A. A. Zhdanov Vladimir Tractor Plant

At the end of February 1943 the Soviet government adopted a decision on developing tractor building, which among other things provided for a new tractor plant in Vladimir. In July of the following year the first "Universal" U-2 tractors were assembled. By spring 1945 the first phase of the plant was completed and 500 tractors had been built. At a festive meeting on 24 April of that year it was decided to regard that day as the plant's founding date.

For the first 10 years the "Universal" U-2 was built from the documentation of the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. These machines with kerosene engines and iron wheels, rather primitive by today's standards, were valued at the time for their low price and simple maintenance and repair. From 1947 a version for cotton growing was added to the base model.

In 1955 production of a new model, the DT-24, began. Unlike its predecessor, it already had rubber tyres and a diesel engine. (Some sources give 1956–1958 as the DT-24's production years.)

In the first half of 1958 production of the T-28, a development of the DT-24, began. Compared with its predecessor, engine power was slightly increased. The T-28 was built until 1964 (according to other sources until 1970, when production was transferred to the Tashkent Tractor Plant).

In 1972 (according to other sources 1970) the plant began building the T-25, taken over from the Kharkiv Tractor Plant. From 1973 it was built in slightly modernised form as the T-25A. The T-25A remains in production practically unchanged to this day. The State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR Council of Ministers awarded the T-25A first prize and declared it the best machine of 1977.

From the early 1960s the plant became the leading maker of air-cooled diesel engines in the whole of the then Soviet Union. Besides the plant's own products, Vladimir engines were also fitted to tractors built at the Lipetsk and Tashkent plants and to self-propelled chassis built in Kharkiv. Every fifth tractor leaving the plants of the Soviet Union at the time had an engine built in Vladimir.

The most notable state awards to the plant are the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1966 and the Order of the October Revolution in 1976.

In October 1988 the 1,000,000th tractor and the 4,000,000th engine were completed. A year later the T-30A-80, with a driven front axle and based on T-25A assemblies, was developed. From 1996 production began of the VTZ-2000 series tractors (VTZ-2027, VTZ-2032, VTZ-2048 and others), occasionally seen on our fields too, which are to replace the venerable T-25A series completely.

For more information see the plant's website!