Kharkov Tractor Works

(KhTZ; full name, Sergo Or-dzhonikidze Kharkov Tractor Works), one of the largest tractor plants in the USSR.

Construction of the plant began in April 1930, and in October of the next year the plant put out its first SKhTZ-30/15 wheel-type tractors. In 1937 the plant shifted to the production of SKhTZ-NATI crawler vehicles. During the Great Patriotic War the plant’s equipment was evacuated, first to Stalingrad and then to Rubtsovsk, where it was used to found the M. I. Kalinin Altai Tractor Plant, which began producing as early as 1942. After Kharkov was liberated in 1943, work immediately began on rebuilding the completely destroyed plant. By the end of 1949 the plant was putting out the DT-54 diesel tractor, the main plowing tractor used in agriculture until 1962. From 1954 to 1972 the plant produced a wheel-type row-crop tractor with a tractive force of 0.6 tons-force, along with its modifications. In 1962 the T-74 plowing tractor went into production. The plant produced its millionth tractor in 1967. During the ninth five-year plan (1971–75) the T-150K model, a highly efficient and powerful tractor, was introduced. The production volume and labor productivity virtually doubled during these years.

The Kharkov Tractor Works was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1932 and 1967, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1948, and the Order of Georgii Dimitrov in 1975.