Moscow Automotive Plant

(full name, Lenin Komsomol Moscow Automotive Plant; formerly Moscow Compact Car Plant), the leading enterprise of the Avtomoskvich Automobile Production Association, which also includes a plant for manufacturing spare automobile parts that is under construction in Kineshma, Ivanovo Oblast. The plant manufactures the Moskvich 412 passenger car, with a sedan body, and its basic modifications (the Moskvich 427, with an all-purpose station-wagon body, and the Moskvich 434, with a van body).

Construction of the plant began in 1929 and soon was designated as a Komsomol construction project. Operation of the plant began Nov. 6, 1930. Originally the plant was a Communist International of Youth automobile assembly plant and was organized as a branch of the Nizhny Novgorod Automotive Plant (the first industrial plant in the USSR to undertake specialized assembly of passenger cars and trucks on a large scale). In 1938–39 the plant was assigned the task of designing and operating a mass-production facility for manufacturing compact passenger cars for personal use. The first such cars, type KIM-10, were produced by May 1, 1940. By June 1941, 500 such automobiles had been made. In 1947, after reconstruction of the plant, the production of the Moskvich compact passenger car began. A total of more than 50 models and modifications of the Moskvich were produced. In 1973 the plant manufactured 136, 500 Moskvich automobiles (as against 1, 500 in 1947 and 50, 000 in 1957). In 1968, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the All-Union Lenin Komsomol, the name “Lenin Komsomol” was added to the plant’s title. The plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1966.

(full name, I. A. Likhachev Moscow Automotive Plant), since 1971 the leading enterprise of a large manufacturing association of the automotive industry of the USSR. The association also includes nine specialized plants in Moscow and other cities of the USSR.

The Moscow Automotive Plant manufactures trucks (the ZIL-130 and ZIL-131), luxury passenger cars (the ZIL-114 and ZIL-117), electric household refrigerators, engines, spare motor-vehicle parts, special and nonstandard equipment, and all types of equipment for its own needs. The plant was established in 1916 as the Joint-stock Partnership of the AMO Moscow Automotive Plant. Until the October Revolution of 1917, the plant assembled parts imported from abroad. On June 28, 1918, the plant was nationalized. On that date V. I. Lenin spoke at a meeting of workers at the plant. Until 1924 the plant worked on the production of motor-vehicle engines, performed repair work, and prepared for the production of trucks. On Nov. 7, 1924, the first ten AMO-F-15 1.5-ton trucks (made from Soviet materials) led a column of marchers during the parade on Red Square in Moscow.

In 1956 the plant was named for I. A. Likhachev, who had been plant manager for 25 years.

The plant has been modernized several times. A great deal of technical reequipment work was accomplished in the 1960’s; this was necessitated by the scheduled production of ZIL-130 trucks, mass production of which began in December 1964. From 1924 to 1964, many models of trucks, passenger cars, and buses were manufactured, among them the ZIS-5, ZIS-6, ZIS-150, ZIS-151, ZIL-157, and ZIL-164 trucks; the ZIS-101 and ZIS-110 passenger cars; and the ZIS-8, ZIS-16, ZIS-154, ZIL-155, and ZIL-158 buses. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) a large part of the plant’s equipment and staff was evacuated to the eastern regions of the country, where large automotive plants were built. Workers remaining in Moscow were engaged in the manufacture of ammunition and arms for the front lines; manufacture of trucks in the Moscow plant was resumed in June 1942.

The plant has hundreds of automatic production lines; this made possible complete automation of work on heavy body parts. All basic units are assembled on conveyor lines.

Improvements in the technical level of production and continuous efforts aimed at improving the design of automobiles and refrigerators made possible better quality and increased quantity of production. Production of trucks was increased by 75.2 percent between 1965 and 1973; production of spare parts was increased by a factor of more than 2. Socialist emulation is well developed. As of Sept. 1, 1973, the title of Collective of Communist Labor had been awarded to 29 shops and departments, and 33, 000 persons earned the title of Shock Worker of Communist Labor. The plant has been awarded three Orders of Lenin (1942, 1949, and 1971) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1944).