The Volgograd Tractor Plant (, ''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 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

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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

manufacturing enterprises in the

USSR 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 ...

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

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...

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

mechanization Mechanization (or mechanisation) 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 every fields, mechan ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. VgTZ tractors operate in 32 countries throughout

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. Also used for the production of military vehicles, 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 (, ''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 (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

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, turf-cutting, 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 cer ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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 Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

. 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 A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

with Albert Kahn. The full value of the contract, including equipment, was

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

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 (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

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 borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, 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 A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...

. Tank production began in 1932 with the launch of the T-26 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 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 ...

, the plant was retooled to produce military equipment and weapons for the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, most notably the

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, ...

tank. The plant became world-famous during the

. When the German ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' 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 (JSC) 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). Shareho ...

, and entered a period of economic uncertainty with a decline in productivity. The company was floated on the public

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange a ...

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 de ...

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, 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 Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Rostec Rostec, formally trading as State Corporation "Rostec", fully the State Corporation for the Promotion of the Development, Manufacture, and Export of High Tech Products "Rostec" and formerly Rostekhnologii, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), ...

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

Awards

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(May 17, 1932) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labor The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(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 () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

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

Products

Military vehicles

* T-26 (1932–1940), light infantry tank *

(1940–1944), medium tank * STZ-5 (STZ-NATI 2TB) (1937–1942), tracked artillery tractor, nicknamed "Stalinets" *

PT-76 The PT-76 is a Soviet Union, Soviet amphibious vehicle, 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 exporte ...

(1951–1967), light amphibious tank *

BTR-50 The BTR-50 (BTR stands for ''Bronetransporter'' (), literally "armored transporter") is a Soviet Union, Soviet tracked Amphibious vehicle, amphibious armored personnel carrier (APC) based on the PT-76 light tank chassis. The BTR-50 was developed ...

(1954–1970), armored personnel carrier (based on PT-76 chassis) * BTR-D (from 1974), armored personnel carrier * BMD-1 (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 and armoured personnel carrier used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct fire, direct-fire suppo ...

(IFV) * BMD-2 (from 1985), tracked amphibious IFV * BMD-3 (1985–1997), tracked amphibious IFV * BMD-4 (2004–present), tracked amphibious IFV * 2S25 Sprut-SD (1984–2010 2018-),

self-propelled anti-tank gun Self-propelled may refer to * Human-powered transport, humans moving themselves (and their cargo) via their own muscle energy * Machines that power their own movement: ** Automobile (from ''auto-'' + ''mobile'', "self-moving") ** Locomotive (from ...

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-5) * 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 File:DT-175 001.jpg, DT-175

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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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 Tractor manufacturers of Russia Agricultural machinery manufacturers of Russia Industry in Russia Concern Tractor Plants Agriculture companies of the Soviet Union Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Defence companies of the Soviet Union Companies based in Volgograd Oblast