320

UD tanks to

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Fulfilling the contract was difficult — the distributed nature of Soviet military industry forced reliance on Russian factories for parts, and Russian political interference forced the development of local capabilities, resulting in the T-84 tank design. Like many Ukrainian industries, Malyshev was not allowed to negotiate contracts directly with foreign governments, but had to rely on Ukrspetsexport, a government arms-trading company. Although Malyshev was denied exporter status in July 1999, it was given this status by decree of President Leonid Kuchma in November of that year, a move seen to be an election gift to

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in eastern Ukraine. Kharkiv borders Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the southeast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the southwest, Poltava Oblast to the w ...

. Malyshev joined as the leader of thirty-four companies to form an export consortium called Ukrainian Armored Vehicles. Malyshev has demonstrated main battle tanks to Turkey, Greece, and Malaysia, and has entered into a contract to supply engines for Chinese-made Al-Khalid tanks for Pakistan. In September 2000, a deal was signed to modernize Soviet-made tanks and armoured personnel carries for the United Arab Emirates. The Malyshev factory also manufactures parts for Bizon, a Polish producer of agricultural combines. In April 2009, the Malyshev Factory signed a contract to upgrade 29 T-64B �-64Бtanks to T-64BM "Bulat" �-64БМ "Булат"standard, for the Ukrainian Army for ₴200 million ($25.1 million). Ten upgraded tanks were delivered in 2010, and 19 planned to be delivered in 2011. The T-64B tanks being upgraded were originally produced at Kharkov in 1980. In 2012 the Malyshev Factory had a sizable tank scrapping operation. Since the outbreak of the war in Donbas the factory's main focus became supplying new and rehabilitated tanks to the Ukrainian Army. On 22 July 2014 the factory was used as a transfer point in returning the bodies from the

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile system, Bu ...

crash to their home countries. The factory was struck by Russian missiles in March 2022, December 2022, and February 2023.

Production

Locomotives

Locomotive production was performed from 1897 to 1969. Until the invasion of Soviet Union by Germany in 1941, the factory was producing

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s which were produced on several factories of the

and the

. After the war and rebuilding of the factory in 1947, it produced

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s until 1969. * 1897–1915 Russian locomotive class O (particularly О^д and О^в) * 1906–1916 Russian locomotive class Shch * 1912–1919 Russian locomotive class S (about 9 were produced in the

Ukrainian State The Ukrainian State (), sometimes also called the Second Cossack Hetmanate, Hetmanate (), was an Anti-communism, anti-Bolshevik government that existed on most of the modern territory of Ukraine (except for Western Ukraine) from 29 April to 14 ...

in 1918–19) * 1915–1917 Russian locomotive class E (possibly through 1935) * 1924–1951 Russian locomotive class S (enforced) * 1935–1941 Soviet locomotive class SO * 1939–1941 Tender with water heating for SO18 * 1947–1950 TE1 (along with the Kharkov Elektrotyazhmash and the Moscow Dynamo) * 1948–1955 TE2 (along with the Kharkov Elektrotyazhmash) * 1953–1973 TE3 (along with the Kharkov Elektrotyazhmash, the Luhanskteplovoz and the Kolomna Factory) * 1952–1952 TE4 (only one built as experimental, based on TE2) * 1948–1948 TE5 (only two built as experimental, based on TE1) * 1956-1964 TE7 (along with the Luhanskteplovoz, based on TE3) * 1958-1997

TE10 TE10 () is a diesel-electric locomotive from the Soviet Union. The name of this locomotive (ТЭ10) is from ''тепловоз с электрической передачей, тип 10'', which translates to "diesel-electric locomotive type 10 ...

(along with the Luhanskteplovoz) * 1961-1968 TEP10 (initially as TE11) * 1964-1968 2TE40 (along with the Kharkov Elektrotyazhmash, only five built as experimental)

Tracked vehicles

Specialized in tank building, the factory also was manufacturing artillery tractors, while initially as agricultural tractors. * 1924-1931 Communard (used in agriculture) * 1935-1940 Comintern * 1939-1941 Voroshylovets * 400-series * 1958-1958 Kharkovchanka, special purpose vehicle for

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

( 4th Soviet Antarctic Expedition)

Engines

Notable

s from Kharkov include the 1472 kW 2D100 (used in the TE3 locomotive) and the 2208 kW 10D100 (used in the

locomotive). Both were 10 cylinder opposed piston two-stroke diesel engines of the 1950s. Another engine in this series, the 12 cylinder 9D100 was less successful and was not widely used.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
T-64BV repaired at Malyshev Factory
{{Authority control 1895 establishments in the Russian Empire Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Defence companies of Ukraine Tanks of the Soviet Union Diesel engine manufacturers Defence companies of the Soviet Union Economy of Kharkiv Locomotive manufacturers of Ukraine Ukrainian brands Slobidskyi District Engine manufacturers of the Soviet Union Ukroboronprom 1895 establishments in Ukraine