THE SOVIET MODEL OF ARMORED VEHICLES PRODUCTION (1920–1940s)

The article examines the Soviet model of armored vehicle production in the 1920s–1940s. During the first five-year plans, the USSR tank-building industry could not use the experience and production base of domestic engineering. Designers and factories could not use components and assemblies of civil engineering, as was practiced abroad. Therefore, the further development of tank building and mechanical engineering went on in parallel. The factories built technological chains separately for each type of tank and independently of the main production. This practice was transferred to the eastern industrial bases on the eve and in the first months of the war. In wartime conditions, this approach made it possible to minimize the problem of lack of experience, individual parts and materials and enabled to increase the production of armored vehicles in the first year of the war. In the second half of 1943, the USSR tank industry entered stable production with increased quality and remained at this level until the end of the war. This model of tank building organization allowed the Soviet Union to take a leading position in terms of the number of armored vehicles produced, but created serious difficulties during the post-war conversion.