S-60 monument in Inzhenerne, Zaporizhia Oblast (cropped)

The S-60 or Stalinets-60 (russian: Сталинец-60, translit=Stalinets-60) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

produced at the

Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (russian: Челябинский тракторный завод, Chelyabinskiy traktornyy zavod, abbreviated , ) also known as CTZ-Uraltrak (''ЧТЗ-УРАЛТРАК'') is a tractor construction plant in the Russian ...

between 1933 and 1937. It was based on the American

Caterpillar Sixty The Caterpillar Sixty is a crawler tractor manufactured by the Caterpillar Tractor Company from 1925 until 1931. The Sixty was the largest tractor in Caterpillar's product line at that time. The Caterpillar Sixty was originally introduced for s ...

tractor and was mostly produced for the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, which used them extensively to haul

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

, as the tractor was heavily built and had a powerful engine. The tractor was used extensively in the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but was gradually replaced by the S-65 tractor powered by a

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

. Many were captured and used by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. The tractor was originally produced during the Second Five Year Plan (1933–37), produced for

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

es (Soviet collective farms). It was intended to serve as state-owned equipment for farmers who would otherwise be too poor to afford it.

References

{{Reflist Tractors of the Soviet Union Vehicles introduced in 1933 1937 disestablishments Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant products