Kirovwerk

OAO Kirovsky Zavod
legal form	Corporation
founding	1789
Seat	Saint Petersburg , Russia
management	Georgi Petrovich Semenenko
Branch	Mechanical engineering, military technology
Website	www.kzgroup.ru

Aerial view of the Kirov plant

The Kirovwerk (also Kirowfabrik or Leningrader Kirowwerk , Russian ОАО Кировский Завод , transcription: OAO Kirowski Sawod (LKZ)) is a Russian engineering company based in Saint Petersburg . It was founded in 1789 as a foundry for cannon balls and has been at its current location since 1801.

history

Putilovsky Zavod

In 1868 Nikolai Putilow bought the plant and renamed it Putilowski Sawod (Putilowwerk). Rail vehicles were initially manufactured there . The factories experienced their first boom in the 1890s with increasing industrialization in Russia ; orders quadrupled in a decade, reaching 12,400 in 1900. The factory primarily manufactured goods for the state and railroad , which accounted for more than half of its production. Guns were also built there from 1900 , making the Putilov factory one of the most important suppliers to the army alongside the state arsenals and the Obuchov factory . In the course of the armaments expansion of Tsarist Russia, the owners built a shipbuilding site on the Neva in 1910 with the financial and technical participation of the German shipyard Blohm & Voss - the Putilow shipyard in order to participate in the lucrative naval business. In 1912 the shipyard received orders for eight boats of the strong Leitenant-Iljin class of the Navy , three of which were completed by 1917 and another two by 1928 - interrupted by the turmoil of the revolution, civil war and wartime communism . As a result of World War I , the factory grew into a huge company by 1917, by far the largest in Saint Petersburg.

Political activism

In February 1917, factory strikes set off a series of events that ultimately led to the February Revolution .

Zavod Krasny Putilovets

After the October Revolution , the plant was renamed Zavod Krasny Putilovets (Red Putilov Plant) and became known for manufacturing the first Soviet tractors. The Fordson-Putilowez was based on the American Fordson Model F. Between 1933 and 1934 the company manufactured automobiles . The brand name was L 1 . The sedan could seat six people and was similar to a Buick model . An eight-cylinder engine with a capacity of 5750 cm³ and an output of 105  hp propelled the vehicle. The wheelbase was 338 cm.

Kirovwerk

In honor of the murdered Leningrad party leader Sergei Mironowitsch Kirov , the factory was renamed Kirovwerk No. 100 in 1934, with the serial number indicating that it was an armaments factory at the same time. From 1938 the "Special Design Office No. 2" ( OKB 2 ) of the Kirowwerk began with the projection of the tanks of the KW series . This was then mass-produced there and also in the Chelyabinsk tractor plant . During the Second World War as was tank type T-34 built. In 1959, head of state and party leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the USA . There he was impressed by the large John Deere tractors . As a result, the Kirov Works was given the order to develop similar large tractors for Soviet agriculture. In 1962 the first large tractor was presented under the Kirowez brand . In the Soviet Union and within Comecon , the K-700 tractors were widely represented in large-scale agriculture. In 1989 the 400,000th Kirovets tractor was produced. The Dartz Kombat T-98 Luxury Armored Vehicle , a vehicle similar to the Hummer , has been built in this factory since around 2004 .

The Kirov factory is sometimes confused with another armaments factory in St. Petersburg - Factory No. 185 (S. M. Kirow) (OKMO), the former Obuchow factory  - which was also named after Kirov.

Parts of the company

The following list is not complete and only represents the most important parts of the company.

• Metallurgitscheski Zavod "Petrostal", steel mill and metallurgy
• Russkije Kuznetschnyje Sawody, forging and pressing works in Chelyabinsk
• Peterburgski Traktorny Sawod , tractor and construction machinery plant in St. Petersburg
• Zavod Kirov-Energomasch, produces components for nuclear power plants

Furthermore, the German bus manufacturer Göppel was taken over in 2013 . However, this went into bankruptcy again in 2014.

Gallery images

• 

  Fordson-Putilovets

• 

  Russian locomotive U-127, Lenin 4-6-0- heavy oil - compound locomotive , which was built in the Putilov factory and now in the Museum of the Moscow Railway at Paveletskaya Station is

• 

  Factory plate, steam dome and steam whistle of a U-127 locomotive

• 

  76 mm anti-aircraft gun, built in 1917 at the Putilov factory

• 

  Cannon from 1930, manufactured in the Red Putilow factory

• 

  Heavy tank KW-2 , built 1940-1943

• 

  Tractors from the K-700 series were built in 1961–2002, here the Kirovets K-700A version .

• 

  Kirovets K-744R tractor manufactured since 2000

• 

  Wheel loader Kirovets K-702

literature

• Peter Gatrell: Government, Industry, and Rearmament in Russia, 1900-1914: The Last Argument of Tsarism. Cambridge University Press 1994, ISBN 0-521-46619-9 .
• Vladimir Brovkin: Workers Unrest and the Bolshevik Response in 1919. in: Slavic Review. Volume 49, Issue 3 (Fall 1990), pp. 358-361.
• Kai L. Bremer, JL Melzian: From AMO to ZIS. Soviet passenger cars and their history. In: Automobil- und Motorrad-Chronik , issue 2/1981, pp. 9-14.

Web links

Commons : Kirowwerk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kirovwerk website (Russian)
• Kirowwerk website
• Kirovets Tractor Plant St Petersburg , a subsidiary that manufactures tractors and agricultural machinery.
• Kirowwerk at globalsecurity.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Kirovets tractor family celebrates 53 years , from www.kzgroup.ru , accessed on September 18, 2015
3. ↑ Various parts of the company on the company's own website (Russian)
4. ↑ Petersburger Kirowwerke buy German bus builder , accessed on September 18, 2015