Kharkov Locomotive Plant in the Late 19th – the 20s of the 20th Century and Tractor Industry Development

This article is devoted to the study of the history of Kharkov Locomotive Plant (KLP) from the moment of its establishment till the start of implementing tractor industry. The author highlights the special role of KLP in the formation of tractor building as a separate industry in USSR. The article includes some organizational, technical, economic and general political analysis of tractor industry, as well as some statistical indicators of the plant’s activity at the beginning of the 20th century. The article is based on archival documents that reveal the activity of KLP and Southern Machine-Building Trust in that period. The plant was seriously damaged during the First World War and the Civil War, and during these periods of foreign intervention, the revival of KLP activity was extremely difficult and slow due to many reasons. Only with the introduction of NEP there was a real possibility to restart the production activity. Thus, in 1925 and 1926 operational years KLP came to its prewar levels. The revival of the plant contributed to the creation of new industries including tractor construction. The author concluded that the selection of KLP as one of the first companies that manufacture tractors in Ukraine was justified and quite successful. The subsequent retooling of KLP production with the imported equipment and instruments in the period of 1927–1930 created new possibilities. This allowed releasing “Communar” as the first Soviet crawler tractor