The Order of Lenin Stalingrad-Volgograd Tractor Plant is the flagship of the Soviet all-terrain vehicle construction. Enterprises of the tank industry
One of the oldest enterprises of the Order of Lenin, the Volgograd Tractor Plant has a long and interesting history. Life has prepared for him a great and difficult fate. Created in the first five-year plans of the turbulent twentieth century, even at the beginning of construction it was necessary for the country and therefore was built at an accelerated pace. The harsh time in which the formation and development of the plant took place became a school of survival for him. For Merit and Significant Contribution to the Machine Building of the country, the team and numerous employees of the plant were repeatedly awarded State Awards, including the Volgograd Tractor Plant itself - 2 Orders of Lenin. At various times, he was awarded orders four times for great services to the country.
By decision of the Supreme Council for the National Economy, the plant was built in 1926, in the difficult years of the formation of Soviet power, during the first five-year plans, filled with the enthusiasm of its builders. The construction site was chosen as a territory located not far from Stalingrad, and therefore it was originally called
Stalingradsky, which is reflected in the names of his products. The plant was named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky. In connection with the assignment of this name to the plant, a monument to F. Dzerzhinsky was erected at the factory entrance.
The Order of Lenin Stalingrad-Volgograd Tractor Plant is the flagship of the Soviet all-terrain vehicle construction. Albert Kahn
The plant was built as a particularly necessary facility. It was built with the participation of foreign construction companies. One of the US companies, Albert Kahn Incorporated, played a particularly important role in this.
The plant was built in record time, and it began to work in 1930, the country needed its products. The novel "Big Conveyor" was dedicated to this event by the writer Yakov Ilyin. The date of June 17, 1930, became historical and significant for the plant staff, on this day the 1st wheeled tractor STZ-1 was produced, with a capacity of 30 horsepower. The plant reached its design capacity for the production of STZ-1 when their daily output became equal to 144.
By July 1937, the first caterpillar tractor models leave the factory assembly line. Production of ASKhTZ-NATI (STZ-3) begins in July 1937. The power of the all-terrain vehicle was 52 hp. The release of unified tractors, which were military vehicles STZ-5-NATI, STZ-NATI 2TV, with a power of 52 to 56 horsepower, is associated with 1937.
The work of the plant was appreciated!
The World Industrial Exhibition in Paris in 1938 awarded the plant staff with the Grand Prix for the production of ASTZ-NATI. Inochkin IP, one of the major scientists-practitioners by 1939 for the first time in the Soviet Union became the creator of an automatic line. By June 1940, the plant could claim half of the fleet of civilian agricultural vehicles in the Soviet Union, which amounted to 232,700 tractors, 25,000 of which were tracked.
The inextricable connection between the plant and domestic tank building is obvious.
Already in 1932, at STZ, as a result of the creation of a design bureau headed by Werner N.D., engineers prepared documents, and then began mass production of T-26 machines that were not complex, but strong in combat conditions, significantly superior to modern foreign models of this type according to technical specifications.
During the Great Patriotic War, the enterprise began to produce military equipment: it produced and repaired T-34-76, their engines, as well as draft vehicles (STZ-5-NATI). The enterprise mastered the serial production of the T-34 combat vehicle in 1941. Military equipment was supplied by the plant to the front in the most difficult conditions, even when the supply of components by suppliers was stopped due to their forced evacuation. The production of component parts for equipment became the business of the plant, but the production of military equipment continued uninterruptedly.
Production continued even after the enemy broke through the borders of the city and the Nazi troops entered it (August 23, 1943). The plant stopped completely only when the fighting spread to its territory. This happened on September 13, 1940, at a time when desperate fighting spilled over into the factory area.
It was easy to take Stalingrad, striking from the north side, the enemy could not, having met fierce resistance from the factory militias, the factory had its own tank brigade, which was commanded by the process engineer of the factory N. L. Vychugov.
At the end of 1949, the plant began to produce civilian agricultural tractors DT-54 with a capacity of 54 horsepower.
The Order of Lenin Stalingrad-Volgograd Tractor Plant is the flagship of the Soviet all-terrain vehicle construction. Legendary tractor DT-54
The car appeared in 1963, gained wide popularity among consumers, gained prestige, which made it the base model for further modifications. This was the reason for the creation of new modifications based on the tractor, including: DT-75H; 3-DT -75;
Both modifications refer to arable caterpillar tractors designed to transport goods, that is, traction class, representing the lion's share of the plant's products.
From 1930 to 1994, which fell on the Soviet period, the Volgograd Tractor Plant was headed by talented leaders:
Valentin Alexandrovich Semenov;
Ivan Flegontovich Sinitsyn.
The most difficult years in the work of the Volga automobile plant, associated with the period of formation, the war years and the restoration of the economy, fell to their lot.
1994 becomes a period of new successes: for the first time, a new caterpillar tractor VT-100 was put into serial production, the power of which was equal to 120 horsepower. The model is constantly being improved. Based on it, several types of tractors were created.
V. A. Kabanov has been in charge of the plant since 1995. He has been elected head of the plant by the Board of Directors.
Since 2002, the plant consists of 4 independent companies (OJSC) that are part of its group of companies:
The Order of Lenin Stalingrad-Volgograd Tractor Plant is the flagship of the Soviet all-terrain vehicle construction. 2S25 "Sprut-SD"
The firm producing military equipment is absent among the factory companies. In connection with the bankruptcy of the plant, he became the property of VgTZ.
For a long history of work, the enterprise has mastered a large number of civilian agricultural and military equipment.
The Order of Lenin Stalingrad-Volgograd Tractor Plant is the flagship of the Soviet all-terrain vehicle construction. Agromash 315TG
The models of civilian agricultural machinery include the following self-propelled vehicles:
Agromash 315TG;
tractors STZ-1;
tractors STZ-3;
tractors agromash 90TG;
tractors DT-175;
tractors DT-54;
tractors DT-75;
machines of the VT series.
Models of equipment for military purposes produced since the existence of the plant:
Please read an interesting article (click on the title or picture)
June 17, 1930 - the first wheeled tractor STZ-1 (also called STZ-15/30) rolled off the assembly line of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. The prototype of the tractor was the American Mc Cormic International 15/30.
Less than two years later, on April 20, 1932, the plant reached its design capacity. 144 tractors left the assembly line per day. 
Tractor STZ-1
In 1937, the plant switched to the production of caterpillar tractors SHTZ-NATI (STZ-3). These were the first mass-produced tractors with domestically developed designs. In 1938, at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris, STZ-3 was awarded the highest award - the "Grand Prix".
By June 17, 1940, 232,700 tractors (more than half of the country's tractor fleet) rolled off the assembly line of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.
Incredible, by today's standards, the scale!
Caterpillar tractor SHTZ-NATI (STZ-3), GDR 1950
By the way, an interesting fact is that our tractors were also appreciated by the enemy.
For every workable trophy tractor, a Wehrmacht soldier could get a week's vacation and even an Iron Cross.
On January 1, 1942, the Stalingrad Tank Plant was a giant with 2,968 metal-cutting machines and 15,464 workers and employees.
In the winter of 1941/1942, it became the main manufacturer of T-34s in the USSR, while Factory No. 183 struggled with the consequences of the evacuation. In 1941, the plant produced 1256 tanks, and in 1942 - 2520. The director of the plant from September to November 1941 was A. A. Goreglyad, and from November 1941 until the death of the plant - K. A. Zadorozhny.
Organized evacuation of the plant failed. A significant part of the workers died in the battles for Stalingrad.
After the war, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant was completely restored.
In the post-perestroika years, the giant was privatized and renamed Volgograd Tractor Plant OJSC.
In December 2002, OJSC Volgograd Tractor Plant (VgTZ) was divided into 4 separate companies: OJSC Tractor Company VgTZ, OJSC Russian Machine Building Components, OJSC Territory of Industrial Development, OJSC Volgograd Tractor, which amounted to group of companies "Volgograd Tractor Plant". Also, the production of military equipment of the Volgograd Machine-Building Company VgTZ LLC, which is not part of the Volgograd Tractor Plant group of companies, was separated into a separate enterprise.
In 2005, by decision of the Arbitration Court of the Volgograd Region, the Volgograd Tractor Plant was declared bankrupt.
The successor of the plant is the Tractor Company "VgTZ".
Z.Y.
By the way, by the 85th anniversary, the threat of destruction again hung over the plant: what the Nazi invaders failed to do 70 years ago, today the Swedish company IKEA, which is going to build its next store on the site of the Volgograd Tractor Plant, can do.
Story? Holy place? No, haven't heard (s).
The main argument of the commercials is future commercial success and good cross-country ability.
The city administration is not opposed, but no one asks the residents of Volgograd. Vetrany already even write petitions.
IKEA in general, as it turns out, "loves" historical places.
If you analyze the places for building their supermarkets, you might get the impression that the corporation is diligently choosing sites for the construction of its stores, connected precisely with historical memory.
On the Internet there are references to scandals when, during the construction of the first store in Khimki, IKEA tried to move the famous anti-tank "Hedgehogs" - a monument to the defenders of Moscow. IKEA also intended to open a store near the Federal Memorial Cemetery-Pantheon in Mytishchi. We also recall the desire of IKEA to build a store on Poklonnaya Hill. It all looks like a pre-planned action. 
By the way, the founder of IKEA is
Another large enterprise, a tractor plant, is being liquidated in Volgograd. Production facilities will be moved to another city, and the area occupied by the plant's workshops today will be given over to housing development.
The fact that LLC "Volgograd Machine-Building Company" VgTZ "" is actually given to VEB Bank for debts, said General Director of the Tractor Plants concern Mikhail Bolotin. The price of this asset is estimated at four billion rubles. According to him, quoted by the federal press, the process of relocating VgTZ's production facilities will take about two years. Mr. Bolotin has no doubts about the success of the possible development of the vacated territory, emphasizing that the place for construction is very good. He also noted that the Tractor Plants concern is currently negotiating with a number of development companies.
The ex-vice-governor and former chairman of the board of directors of the Volgograd Tractor Plant Vladimir Kabanov called this news a blow in the gut for all Volgograd residents. He stated that he was inclined to lay responsibility for the death of the enterprise on the federal center, accusing Moscow of indifference to Volgograd.
“The transformation of VgTZ into a loss-making asset was largely due to the fact that the caterpillar arable tractors produced by the enterprise cannot compete with wheeled tractors, which, unlike caterpillar ones, can be used year-round, and the range of their application is not limited to plowing alone,” said Mr. Kabanov. - As for military production, we could well count on the fact that new developments in this area, such as the Sprut anti-tank self-propelled gun, the Shell armored personnel carrier, and so on, which began and were carried out here, will remain produced in Volgograd . However, now, as I understand it, military production is being transferred to Kurgan.
I think that the attitude of the federal center towards our city should be completely different. Until the 80s of the last century, loud words about the special role of Volgograd were reinforced by the availability of better transport and certain supplies. And all this was done by the government of the USSR. Today, life is a little different, but is it really possible to put an end to Stalingrad? See what's happening in the city. Look at our roads. Khimprom is closed, the northern district of the city is turning into a large market, there are no more serious industries left there. Dzerzhinsky district: a drilling equipment plant, the Akhtuba and Aurora plants - they are also turning into something incomprehensible. The closure of large production facilities is becoming a bad tradition for Volgograd.”
Former deputy of the Volgograd Regional Duma Oleg Bolotin in turn, I am convinced that the loss of another plant should be recorded as an “asset” by the regional authorities.
“With the economic policy pursued by the regional administration, the destruction of industrial enterprises is part of the system,” he said. - If we evaluate the merits of the regional authorities, then only Maksyuta made attempts, and quite successful ones, to preserve his native plant - a shipyard, however, in my opinion, his actions to protect the industry were limited to this. If we talk about his successors, then the policy of Brovko and especially Bozhenov did not in any way contribute to the preservation of industry. The same tractor plant was not included in any federal program.
The current governor, in my opinion, does not differ from his predecessors in this matter. Therefore, the fate of the tractor plant in many respects seems natural.
I would not blame the federal center, because the regions, despite the general policy of the Russian government, are developing differently. Somewhere the industry is preserved and developed, but somewhere, in regions like ours, it is being destroyed. "Khimprom", I believe, was plundered and finished off with the tacit consent of the governor. The policy of the Tractor Plants concern in relation to VgTZ, in my opinion, was carried out in the spirit of liberal owners: suck it up and throw it away, and then profitably use the liberated land. Be that as it may, on the conscience of the new envoy of the Kremlin, I believe, there are already two destroyed factories. Isn't it too brisk start?
The point of view about the insufficiency of the efforts of the regional authorities to save Volgograd enterprises is shared by Deputy Chairman of the Budget and Tax Committee of the Volgograd Regional Duma Vladimir Popov.
“If a serious industry leaves Volgograd, then “something is wrong in the Danish kingdom,” says Mr. Popov. - "Khimprom", gypsum, tractor, drilling equipment plant is next in line. One gets the impression that the regional authorities are not only unable to cope with the task of attracting investors, but are also unable to keep even those that were. Investors prefer to go where they are most comfortable, where they are offered the best conditions. That is, in this case, not to Volgograd, but from Volgograd. And it is worrying not only that a negative trend is emerging in terms of closing more and more new enterprises, but also the fundamental unwillingness of the authorities to discuss anything. The governor does not conduct receptions, as I understand it, he does not meet with deputies either. Meanwhile, the region continues to sink into the quagmire.”
From the history:
In 1926, the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR decided to build a tractor plant in Stalingrad, the first in the country. A place was chosen, 14 kilometers from the city center, and on July 12, 1926, the ceremony of laying the tractor plant took place. In memory of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, after his death in 1926, the inhabitants of Stalingrad petitioned the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to name the plant under construction after him. In 1932, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in front of the central entrance of the plant.
June 17, 1930 - the first wheeled tractor STZ-1 with a capacity of 30 hp rolled off the assembly line of the plant. April 20, 1932 mastered the design capacity of the plant. 144 tractors left the assembly line per day.
On July 11, 1937, the plant switched to the production of caterpillar tractors ASKhTZ-NATI (STZ-3) with a 52 hp kerosene engine.
At the end of 1937, the production of a transport tractor (artillery tractor) STZ-5-NATI (STZ-NATI 2TV) unified with the row-crop STZ-3 transport tractor (artillery tractor) with an engine power of 52-56 hp was mastered. In 1938, at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris, ASKhTZ-NATI was awarded the highest award - the "Grand Prix". By June 17, 1940 - 232,700 tractors (including 25,000 tracked ones) - more than half of the country's tractor fleet - left the assembly line of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.
In 1939 I.P. Inochkin developed the first automatic machine line in the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, the plant produced and repaired T-34-76 tanks, tank engines (including M-17 carburetor engines) and STZ-5-NATI artillery tractors, remaining one of the main suppliers of military equipment to the front, despite the gap cooperation with other evacuated enterprises of the industry. Because of this, STZ was forced to make all the components on its own. The release of products was carried out even in the period after the breakthrough of the Wehrmacht to Stalingrad on August 23, 1942, and an attempt to capture the city “on the go” with a strike along the river from the north was repulsed with the participation of a brigade of the workers’ militia of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant under the leadership of the brigade commander, engineer-technologist Nikolai Leontievich Vychugov. Production was finally stopped only on September 13, 1942, when the fighting was already taking place directly on the territory of the plant.
On November 25, 1949, without stopping production, a transition was made to the production of a DT-54 tractor equipped with a 54 hp diesel engine.
On December 30, 1963, after the reconstruction, the plant began production of DT-75 tractors. Possessing high consumer qualities and significant potential for modernization, the DT-75 securely reserved a place for itself in the future plans of the plant and became the basis for a whole family of tractors. In subsequent years, a lot of work was carried out on the technical improvement of the DT-75 tractor, and today caterpillar arable general-purpose tractors of traction class 3 - DT-75 / DT-75N are a significant production object in terms of volume.
The history of domestic tank building is inextricably linked with the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. The beginning of tank production at the STZ dates back to 1932, when a special design and experimental department (SpetsKEO) was created, headed by N. D. Werner. Under his leadership, together with other services of the plant, documentation was prepared and serial production of easy-to-manufacture and operate and fairly reliable T-26 tanks, significantly superior to foreign counterparts of that period, began.
In 1940, the plant received an order to organize the production of T-34 tanks and V-2 tank diesel engines. The plant began serial production of T-34 tanks at the beginning of 1941.
Before the T-34, the plant produced the KV-1, then the production of these tanks went on in parallel for some time, and only after the liberation of Stalingrad the plant produced only the T-34.
This is a KV-1 Found near Leningrad in the village. Carbusel. It has been restored and is in the Leningrad Defense Museum. Made at STZ in August 1941.
And from me
The plant is truly legendary. It was rumored that Kataev was writing his novel Time Forward! not only having visited Magnitogorsk, but also here, in the steppes of Stalingrad, when the construction of the Tractor Plant was unfolding. Maybe a bike, but it was the first large plant here, already built by the Soviet government. Barricades and "Red October" are still Tsaritsyn factories. The plant was one of the city-forming enterprises.
There were many young people at the plant and the first football team was created here, which won the city championship and began to represent the whole city. It was called uncomplicated "Tractor", but she had such pressure. After the war, the team was restored, and she was the first to bring the city to the big leagues. Thanks to her, the Central Stadium was built, which was called "Small Luzhniki". Later, Traktorny began to lose weight, I don’t know all the reasons, but at the competing Barricades, the defense industry went uphill and the city football team was given to the balance of another plant and it became known as Rotor, which successfully fell out of the major leagues.
Nevertheless, the Traktorny and Traktorozavodsky districts themselves played an important role in the city. I myself really grew up on the border of the Traktorozavodsky and Krasnooktyabrsky districts, where the Barrikada plant was and is included, so I know both districts very well and Traktorny perhaps better.
Having published this information, I read that not the entire plant is subject to closure and demolition, but some part, the old one, built back in the 30s of the last century. I don’t know if this is true, but when I drive past the Tractor Plant, I see that the new workshops that were built before the collapse of the USSR are falling apart and turning into ruins. Those. having rebuilt their plant, it did not begin to expand and the buildings fell into disrepair. In any case, the plant, which survived the difficulties of the first years of Soviet power, the Great Patriotic War, did not survive the modern capitalist time. If anything remains, then, like many factories in our city, only a third or a quarter, like a small LLC, or CJSC, and they will no longer play a big role. There is nothing to worry about people. Global cuts have long passed, and the scientific building, built next to the gates and the plant management, has long been leased for offices. I think that many workshops have also been empty for a long time, and the equipment has been dismantled. Although last year there was information about the receipt by the Tractor Plant of new orders from the Defense Department, however, the current information is newer.
A huge market has grown up on the site of the Traktor stadium a long time ago, which is being built and rebuilt, now there is information that a huge Ikea supermarket will also be built on the site of the demolished workshops. By the way, there is already one, on the site of just the scientific and testing site, closed and demolished 10 years ago, the Diamant supermarket. By the way, the stop was more often called not pl. them. Dzherzhinsky, and Magazin Diamant. This is how we sell little by little: first the idea, then the plant, and then? Country?
Then we are surprised at what is happening in Ukraine ....
“We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We have to run this distance in 10 years. Either we do it, or they will crush us, ”Joseph Stalin made such a statement in February 1931 at a meeting of business executives. To begin with, here is a short excerpt from an article by the famous historian and economist Oleg Osetinsky, describing briefly the history of Soviet industrialization: “In just 10 years (1930-1940), the Yankees created chemical, aviation, electrical, oil, mining, coal, metallurgical and other industries in the USSR , Europe's largest factories for the production of cars, tractors, aircraft engines and other products. They were built both in the USSR and in the USA. For example, the famous Stalingrad Tractor Plant was entirely built in the USA, dismantled, transported on 100 ships - and assembled in the USSR. Dneproges was built by the American company Cooper Engineering Company (and the German company Siemens). Gorky Automobile Plant was built by the American company Austin. The current AZLK was built according to the Ford project. The famous Magnitogorsk is an exact copy of the metallurgical plant in Gary, Indiana. Albert Kahn Inc designed and built 500 Soviet enterprises! It was she who created the school of advanced industrial architecture in the USSR. In short, in 10 years the Americans built about 1,500 plants and factories in the USSR! Approximately 200,000 American engineers and technicians arrived in the USSR, who led the almost one million army of Gulag prisoners - plus the few pre-revolutionary cadres remaining in Russia. During these 10 years, American professors have trained 300,000 qualified specialists at the workers' faculties - that is, all the cadres for Soviet industry for many years to come! Thus, the material base of socialism was built by the US capitalists plus the cheap labor of convicts. And - do not forget that the capitalists built the USSR with their own money - on credit! After a severe civil war that destroyed the economy of the state, the 20s of the last century were a period of complete technological savagery in the USSR. The new communist professors were extremely ignorant. The country was starving, there were no tractors, cranes, rails, pipes, and much more. A social explosion seemed inevitable, panic reigned in the leadership. As a result, Soviet industrialization can be divided into two periods. In the 1920s, the "red colossus" exploited Germany's post-war weakness. And in the 1930s - the Great Depression in the US and Britain. Germany after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 found itself in a difficult position. Germany was forbidden to have a large army and develop a military industry. The Germans went around. They began to conduct secret negotiations with the Soviet Union, and then build industrial facilities in our country. This was done by the so-called "Sondergruppa R". “The Germans are for us the only outlet through which we can study achievements in military affairs abroad,” Ieronim Uborevich, chief of armaments of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), wrote to Stalin at that time. The Germans built factories in the USSR and placed their orders on them. Some of the planes and guns were left in Russia, and some were taken away. The next stage of industrialization can be called American In 1929, when the Great Depression in the United States became a reality, the eminent architect Albert Kahn was left without work. He was famous for building the Ford plant in Detroit. And in the 1930s he drew up a plan for industrial modernization in Russia. For several years, more than 500 factories were built in the USSR at an accelerated pace. According to some estimates, this cost the Union $2 billion (almost $250 billion at the current exchange rate). The hired American engineers did not particularly bother. They transferred ready-made plant designs from the USA and brought their own equipment. For example, the Moscow AZLK plant was modeled after Ford's assembly plants. Naturally, no one advertised the fact that foreigners are building plants and factories for us. The branch of the Albert Kahn company in Moscow bore the Soviet name - Gosproektstroy. It employed 25 American and 2.5 thousand Soviet engineers who studied the Western science of designing and building large industrial facilities. The branch of the German company Demag in Moscow was also encrypted and was called the Central Bureau of Heavy Engineering. However, in general, a critical look at the events of industrialization shows that, in fact, there was no economic miracle. Even more, it turns out that Russia did not take advantage of the main resource of the economic "miracles" of the 20th century - the flow of labor resources from agriculture to industry. Unlike Japan and South Korea, which took advantage of it. And to a large extent, we are grateful to Stalin's propaganda, which hid from the people hundreds of thousands of people who died at the construction sites of slave labor. The Stalinist economy was inefficient, and the criteria for efficiency were different, modern economists say. From time to time, the Bolsheviks took out either the metro or the Dneproges from their sleeve and trumpeted it to the whole world, ignoring the destruction of private enterprise, the decline in living standards and hunger. Considering the huge credit investments in the USSR from abroad, the total sales of all kinds of resources from the bins of the motherland, which led to hunger and impoverishment of the population, http://fakeoff.org/history/mif-ob-industrializatsiihttp://fakeoff.org/history/mif-ob-industrializatsiimodern Historians studying the period of industrialization note that the economy was not so wonderful. Production indicators were estimated, which did not take into account the decrease in the same consumption indicators in the state. The economic growth during Stalin's industrialization is just a return to a long-term trend of smooth economic growth that existed both before and after Stalin, after the failure caused by collectivization. Thoughts about this come from reading Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia’s National Income, 1913 to 1928. Its authors Andrei Markevich (NES) and Mark Harrison (University of Warwick) received the National Prize in Applied Economics for which they received the National Prize in Applied Economics. ". By 1940, the USSR ranked second in the world in terms of industrial output, second only to the United States. With the help of foreign engineers, more than 2 million Soviet specialists were trained and mastered new technologies. At the same time, the population of the state decreased by 10 million, according to the most minimal estimates, from premature deaths. Viktor Shevchuk.
STALINGRAD, STALINGRAD
Specialists from Detroit were recruited to launch the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, built according to the design of the American company Albert Kahn Incorporated and equipped with American equipment. There, on Congress Street, a representative office of Traktorostroy was opened to recruit those wishing to go to Stalingrad. At the final stage, all the work on ordering equipment and hiring people was coordinated by the first director of the STZ, V.I. Ivanov, who visited one of the largest industrialists in the USA, Henry Ford, and obtained consent to recruit three hundred of his employees.
In the spring of 1930, groups of Americans began to arrive at the STZ, some with their families. They settled in the new houses of the Lower village of the plant. The rooms were furnished. There were a restaurant for foreigners, an Innsab store, a medical center. The Americans, as guests, were given maximum attention at work and at home: a somewhat lighter work schedule, lectures, concerts, movies, dancing to jazz. Produced for the newspaper "Give Tractor!" application in English "Spark of Industry". The Americans themselves were the slave correspondents.
This is how the most populous, 370 people, largest American colony in the USSR settled in our country. To resolve the numerous issues that inevitably arise in a foreign country for them, and to communicate with the administration of the plant, a chairman and a secretary were chosen by secret ballot, who led the entire life of the colony. About seventy twenty-year-old girls were engaged in translations. Most of them did not have sufficient knowledge in the field of engineering, production technology and sufficient skills in speaking, so at first there were many ridiculous mistakes in the work of translators. There was a case when, due to an incorrect translation in the foundry, an irreparable marriage turned out. The translators had to urgently master the technical terminology. It soon turned out that even in such a purely everyday matter as eating, one cannot do without translators. Three or more times a day the Americans gathered at their restaurant. Constant misunderstandings and even clashes with the service staff, who did not understand foreigners at all, and they, in turn, did not understand the staff, once led to an unpleasant incident: one of the Americans threw a bowl of hot soup right in the face of our waiter. After this incident, the translators were asked to eat with foreigners, translate and keep order in the restaurant.
Americans can be conditionally divided into three categories of people:
1. Highly qualified specialists belonged to the largest in number. They themselves worked conscientiously and honestly passed on their experience and knowledge to the Soviet workers. For excellent work, the Americans Swajan and Khonei were awarded the Orders of Lenin. Good specialists from among foreigners were appointed heads of workshops, foremen. From among the shock workers in January 1931, three Americans were elected as candidates for deputies and deputies to the city Council, and seven to the district council. One candidate was challenged because he had hired workers on his farm, i.e. was, according to those concepts, an exploiter. Americans also joined the Communist Party, including Americans of Russian origin.
2. The second, much smaller category included Americans who conscientiously performed their duties under the contract. They believed that they were obliged to work honestly for a salary received in dollars. But they did not engage in what was called social work in the USSR, they did not speak out on production and socio-political issues.
3. The smallest category included those Americans with whom, for absenteeism and drinking, their contracts had to be terminated ahead of schedule and who, with poor performance, were sent back to the USA. Two Americans were sentenced to deportation from the USSR for a racial trick in relation to a specialist - a Negro by nationality.
Just as the foreign colony was not homogeneous on a national basis (there were immigrants from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and even from the island of Jamaica), so it was not homogeneous in terms of beliefs among the colonists. Already in May-June 1930, the American Committee was created. It included anti-Soviet-minded Americans. They were not going to help start up the plant and spread rumors among the Russian workers that the venture with the plant would definitely fail. Members of the American Committee went on strike if, for example, the Innsab store did not have any food or cigarettes. Opposite in its direction was the organization CultTechHelp of the USSR. Its members deliberately helped the Soviet people in mastering the latest equipment and urged other Americans to help start the STZ conveyor faster. On June 17, the day the plant was launched, it was these Americans that the administration awarded with certificates of honor and valuable gifts. The American Committee hated the members of the KTP of the USSR and often got into fights with them. but in such a way that the Soviet people do not see this enmity.
The year of work of the Americans at the STZ passed quickly. They had to go home. The management of the plant decided to extend contracts with a small group of specialists for another year. Shops submitted applications, selecting the best and necessary specialists. Negotiations with the Americans have begun. On this occasion, a great excitement began in the American colony, which was replaced by anxious expectation. Nobody wanted to go home - there is unemployment. Therefore, they agreed to work not for foreign currency, but for rubles. One by one, they called the Americans, declared by the shops, to the director of the plant. They entered the office with ill-concealed excitement. Leaving the director's office, these lucky ones, as their fellow countrymen called them, regained their important appearance. Everything went well for them, another year of work was provided. For the rest of the foreigners, the Foreign Department of the plant hastily prepared a calculation. visas, characteristics.
The day of departure has come. The American restaurant was filled with people. The presidium includes representatives of the directorate, party and trade union organizations, the best American workers. Everyone wanted to say goodbye at least a few words. The Americans thanked the Russians, the Russians in return expressed their gratitude to the Americans. Some specialists were sent by their firms to the construction of the Kharkov and Chelyabinsk tractor plants. Those who left for the USA wrote letters to the plant with a request to be allowed to come to the STZ again. Several Americans, having taken Soviet citizenship, remained forever in our country.