Crawler tractors of the USSR. History of tractors in the USSR

In the USSR, the tractor construction was paid close attention. Agriculture needed speedy mechanization, and there were no own factories in the country. Aware of the need to increase labor productivity in the countryside, Lenin signed the corresponding decree "On a Single Tractor Farm" in 1920. Already in 1922, small-scale production of domestic models "Kolomenets" and "Zaporozhets" began. The first tractors of the USSR were technically imperfect and low-power, but after two five-year plans in the construction of profile enterprises, a breakthrough came.

"Russian" first-born

Russia has always been famous for its inventors, but far from all the ideas were realized in practice. In the 18th century, the agronomist IM Komov raised the topic of mechanization of agriculture. In the middle of the XIX century VP Guriev, and then DA Zagryazhsky developed steam tractors for plowing. In 1888, FA Blinov made and tested the first steam tractor on a caterpillar track. However, the device turned out to be unnecessarily cumbersome. However, officially the year of the birth of the Russian tractor construction is considered to be the 1896th, when the world's first steam caterpillar tractor was publicly shown at the Nizhny Novgorod fair.

At the threshold of the twentieth century, the designer Ya. V. Mamin (Blinov's student) invented a compression-free high-compression engine operating on heavy fuel. He like no other suitable for use in wheeled vehicles. In 1911, he also assembled the first domestic tractor with an 18-kilowatt internal combustion engine, which received the patriotic name "Russian". After the upgrade, a more powerful engine appeared on it - 33 kW. Their small-scale production was established at the Balakovo plant - until 1914, about one hundred units were produced.

In addition to Balakovo, piece tractors were produced in Bryansk, Kolomna, Rostov, Kharkov, Barvenkov, Kichkasse and a number of other settlements. But the total production of all tractors in domestic enterprises was so small that it practically did not affect the situation in agriculture. In 1913, the total amount of this technique is estimated at 165 copies. But foreign agricultural equipment was actively purchased: by 1917, 1,500 tractors had been imported into the Russian Empire.

History of tractors in the USSR

At the initiative of Lenin, the development and production of mechanized agricultural machinery was given special attention. The principle of a single tractor farm meant not only the production of "iron horses", as the tractors were called, but also a set of measures for the organization of research and testing facilities, the organization of spare parts supply and repair, the opening of courses for masters, instructors and tractor drivers.

The first tractor in the USSR was produced by the Kolomna plant in 1922. The head of the project was the founder of the national school of tractor construction, ED Lvov. The wheeled car was named "Kolomenets-1" and symbolized the beginning of a new era in the countryside. Lenin, despite the serious illness, personally congratulated the designers with success.

In the same year in Kichkasse the enterprise "Red Progress" was produced by the tractor "Zaporozhets". The model was imperfect. The leader was only one rear wheel. A low-power two-stroke engine at 8.8 kW accelerated the "iron horse" to 3.4 km / h. The transfer was only one, front. The power on the hook is 4.4 kW. But this vehicle greatly facilitated the work of the villagers.

The legendary inventor Mamin was not sitting around. He perfected his pre-revolutionary design. In 1924 the USSR tractors were replenished with models of the family "Dwarf":

• Three-wheeled "Dwarf-1" with one transmission and a speed of 3-4 km / h.
• Four-wheeled "Dwarf-2" with a reverse.

Taking the foreign experience

While the USSR tractors "increased muscle", and Soviet designers mastered a new direction for themselves, the government decided to establish a license for licensing foreign technology. In 1923 a caterpillar Kommunar, which was the heir of the German model Ganomag Z-50, was launched at the Kharkov plant. Basically, they were used in the army to transport artillery guns until 1945 (and later).

In 1924, the Leningrad plant Krasny Putilovets (future Kirovsky) mastered the production of a cheap and constructively simple "American" by Fordzon. Old Soviet tractors of this brand have proved themselves quite well. They were superior to the characteristics of both Zaporozhets and Kolomenets. The carbureted kerosene engine (14.7 kW) developed speed up to 10.8 km / h, the power on the hook was 6.6 kW. The transmission is three-speed. The model was produced before 1932. In fact, this was the first large-scale production of this technique.

Construction of tractor plants

It became obvious that to provide collective farms with productive tractors it is necessary to build specialized plants that unite science, design bureaus and production facilities. The initiator of the project was F. E. Dzerzhinsky. According to the concept, new enterprises were planned to equip with modern equipment and to produce massively cheap and reliable models on wheeled and caterpillar traction.

The first large-scale production of tractors in the USSR was established in Stalingrad. In the future, the capacities of the Kharkov and Leningrad plants were significantly expanded. Large enterprises appeared in Chelyabinsk, Minsk, Barnaul and other cities of the USSR.

Stalingrad Tractor Plant

Stalingrad became a city where the first large tractor plant was built from scratch. Thanks to the strategic position (at the intersection of supplies of Baku oil, Ural metal and Donbass coal) and the availability of an army of skilled labor, he won the competition from Kharkov, Rostov, Zaporozhye, Voronezh, Taganrog. In 1925, a decision was made to build a modern enterprise, and in 1930 the legendary wheeled tractors of the USSR of the STZ-1 brand descended from the conveyor. In the future, there was a wide range of wheeled and caterpillar models.

To the Soviet period are:

• STZ-1 (wheeled, 1930).
• SCTZ 15/30 (wheeled, 1930).
• STZ-3 (caterpillar, 1937).
• SCHTZ-NATI (caterpillar, 1937).
• DT-54 (tracked, 1949).
• DT-75 (tracked, 1963).
• DT-175 (tracked, 1986).

In 2005 Volgograd Tractor (formerly STZ) was declared bankrupt. His successor was VGTZ.

DT-54

Crawler tractors of the USSR in the middle of the XX century became very popular, they outnumbered the wheel models. A magnificent example of general agricultural machinery is the DT-54 tractor, produced in 1949-1979. They produced it at Stalingrad, Kharkov and Altai plants with a total of 957,900 units. He "acted" in many films ("Ivan Brovkin on virgin land", "The case was in Penkov", "Red Kalina" and others), installed as a monument in dozens of localities.

The engine of mark D-54 in-line, four-cylinder, four-stroke, liquid cooling, on a frame it is established rigidly. The engine speed is 1300 rpm (54 hp). The five-speed three-way transmission with the main clutch is connected by a cardan gear. Working speed: 3,59-7,9 km / hour, driving force: 1000-2850 kg.

Kharkov Tractor Plant

Construction KhTW them. Sergo Ordzhonikidze began in 1930, 15 kilometers east of Kharkov. In total, the construction of the giant took 15 months. The first tractor left the conveyor on October 1, 1931 - it was a borrowed model of the Stalingrad plant SKTZ 15/30. But the main task was the creation of a domestic tractor of the "Caterpillar" type with a capacity of 50 horsepower. Here, the design team of PI Andrusenko developed a promising diesel unit, which could be put on all caterpillar tractors of the USSR. In 1937, the plant launched a modernized crawler model on the basis of the SCHPP-NATI. The main innovation was a more economical and thus more productive diesel engine.

With the beginning of the war, the company was evacuated to Barnaul, where the Altai Tractor Plant was established on its base. After the liberation of Kharkov in 1944, production was resumed on the previous site - the legendary USSR tractors of the SCHTZ-NATI model went back to the series. The basic models of the Soviet-era CWT are:

• SCTZ 15/30 (wheeled, 1930).
• SZZT-NATI ITA (caterpillar, 1937).
• HTZ-7 (wheeled, 1949).
• HTZ-DT-54 (caterpillar, 1949).
• DT-14 (caterpillar, 1955).
• T-75 (tracked, 1960).
• T-74 (tracked, 1962).
• T-125 (tracked, 1962).

In the 1970s a radical reconstruction was carried out at Khartsyzsk Tractor Works, production did not stop there. The emphasis was on the production of "three-ton" T-150K (wheeled) and T-150 (caterpillar). The energy-saturated T-150K tested in the USA (1979) showed the best performance among the world's analogues, proving that the tractors of the times of the USSR were not inferior to foreign ones. At the end of the 80s, the models XTZ-180 and KhTZ-200 were developed: they are 20% more economical than the 150 series, and 50% more efficient.

T-150

Tractors of the USSR were famous for their reliability. That's the universal high-speed tractor T-150 (T-150K) earned a good reputation. It has a wide range of applications: transport, road construction, agriculture. It is still used for transportation of cargoes on difficult impassability, in work on fields (plowing, peeling, cultivation, etc.), on excavation. It is capable of transporting trailers with a carrying capacity of 10-20 tons. For the T-150 (K), a turbocharged 6-cylinder diesel engine with a V-shaped liquid-cooled configuration has been specially developed.

Specifications T-150K:

• Width / length / height, m. - 2,4 / 5,6 / 3,2.
• Track width, m. - 1,7 / 1,8.
• Weight, t. - 7,5 / 8,1.
• Power, hp - 150.
• The maximum speed, km / hour - 31.

Minsk Tractor Plant

The MTZ was founded on May 29, 1946 and is considered, perhaps, the most successful enterprise at the moment, which has kept capacities since the times of the USSR. At the end of 2013, over 21,000 people worked here. The plant holds 8-10% of the world market of tractors and is strategic for Belarus. It produces a wide range of vehicles under the brand name "Belarus". By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost 3 million pieces of equipment had been produced.

• KD-35 (caterpillar, 1950).
• KT-12 (caterpillar, 1951).
• MTZ-1, MTZ-2 (wheeled, 1954).
• TDT-40 (caterpillar, 1956).
• MTZ-5 (wheeled, 1956).
• MTZ-7 (wheeled, 1957).

In 1960, a large-scale reconstruction of the Minsk plant began. In parallel with the installation of new equipment, designers worked on the introduction of promising models of tractors: MTZ-50 and a more powerful MTZ-52 with four-wheel drive. In the series they went, respectively, in 1961 and 1964. Since 1967, the caterpillar modification T-54B has been produced in different designs. If we talk about the unusual tractors of the USSR, then those can be considered modifications of the cotton MTZ-50X with twin front wheels and high ground clearance, which have been produced since 1969, as well as the steep MTZ-82K.

The next stage was the MTZ-80 line (since 1974) - the most mass-produced in the world, and special modifications of MTZ-82R, MTZ-82N. Since the mid-80s, MTZ has mastered over a hundred horsepower: MTZ-102 (100 hp), MTZ-142 (150 hp), and low-power mini tractors: 5, 6, 8, 12, 22 L. from.

KD-35

Crawler tractor tractor is compact in size, easy to operate and repair. Widely used in agriculture in the USSR and in the Warsaw Treaty countries. Purpose - work with a plow and other attachments. Since 1950, the KDP-35 modification was produced, differing in the smaller track width, wider track and increased ground clearance.

Sufficiently powerful engine D-35, respectively, gave 37 liters. With., The gearbox had 5 steps (one back, five forward). The engine was economical: the average consumption of diesel fuel per 1 hectare was 13 liters. A tank of fuel was enough for 10 hours of work - this was enough to plow 6 hectares of land. Since 1959 the model was equipped with a modernized power unit D-40 (45 hp) and an increased speed (1600 rpm). Also increased the reliability of the running gear.

Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant before the war

Talking about the tractors of the USSR, it is impossible to bypass the history of the Chelyabinsk plant, which made a significant contribution to the release of peaceful technology, and during the Second World War became the smithy of tanks and "self-propelled guns." The famous ChTZ was built in an open field far from the main roads with the help of picks, crowbars and shovels. The decision to build was made in May 1929 at the 14th Congress of Soviets of the USSR. In June 1929 the Leningrad GIPROMEZ started work on the plant's project. The design of ChTZ was carried out taking into account the experience of American auto and tractor enterprises, mainly Caterpillar.

From February to November 1930, an experimental plant was built and commissioned. This happened on November 7, 1930. The date of foundation of ChTZ is August 10, 1930, when the first foundations of the foundry were laid. On June 1, 1933, the first caterpillar tractor of the workers of Chelyabinsk - "Stalinets-60" left for the line of readiness. In 1936, more than 61,000 tractors were produced. Now it is a retro-tractor of the USSR, and in the 30s the C-60 model surpassed the analogues of the Stalingrad and Kharkov plants by almost half.

In 1937, having mastered the production of C-60 diesel engines, the plant switched to the production of more economical C-65 tractors. A year later, this tractor was awarded the highest award "Grand Prix" at the exhibition in Paris, and was also used for the filming of the cult Soviet film "Tractor". In 1940, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant was ordered to switch to the production of military products - tanks, self-propelled units, engines, spare parts.

Postwar History

Despite the difficulties of wartime, the tractor manufacturers did not forget about their favorite business. There was an idea: why not use the experience of Americans? After all, in the US during the war the production of tractors did not stop. The analysis showed that the best of the models of American tractors is the D-7. In 1944, the development of documentation and design began.

After 2 years, simultaneously with the reconstruction of the plant, on January 5, 1946 the first S-80 tractor was produced. By 1948, the restructuring of the enterprise was completed, 20-25 units of caterpillar machinery were produced per day. In 1955, the design bureaus began work on the creation of a new, more powerful tractor C-100 and continued work to increase the durability of the tractor C-80.

Models:

• C-60 (tracked, 1933).
• C-65 (tracked, 1937).
• C-80 (tracked, 1946).
• C-100 (tracked, 1956).
• DET-250 (tracked, 1957).
• T-100M (tracked, 1963).
• T-130 (tracked, 1969).
• T-800 (caterpillar, 1983).
• T-170 (caterpillar, 1988).
• DET-250M2 (caterpillar, 1989);
• T-10 (caterpillar, 1990).

DET-250

In the late 50's the task was set: to design and produce for testing the prototype of a tractor with a capacity of 250 horsepower. From the first steps the authors of the new model abandoned traditional and well-known ways. For the first time in the practice of the Soviet tractor-building they created a hermetic and comfortable air-conditioned cabin. Heavy driver could drive with one hand. As a result, the excellent tractor DET-250 turned out. The Committee of the Council of the All-Union Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR awarded the plant for this model with the Gold Medal and the Diploma of the 1st degree.

Other manufacturers

Of course, not all tractor factories are listed. Tractors of the USSR and Russia were also produced and produced in the Altai (Barnaul), Kirov (Petersburg), Onega (Petrozavodsk), Uzbek (Tashkent) TZ, in Bryansk, Vladimir, Kolomna, Lipetsk, Moscow, Cheboksary, Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), Tokmak ( Ukraine), Pavlodar (Kazakhstan) and other cities.