Stalin’s Electric Tractors

18 min readAug 13, 2020

Today, agricultural machinery production companies consider the use of an electric drive in tractors to be promising. They are developing electric tractors for widespread use in the fields of large agricultural producers.

When a certain level is reached, this technology is considered more economical and more green (since an electric tractor does not emit substances harmful to human and animal health) than the use of hydrocarbon fuels.

So, in 2016, the famous American company John Deere developed the SESAM electric tractor, which runs on its own batteries. In 2019, the same company introduced the GridCON robotic electric cable tractor.

However, not everyone knows that attempts to use an electric drive to move field agricultural implements have a long history in different countries. At the same time, the closest to the widespread industrial use of electric tractors came in the Soviet Union back in the early 1950s.

Prerequisites for electrical innovation in USSR

Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, enthusiasts appeared in Russia who began to introduce the idea of using electrical energy instead of a horse.

From the first months of its existence, the secular government in every possible way contributed to the development of science and technology, it supported even the most daring ideas aimed at strengthening the defense capability of the young republic and dramatically increasing labor productivity.

At the initiative of the head of the Soviet government, Vladimir Lenin, in early 1920 (at the height of the civil war), the GOELRO plan was adopted, a large-scale project to electrify the country. Lenin’s statement is widely known, which well illustrates the degree of importance that the Bolsheviks attached to electricity in the life of the new country: “Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country.”

Later, starting from the 1930s, Joseph Stalin attached great importance to the creation and implementation of electric agricultural tractors.

By 1931, the GOELRO plan, which seemed fantastic to many, had been exceeded 1.5 times. In the early 1930s, massive collectivization of agriculture began, which led to the creation of a system of large agro-industrial enterprises. These conditions made large-scale electrification of agriculture possible.

At the same time, there was a growing shortage of gasoline and other petroleum fuels in the country, as their production was insufficient with the rapid growth in the number of cars. This circumstance exacerbated the task of switching to the use of electricity instead of gasoline, especially in areas with the presence of hydroelectric and thermal power plants on cheap low-quality fuel. Therefore, the development of electric tractors continued.

This process was stopped with the beginning of the war, but after the Great Victory these works were resumed and quickly reached practical implementation.

In the USSR, work was carried out in all possible areas of using electric traction for the movement of field agricultural implements:
a) towing with a stationary electric winch;
b) self-propelled implement with an electric drive;
c) towing by a self-propelled vehicle with an electric drive (electric tractor).

Below is a brief description of work in all three areas.

Electric winch traction systems

In 1920, in Soviet Russia, a group of electrical workers on their own initiative developed a system they called “electric plow”.

Two electric winches, mounted on stationary autotrucks at opposite ends of the field, alternately pulled the eight-furrow plow.

In the fall of 1921, the leader of the world proletariat himself was present at the test of this device. As if enchanted, he walked behind the plow, which very evenly plowed eight furrows.

*V. Lenin on a testing an electric winch plow (Soviet Russia, 1921).*

But the system had flaws. For example, the plow bounced in places with compacted soil, in connection with which Lenin said angrily: “Why the hell is he twirling his tail?!” Lenin was dissatisfied, but work to improve these systems continued.

Despite the modest success, the development of electric winch systems continued until the 1930s.

*Electric plow when working in the field in the Donetsk province. Peasant magazine №5 for 1925.*

Self-propelled electromotored implements

In 1922, engineer Precht from Petrograd designed and manufactured a 2-furrow electric plow with a 7.5 kW motor with an operating voltage of 500 V and a cable length of 200 m.The unit weighed 1.1 tons.

In 1935, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for the Electrification of Agriculture produced a prototype of a grape electric cultivator.

Systems of this type did not receive the “green light” for agriculture, as they had the following fatal drawbacks:

low rate of annual use due to lack of versatility;
the heavier and more expensive working equipment in comparison with conventional trailed tractor implements (due to the self-propelled implement);
low maneuverability of the implement caused by the rigidity of the system.

Wheeled electric tractors

Pre-war period

In 1928, in Tbilisi, professors Didebulidze and Amirajibi attempted to create the country’s first model of an electric tractor. An electric motor with a power of 14.5 kW was installed on the chassis of a wheeled tractor Fordson with voltage supply from the mains to the electric motor through a flexible cable 200–250 m long, wound on a drum. This design was technically imperfect and was found to be inoperative.

In 1933, in Central Asia, an electric tractor of the engineer Danilchenko’s system was built with a vertical axis of a cable drum, inside which the tractor driver was placed.

In the mid-1930s, samples of wheeled electric tractors were created in the USSR, similar to the tractor of the Swedish engineer Forssblad, but with a much more developed design.

Post-war period

The development of electric tractor systems was interrupted after the outbreak of the war in 1941. But already in February 1945, the Soviet government made a decision “On the development of rural electrification”, within the framework of which work was organized to create electric tractors.

In order to electrify the production processes of crop production in the collective farms of the Moscow Region, the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party decided to build experimental wheeled electric tractors based on the serial heat engine tractor SKhTZ.

The development of the project was entrusted to the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and Electrification (VIME). The Moskvoretsky District Committee of the Party attracted 14 enterprises to the production of tractor units and parts.

In early June 1949, units and parts were delivered to the Second Automobile Repair Plant of the Moscow City Executive Committee (VARZ), which was responsible for the final assembly of tractors. On June 20, four experimental electric tractors were assembled, which were named VARZ-ETK-500 or ETK-500. After the factory test run, the electric tractors were handed over to the Agricultural Academy for further testing.

Also, NII-58 (the largest scientific and technical institute for the creation of artillery pieces) under the leadership of Vasily Grabin began to create its own model of the electric tractor MET-1.

The manufacture of supply substations was entrusted to the High-Voltage Electricity Networks Department of the Mytishchi region of Mosenergo.

The draft of the MET-1 tractor was presented on August 9, 1949. 26 days passed from the receipt of the design assignment to the transfer of the MET-1 prototype for testing. The fact is that even before the war, Grabin worked out methods of accelerated design and introduction into production of products of various levels of complexity (for example, the development of the F-22 USV gun before the production of a prototype took 18 months, the F-34 tank gun was created in just 6 months, and a prototype of the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun appeared 3 months after the start of the design).

The transmissions of both tractors were identical and were taken from the base machine without changes. The controls (clutch, gear lever, handbrake) also remain the same.

Both types of tractors have undergone limited tests in the Mytishchi region and in the Gorki-Leninskih Moscow region. After short-term tests of the prototype, NII-58 manufactured a batch of 30 tractors, 23 of which were transferred for trial operation to the Mytishchi Machine-Tractor Station (MTS).

*Towing an electric tractor by another electric tractor. In the background there is an electric tractor with a cab and power substations.*

At the suggestion of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, the Council of Ministers on February 9, 1950 was issue decree №1225-r:

“1. Accept the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR to conduct in 1950 in the MTS of the Moscow Region pilot operation of 31 wheeled electric tractors manufactured by the NII-58 plant of the Ministry of Armament, and 4 electric tractors manufactured by the Second Automobile Repair Plant of the Moscow City Executive Committee.
2. Allow the USSR Ministry of Agriculture to pay the cost of 35 wheeled electric tractors specified in clause 1 of this order, and mobile transformer substations for them at the expense of allocations for the energy sector according to the 1950 plan and to incur expenses for the construction of field power grids required for electric plowing, for the 1950 capital appropriation account.
3. To oblige the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR to submit to the Council of Ministers of the USSR by December 1, 1950 a report on the results of experimental and economic operation of electric tractors.”

*Pilot tractors on the territory of the VARZ plant. Serial tractors SKHTZ are visible in the background on the left.*

From the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” on November 5, 1950:

“In 1949, the best brands of electric tractors were tested on different soils in the Mytishchi MTS near Moscow and Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya near Kiev, in Bazhenovskaya in the Urals and Rybnovskaya near Ryazan. The results allowed Stalin to conclude that it was time to start a new revolution in agriculture — automation!”

In October 1952, the 19th Party Congress included this Stalinist line in the fifth five-year plan:

“Consider the introduction of electric tractors and agricultural machines based on the use of electricity as one of the most important tasks, especially in the areas of large hydroelectric power plants.”

By that time, the most powerful computer in Europe was created for the general management of electrical machinery in the fields of the country (today this computer can be seen in the Polytechnic Museum on Lubyanka).

Caterpillar electric tractors

Pre-war period

The first design of a caterpillar electric tractor was developed by engineer V. Pichak on the basis of the ChTZ-60 thermal engine tractor. The power of the electric motor was 35 kW at a voltage of 1000 V. Power was supplied from a step-down mobile transformer substation 6000:1000 V via a flexible hose cable 800 m long. A turning jib above the tractor laid the cable at a distance of up to 5 m from the furrow. This design was not workable, but outlined a number of further solutions.

In 1937, the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and Electrification (VIME) created the first workable design of the VIME-2 tracked electric tractor (designers P. Listova, V. Stetsenko, etc.). It was also created on the basis of the ChTZ-60 tractor, in which the internal combustion engine was replaced by a three-phase electric motor with a power of 48 kW for an operating voltage of 500 V. The cable reel on the roof held 750 m of flexible rubber-insulated cable.

Since 1937, two samples of this machine have been in trial operation in the Engels MTS, Saratov Region. Over the course of 8 years, the machines have worked out over 8000 hectares in terms of arable land Positive results have proven the technical feasibility of practical use of an electric tractor in field agricultural work using a cable method of power supply.

*Sketch of the VIME-2 electric tractor in side projection.*

*Photo of the Soviet electric tractor VIME-2 from the American magazine Modern Mechanix for September 1936.*

*Electric tractor VIME-4–500 with power substation. Agricultural Mechanization Pavilion, All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, Moscow, 1939.*

After the war

In 1948, the All-Union Institute for the Electrification of Agriculture (VIESH) and the Energy Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences developed a model of the ET-5-ENIN-VIESH electric tractor on the chassis of the STZ-NATI tractor.

*Sketch of the ET-5-ENIN-VIESKh electric tractor in side projection.*

The tractor electric motor had a power of 38 kW. The voltage was increased to 1000 V, which made it possible to use the cable with the smallest cross-section, permissible, from the conditions of mechanical strength, according to the existing rules and regulations.

The rotor shaft of the electric motor is connected to the chassis of the tractor through a friction clutch, gearbox and transmission device of the tractor. On the reel of the electric tractor, up to 800 m of flexible, four-core rubber-insulated cable was placed. The highest operating voltage is applied to use the longest cable, but the smallest transverse section.

For the safety of the operating personnel, the tractor body and all its metal parts are grounded using the fourth conductor in the cable, connected to the protective ground. Protective grounding is located near the mobile transformer substation. All control circuits of the electric tractor unit, the blocking and signaling system, as well as lighting, are carried out at a safe voltage of 12–36 V.

*The structure of the electric tractor ET-5-ENIN-VIESKh.*

In the fields to be processed, high-voltage field power lines with a voltage of 6,000 or 10,000 V are being built. The tractor during operation moves perpendicular to the power lines. The power lines are installed parallel to each other at a distance of twice the cable length.

At a move away from the power line, the cable is unwound from the reel and, using a cantilever jib, is laid on the ground behind the trailed implements. During the return stroke (towards the power source), the cable is electrically or mechanically wound on a reel, where it is placed in the correct rows with a special device.

*Scheme of operation of electric tractors on plowing.*

The mobile transformer substation was a 4-wheeled trailer on which a three-phase step-down transformer with control equipment was mounted, as well with protection and signaling devices.

The substation could be connected to any point of the high-voltage line without switching off the voltage in it. The substation was connected to the line by a retractable mast with horn-shaped current collectors or lifting rods. With a tractor cable length of 800 m, from one connection of the substation to the line, a field area from 15 to 60 hectares can be processed (depending on the length of the run).

*Mobile transformer substation: 1 — trailer chassis; 2 — frame; 3 — input reel; 4 — current receiving mast; 5 — linear current collection.*

For processing the field in two mutually perpendicular directions, a cable trolley was used, which had an additional cable of 800 m. The trolley was a 4-wheel trailer, on which a cable reel or bunker was located, driven by the trolley running wheels. The system with cable trolley made it possible to process a field of more than 200 hectares with one tractor from one connection of the substation to the network.

Experience has shown that electric tractors of the ET-5 type can perform all types of plowing (spring plowing, raising fallow, raising virgin lands, raising plowing), harrowing, peeling, disking, cultivation, as well as sowing industrial cereals and grasses.

In 1948, pilot units of electric tractors were sent for field trials. The results of the operation of these units in the Achit MTS in the Sverdlovsk region were summed up in the report of the instructor of the agricultural department of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the Party Kuzmin to the head of the Agricultural department of the Party:

“In 1948, two electric tractors worked in the fields of the Zarya collective farm in the Achitsky district of the Sverdlovsk region. The tractors were in operation 59 shifts, of which 25 shifts were testing. Electric tractors plowed 181 hectares in terms of soft plowing.
Testing of electric tractors was carried out on spring plowing, soil loosening and fallow plowing. Specific energy consumption for arable work, at a processing depth of 25–27 cm, was 45 kW/ha. At full voltage and frequency in the power system, the electric tractor freely pulled a five-furrow tractor plow with skimmers …
The schematic diagram of the ET-5 machine turned out to be correct and more perfect than that of the well-known designs of the ET-2, ET-3, ET-4 and ET-8 electric tractors.
The chassis, electrics and equipment of the electric tractor worked well.”

The biggest drawback of electric tractors was their performance:

“The low production of experienced electric tractors this year was the result of:
1. Prolonged shutdown of the hydroelectric power station due to the repair of the dam, the shutter and replacement of the turbine bearings.
2. Poor quality of electricity in the local power system due to overload by other consumers, as well as the lack of automation elements in it for the implementation of parallel operation of two generators into a single network.
3. Low quality of machines manufacturing, due to which a lot of time had to be spent on elimination of very significant production defects in the field (the alignment and balancing of the electromotor group was made again, the skew and jamming in the jib were eliminated, etc.)”.
“Compared to a conventional STZ-NATI tractor, an electric tractor saves up to 20 kg of liquid fuel on each hectare treated, and to 70% of lubricants.”

In 1949, prototypes of improved electric tractors were sent to several machine-tractor stations.

For six years (1949–54), several dozen electric tractors produced by the first experimental batch worked in various MTSs. Over six seasons of operation, 30 electric tractor units have cultivated more than 100 thousand hectares in terms of soft plowing.

The leading electric tractor drivers in one season produced more than 1100 hectares per machine; the average shift productivity on plowing was 6–7 hectares; the maximum per shift reached 9 hectares. On fallow plowing, the average and highest productivity per shift was 20 and 38 hectares, respectively; on sowing, respectively, 20 and 30 hectares.

The average specific power consumption per hectare of conventional plowing was about 45 kWh; on sowing 1 ha of grain 12–15 kWh and on steam cultivation 15–16 kWh. The utilization rate of working hours on plowing was from 0.62 to 0.79.

The operation of an electric tractor with a conventional tractor plow was carried out on strips about 20 m wide. When the electric tractor was operating, breakup furrows and back ridges were obtained in a larger number than that of a tractor with an internal combustion engine due to the limited width of the strip. In general, the quality of plowing was very high.

*Electric tractor ET-5-ENIN-VIESKh in sowing operation.*

In 1951, with a new type of XTZ-12 electric tractor, five-furrow reversible plows, controlled by a hydraulic drive, were tested. With this plow, break-up furrows and back ridges were excluded, plowing had the form of solid plowing of high quality. Of the entire range of field work, the electric tractor has not mastered the processing of row spacing of row crops and harvesting work.

During the trial operation of electric tractors of the KhTZ-12 type (ET-12, ET-5-ENIN-VIESKh), the following main advantages were noted in relation to tractors with a heat engines:
1) good traction properties and reliability of the traction motor;
2) ease of maintenance and ease of start-up;
3) saving time and labor due to unnecessary transportation, as well as refueling with fuel and water.

Disadvantages of electric tractors:

1) large initial investment;

2) slightly less maneuverability (due to the cable);

3) insufficient (at that time) resource of the power cable, as well as its high cost in relation to the cost of the entire system;

4) the need to use an ordinary tractor for the transportation of electrical circuits and transformer stations from one site to another outside the field electrical networks;

5) higher ground pressure caused by the greater weight of the structure of the reel assembly unit, the electric drive for winding the cable and the large number of rollers needed to guide the cable to the reel.

Tractor ET-5-ENIN-VIESKh. Fragment of the feature film “Chevalier of the Golden Star” (1950).

In January 1954, V. Zheligovsky, a member of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL), described the opening prospects in an interview with the Ogonyok magazine:

“In the coming spring, electric tractors and combines will enter the lands of the Rostov Region irrigated by the Volga-Don shipping canal. In Semikarakorsky and Romanovsky districts, electric machine-tractor stations are being built. The Tsimlyanskaya HPP will supply them with energy. The same EMTS will soon appear in vast areas of our Motherland — from the Dnieper in the west to the Ob in the east, from the Kama in the north to the Amu Darya in the south. Along with the energy giants, there will be many inter-collective and collective-farm power plants, the construction of which is now underway in the country. Small rivers, peat, brown coal, wind — all local energy sources are used profitably.”

Since 1949, the future corresponding member of VASKhNIL, Yu. Buzilov, together with other students and graduate students, participated in the observation and analysis of the experimental work of electric tractors. Its economic assessment showed that the direct costs of plowing 1 hectare are on average 2.5 times higher than when plowing with heat engine tractors.

Buzilov wrote that these results cannot be considered final, since there are difficulties that can be overcome in the future:

“Excess costs for performing a unit of electric tractor works are due to the following main points: 1) imperfection (shortcomings) in the design of experimental machines, as a result of which frequent breakdowns and rapid wear of individual units and parts occur; 2) high overhead costs associated with the order and manufacture of spare parts and parts that do not have serial production; 3) write-offs of expenses not related to the repair of electric tractors, which is explained by the absence of reasonable norms for repair costs and proper control over the expenditure of funds for the repair of electric tractors; 4) high selling price for electricity at relatively low prices for oil products for thermal tractors.”

Collapsing a project

The lack of cheap oil was a powerful incentive that pushed the electrification of collective farms at an accelerated pace. A cable was laid to the fields to power the new tractors. Numerous hydroelectric power stations were built on the rivers. In Ryazan alone, the Kuzminskaya HPP, the Rasypukhinskaya HPP, the Dankovskaya HPP, and the Novo-Nikolskaya HPP were built in a short time for this large-scale project.

Video “Electric tractors is plowing” (tractors KhTZ-12 raise virgin soil). 1954.

Soon after Stalin’s death (1953), large-scale work on the introduction of electric tractors was curtailed. The general disadvantages of this technology, the unresolved problem of cable wear, did not give a generally positive economic effect in comparison with traditional tractors running on liquid hydrocarbon fuels. When the production of gasoline and diesel fuel in the country reached a significantly higher level, the complexity of cable electric tractor systems began to look completely unjustified.

Nevertheless, this technical idea continued to exist for some time. Thus, in the 1970s, a new comparative calculation of the economic efficiency of electric and diesel tractors was carried out. T. Smolyaninova’s work stated:

“The comparison is based on the economic indicators of diesel tractors DT-75 and MTZ-50 and the calculated indicators of the electric tractors ET-75 and EMTZ-50 … Capital investments for tractors are determined in the following amount: for diesel DT-75–2919 rubles, MTZ-50–2500 rubles. and for electrified ET-75–4717 rubles. and EMTZ-50–3640 rubles. The investment in electric tractors is significantly higher due to the cost of the generator and electrical equipment. Operating costs for electric tractors are also higher than diesel ones. Therefore, with an equal performance of tractors, the use of these electric units is economically inexpedient.”

Conclusion

In the Soviet Union, comprehensive studies were carried out on the use of electric traction for the movement of field agricultural implements, which ended with the creation of a number of models of electric tractors and the study of the experience of their use.

In those times, this technology was not developed due to the presence of unsolved technical problems, as well as the lack of economic benefits due to the cheapening of hydrocarbon fuel.