711,294 views
The main contribution to supplying the Soviet Army with heavy four-axle tractors was made by the small and not very well-known Kurgan Wheeled Vehicle Plant named after D. M. Karbyshev (KZKT). It was organized at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War as a division of the Kurgan Machine Plant, where agricultural enterprises were evacuated. In 1959, it was re-equipped to produce army tractors developed by the SKB-1 of the Minsk Automobile Plant and was given the name KZKT. The plant began its activities with the production of the 535th model, and later switched to assembling more powerful MAZ-537 tractors, which became its main product and formed the basis of the largest line of Soviet heavy tractors. Later, the enterprise began to independently produce components for these tractors: transmission, frame and cabin, while regularly introducing small improvements. However, even in spite of this, KZKT products continued to be labeled as MAZ. In December 1963, the first MAZ-537 truck tractor was assembled in Kurgan from Minsk components, but the lag in the development of KZKT, lack of experience in serial production and shortage of personnel led to a delay in the start of serial production by 2 years. Nevertheless, work on improving quality and reliability continued for a long time.