Kharkov Serp i Molot Motor-Building Plant

one of the oldest enterprises in the USSR for agricultural machine building and since 1975 the leading enterprise of the Kharkov Serp i Molot Motor-building Production Association.

The plant was founded in 1881 by the Gel’ferikh-Sade Company for the manufacture of agricultural machinery. In 1900 the plant’s workers took part in the May Day Demonstration of the Kharkov proletariat; in 1905 a revolutionary druzhina (combat detachment) was formed at the plant; and in 1917 hundreds of its workers joined Red Guard units. In 1922 it was renamed the Serp i Molot First State Agricultural Machine-building Plant. During the first five-year plans (1929–40) the plant was modernized and produced threshers, beet harvesters, and grain-cleaning and other machines.

During the fascist German occupation (from October 1941 to April 1943) the plant was completely destroyed. Work on rebuilding the plant began immediately after the city’s liberation, and in late 1943 the plant produced its first consignment of threshers. Subsequently, the plant was further modernized, shifting in 1950 to the large-scale manufacture of gasoline engines for tractor-drawn combines and in 1958 to the production of SMD diesel engines for tractors, self-propelled combines, and other machinery.

The plant was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966 and the Order of the October Revolution in 1971.