Moscow Car Repair Plant

(full name, Voitovich Moscow Car Repair Plant), a large enterprise for the repair of rail-road equipment. Established in 1868 as the Main Car Workshops of the Moscow-Kursk Railroad.

The Moscow Car Repair Plant has a long record of revolutionary struggle. An underground workers’ society led by S. N. Khalturin was founded there in 1881; in 1894, V. I. Lenin’s sister, A. I. Ul’ianova, and her husband, M. T. Elizarov, established the Social Democratic organization of the Moscow Workers’ Union. During the revolution of 1905–07 the local organization of the RSDLP headed by the carpenter S. P. Smirnov took a position against autocracy. During the October Revolution of 1917 the Red Guards of the Main Car Workshops fought tenaciously at the Lefortovo Barracks and in the center of Moscow. The worker V. E. Voitovich died a hero’s death at the approaches to the Kremlin (the plant was named in his honor in 1929). On July 19, 1918, V. I. Lenin addressed a meeting of the plant’s workers. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), the Moscow Car Repair Plant and the Kompressor Plant jointly manufactured the Katiusha rocket launchers, armored railroad handcars, shells, and other supplies for the front lines. Since 1965 the plant has specialized in repair work on all-metal railroad cars for international traffic.

The Moscow Car Repair Plant has repeatedly taken first place in socialist emulation. In recognition of its production of new equipment, the plant has been awarded a certificate of the Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR. A plan for modernization of the plant in the period 1976–80 has been prepared. In 1968, on the 100th anniversary of its establishment, the plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.