Myths About the Monument to the First KhTZ Tractor

The first tractor produced by the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, the SKhTZ 15/30, was a modified version of the McCormick-Deering 15-30 tractor manufactured by the American company International Harvester and was equipped with a 32-horsepower kerosene engine.

For a long time, a tractor like this could be seen as a monument on a pedestal in the park on Industrialny Avenue (in the KhTZ district). Legend has it that it was assembled on the factory’s first day of operation (serial number 4), October 1, 1931, using American parts. However, photos taken before the park’s renovation show that by the 2000s, only the rear wheel rims and the steering wheel remained original. This mockup was restored and installed in 2015 at a new location—Tractor Plant Park. Another myth is that the tractor from the pedestal was restored and featured in the film “The Guide” (2014), but the tractor shown there is entirely different—a “Universal” model, which was never manufactured in Kharkiv.

11219347_1635332466684091_1641635374820921364_n — ^{Mockup of SKhTZ 15/30 in the park on Industrialny Avenue, Kharkiv.}^{Photo: Ivan Ponomarenko, 2015}

However, you can see a real tractor like this at the D. I. Yavornytskyi National Historical Museum in Dnipro city:

The SKhTZ 15/30 is also on display at the Poltava Regional Museum:

The Kharkiv Tractor Plant’s own storage facilities house another original museum-quality SKhTZ 15/30 tractor, serial number 1, but it is only displayed at periodic agricultural exhibitions. Residents of Kharkiv can only see the mockup monument mentioned above.

In the mid-1930s, 85% of the world’s tractors did not have rubber tires. There was no need for them at the time—back then, they were used almost exclusively in the fields. However, KhTZ also produced a version of the SKhTZ 15/30 with tires, which was used as a tractor:

In the Soviet Union, the tractor was manufactured at three plants:

1930–1937 – Stalingrad Tractor Plant;
1931–1937 – Kharkiv Tractor Plant;
1948–1950 – Second Automobile Repair Plant, Moscow.

A total of 390,500 SKhTZ 15/30 tractors were produced. The original McCormick-Deering 15-30 also sold in substantial numbers—157,366 units—and was manufactured in the United States from 1921 to 1934.