How Chelyabinsk became Tankograd during the Great Patriotic War
The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant was the main center for the production of tanks in the country. It was here that the legendary installations BM-13 - "Katyusha" were produced. Every third tank, combat aircraft, cartridge, mine, bomb, land mine and rocket was made of Chelyabinsk steel.
From "Klim Voroshilov" to "Joseph Stalin"
The first tank was assembled at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) at the end of 1940. For six months, only 25 vehicles of the KV-1 prototype were produced, the name of which was deciphered as "Klim Voroshilov".
In the pre-war years, the main production of tanks in Soviet Russia was concentrated at two enterprises - the Kirov plant in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg - Ed.) And the Kharkov engine building plant. Almost immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, the production found itself in the reach of the fascist aviation. Then they were evacuated to Chelyabinsk and merged with ChTZ, which as a result became the main center of defense tank building and was temporarily named - Chelyabinsk Kirovsky Plant. This is how Tankograd appeared.
- The status of the all-Russian center of the tank industry for Chelyabinsk was fixed with the creation of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry in the city, - historian Sergei Spitsyn tells the RP correspondent. - It was headed by Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malyshev, who, jokingly and with Stalin's tacit consent, was called the "Prince of Tankograd". This talented designer enjoyed the special disposition of the Generalissimo. Isaac Zaltsman became the director of ChTZ, nicknamed the "King of Tanks" by the allies. During the war years, under the "princely" and "royal" leadership, ChTZ produced 13 new models of tanks and self-propelled guns, a total of 18 thousand combat vehicles. Every fifth tank made in the country was sent to beat the enemy from the shops of the Ural enterprise.
In 1942, ChTZ sent the legendary T-34s to the front for the first time. Their mass production was established in just 33 days, although before that it was believed that the serial production of combat vehicles of this class could not be launched faster than in four to five months. For the first time in world practice, they put on the conveyor and production of a heavy tank. The assembly line began on August 22, 1942, and by the end of 1943 the plant was producing 25 T-34 vehicles and 10 heavy tanks each day.
“Dozens of volumes have been written about the role played by the T-34 in the Great Patriotic War,” says military historian Leonid Marchevsky. - It was this tank, which received the affectionate nickname “Swallow” at the front, that brought victory in the defense of Moscow, Stalingrad and in the Battle of the Kursk Bulge. The T-34 has become a legend, one of the symbols of the victorious Red Army. This is the only tank that has not become obsolete during all the war years, when the development of weapons was more rapid than ever, and is still used in some third world countries. That is why this tank is most often installed on pedestals as a monument to the Great Victory. Most of the memorial tanks are in good condition, although now they are back in action.
Hunting for "Tigers"
By the end of 1942, the Nazis found a way to resist the T-34, sent a new weapon into battle - heavy "Tigers". Powerful armor and enhanced armament made these tanks virtually invulnerable to Soviet combat vehicles. Therefore, the factory designers were given a new task - in the shortest possible time to create and launch into production a tank that can hunt Tigers. The order was issued in February 1943, and already in September the first heavy tank of the IS series was produced at ChTZ, which stands for "Joseph Stalin".
Vyacheslav Malyshev. Photo: waralbum.ru
- It was a real weapon of victory, a steel fortress! - admires Leonid Marchevsky. - The IS-2 was originally intended for offensive operations, it could effectively attack the most powerful defensive fortifications. This tank was no less maneuverable than the T-34, but it had significantly heavier weapons and armor. Its 122mm cannon could break any resistance. The Nazis quickly became convinced of the unrivaled firepower of the new Soviet tank at that time and gave an unspoken order to avoid entering open battle with the IS-2 at any cost. With the advent of this machine, the USSR won the "war of armor", as the confrontation between Russian and German designers was then called. At that time, no army in the world had tanks like the IS-2. Only the Chelyabinsk ISs were able to demolish a powerful line of defense when the Red Army launched an offensive against Germany.
After the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet command gave the order to slightly modify the model, making the tower more streamlined. This is how the IS-3 appeared, which rolled off the assembly line in 1945, and managed to take part only in the Victory parade. Nevertheless, this tank was in service with the USSR army until the early 90s of the last century.
In January 1943, the plant assembled the first sample of the SU-152, the legendary self-propelled gun, nicknamed "St. John's Wort" at the front. So the combat vehicle was nicknamed because its 152-mm howitzer-cannon, firing 50-kilogram shells, easily penetrated the armor of the fascist "Tigers" and "Panthers". The appearance of the SU-152 at the Kursk Bulge largely decided the outcome of the battle, becoming a complete surprise to the Nazis. Until the end of the war, ChTZ sent more than 5 thousand such installations to the front.
Women, children and old people
For the fact that every day new tanks and self-propelled guns were sent to the front to smash the enemy, Tankograd had to pay a dear price. The workers worked hard for four years of the war.
“The first most difficult task that they had to solve was to accept and place equipment that came from the Leningrad and Kharkov factories,” says Sergei Spitsyn. - The equipment was sorely lacking, so the heavy machines were unloaded from the wagons and pulled to the place by hand, on special drags. There they were installed on wastelands and launched straight from the wheels. We worked in the open air, not paying attention to the weather. Autumn is still bearable, but in winter it became completely unbearable. So that people could at least touch the ice armor, bonfires were made under the collected tanks. Only when it became clear that the workers would simply freeze, they began to erect a roof over such impromptu workshops, and then walls.
Another problem was that most of the workers did not have the appropriate qualifications and had to be trained from scratch. Most of the skilled locksmiths, turners, grinders left to beat the enemy. They were replaced by pensioners, women and teenagers aged 16-14. Young men were more needed at the front.
Before the war, ChTZ employed 15 thousand people, and by 1944 - already 44 thousand. 67% of employees, first getting up at the machine, did not have the slightest idea what and how they were going to do. All of them needed to be trained from scratch, and on the job, since their help was needed right here and now, there was no time to wait.
"The machines broke down, but we held on."
Already in the first days of the war, the work shift at ChTZ was increased from 8 to 11 hours. And when the Nazis approached Moscow, and the situation became critical, all the workers of the plant went over to the barracks position. In old workshops barely heated by three locomotive boilers and generally unheated new ones, and sometimes in the open air, they worked 18, or even 20 hours a day. Two or three norms were fulfilled per shift. Nobody thought how much more people would be able to withstand work in inhuman conditions. The slogan "Everything for the front, everything for the victory!" at ChTZ they took it literally, and sacrificed their health and lives.
- The first day off in four years of war for us was May 9, 1945, - tells the correspondent of the Republic of Poland veteran ChTZ Ivan Grabar, who worked at the plant since 1942. - I got to ChTZ at the age of 17, after being evacuated from the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. The first month I lived in the personnel department, slept right on the floor. When I was resettled, I was "assigned" to one Chelyabinsk house, where, as it was believed, there were still free places, but there were already at least 20 people living in one tiny room. Then I decided not to embarrass them and got a job right at the factory. Many did so then. Therefore, over time, we were settled in the workshops, installing bunk beds next to the machines. Then there was the norm: for one person - 2 square meters of space. A bit cramped, of course, but comfortable. There was no particular sense in leaving the factory for home anyway, there were three or four hours to sleep, there was not the slightest desire to spend them on the road. True, it was never warmer than 10 degrees in the workshop in winter, so we were constantly freezing. And the air was stale. But nothing, they endured, there was no time to get sick. The machines broke down, but we held on.
Once every two weeks, the workers were given time so that they could wash, wash their clothes. And then - again to the machine. With such an inhuman schedule, the workers, who worked all the war no less than 18 hours a day, were fed so poorly that the feeling of satiety never came.
- The first shift began at 8 am. There was no breakfast in principle, - Ivan Grabar recalls. - At two o'clock in the afternoon you could have lunch in the dining room. There we were given lentil soup for the first time, about which we joked that in it "grain after grain is chasing with a club." From time to time it came across potatoes. For the second - cutlet of camel, horse meat or saiga meat with some kind of garnish. While I was waiting for the second, I usually could not stand it and ate all the bread I received - I wanted to eat unbearably all the time. We had supper at 12 o'clock in the morning - a can of American stew was washed down with front-line hundred grams. They were needed to fall asleep and not freeze. The first time we drank properly was on May 9, 1945. When they heard the news of the victory, they threw off the brigade and bought a bucket of wine for everyone. Noted. They sang songs, danced.
Many workers came to the plant as children, and therefore the elders, who were themselves 17-18 years old, looked after them. They took the ration cards issued for the whole month from them, and then gave them one a day. Otherwise, the children could not stand it and ate the entire month's supply at once, at a time, risking then dying of hunger. We made sure that the little turners and locksmiths did not fall from the boxes placed in order to reach the machine. And also so that they do not fall asleep right at the workplace and do not fall on the machine, where certain death awaited them. There were similar cases too.
Completion of work on the assembly of the SU-152 self-propelled gun. Photo: waralbum.ru
The younger generation was also followed by 16-year-old Alexandra Frolova, who was evacuated from Leningrad and became a foreman at ChTZ. She had 15 teenage girls under her command.
- We worked for days. When the hands froze to the machines, they tore them off with difficulty, warmed them up in a barrel of water so that the fingers bend, and again got up to work. Where we got our strength from, I don't know. They also managed to think about "beauty" - right in the shop, without leaving the machine, they washed their hair with cold soapy emulsion, - she recalls.
"Black knives"
- The most interesting thing is that already in 1942, these teenagers, who recently had not the slightest idea about production, exhausted from constant hunger and overwork, learned to fulfill several norms a day, - Nadezhda Dida, director of the Museum of Labor and Military Glory, tells the RP correspondent ChTZ. - So, in April, the turner Zina Danilova exceeded the norm by 1340%. Not only the Stakhanov movement became the norm, but also the movement of multi-machine workers, when one worker served several machines. The brigades fought for the honorary title of "frontline". The first was Anna Pashina's milling team, in which 20 girls performed the work of 50 skilled workers of the pre-war period. Each of them served two or three machines. Her initiative was picked up by the brigade of Alexander Salamatov, who declared: "We will not leave the shop until we complete the task." Then - Vasily Gusev, who put forward the slogan: "My machine is a weapon, the site is a battlefield." This means that you have no right to leave the machine without completing the task of the front.
We had to recruit and train new workers. The faculty boys, not having time to grow up, dreamed not only of sending tanks to the front, but of going away with them to beat the Nazis. When such a chance appeared, it was not missed. In early 1943, Chelyabinsk workers raised money and bought 60 tanks from the state, forming the 244th Tank Brigade. Volunteers have submitted over 50 thousand applications for enrollment. 24 thousand citizens lined up to get to the front. Of these, only 1,023 people were selected, mostly workers at ChTZ - they knew better than most tankers how to handle tanks, since they made them with their own hands.
“The Nazis nicknamed this brigade“Black Knives”because for each of the Chelyabinsk fighters gunsmiths from Zlatoust forged a short blade with black handles and presented them as a gift before being sent to the front,” says Sergei Spitsin. - During the largest tank battle in history - the Battle of Kursk, this brigade showed such courage that it was renamed the 63rd Guards. The Nazis were afraid of "black knives" like plague, since the Chelyabinsk guys were distinguished by their special stamina and hardening. They took part in the capture of Berlin, and on May 9, 1945, they liberated the last city in Europe, which at that time remained under the control of the Nazis - Prague. The brigade commander Mikhail Fomichev was honored to receive the symbolic keys from Prague.
ChTZ workers still remember the words of the Minister of Hitler's Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, uttered in January 1943: people and equipment in any quantity”.
