The Belarus (Belarusian: Беларус) is a series of four-wheeled tractors produced at the Minsk Tractor Works, known as MTZ, since 1950. Simple, rugged and cheap to run, they became the standard farm tractor of the Soviet Union and are still exported to more than a hundred countries, including the United States and Canada.
Belarus MTZ at a glance
| Maker | Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ), Minsk, Belarus |
|---|---|
| Production | four-wheeled tractors since 1950 |
| First wheeled prototype | 18 June 1949 |
| First serial tractor | MTZ-2 «Belarus», 14 October 1953 |
| Key models | MTZ-5, MTZ-50, MTZ-52, MTZ-80, MTZ-82 |
| Engines | diesels, mostly from the Minsk Motor Works |
| Range today | about 100 models from 9 to 455 hp |
| Millionth tractor | 5 November 1972 |
| Total built | over 3 million by 2017; four-millionth in 2022 |
| Exports | more than 100 countries |
Written from the English article on the Belarus tractor and the Russian article on the Minsk Tractor Works.
History of the Belarus MTZ
From tank rebuilds to wheeled tractors
Until the 1950s the Minsk works had not built wheeled tractors. Its early machines were tracked crawlers, essentially reclaimed tanks with the turret removed and a flatbed, winch, crane or dozer blade added. They were used more in land reclamation and forestry than in farming, because tank engines, transmissions and tracks were not designed for pulling loads for long periods. A decree of the Soviet Council of Ministers of 29 May 1946 ordered the construction of a tractor factory in Minsk on the site of an unfinished aircraft plant, and new wheeled designs went into production in 1950. They were built to three principles of Soviet engineering: reliability, simplicity and value for money.
The Belarus range
The first wheeled prototype of the factory’s own design was assembled on 18 June 1949, and the first tracked KD-35 followed on 4 November 1950. The first serial wheeled tractor, the MTZ-2 «Belarus», left the line on 14 October 1953. In 1957 tracked production was passed to other plants and Minsk concentrated on universal wheeled tractors. The 100,000th tractor was built in 1958, the MTZ-5 appeared in 1959, and the 1960s and 1970s brought the MTZ-50, MTZ-52, MTZ-80 and MTZ-82. The millionth tractor was assembled on 5 November 1972 and the two-millionth on 27 March 1984.
Abroad
Belarus tractors were assembled outside the Soviet Union as well. Fecto Group began importing them to West Pakistan in 1962 and opened an assembly plant in Lahore in the 1980s, building models from 25 to 80 hp. In 2004 the Ganja Auto Plant in Azerbaijan restarted production, and in 2010 the Romanian company IRUM began assembling Belarus TAG tractors for its home market. Serbia’s Agropanonka started assembling 3,000 tractors a year in 2011, and plants followed in Tajikistan in 2012 and near Phnom Penh in Cambodia in 2013. In 2010 distribution in the United States and Canada was re-established through MTZ Equipment Ltd, helped by diesel engines meeting Tier 3/4 and Euro 3 to 4 standards; the MTZ brand appeared at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville in February 2014 with the MTZ 1220.
Design and features
- Built for simple repair: the range was designed around reliability, simplicity and low cost rather than sophistication.
- Huge production: over three million tractors by 2017, a figure reached by few factories in the world.
- Wide range: about 100 models with more than 200 build variants, from 9 to 455 hp.
- Export strength: in 2017 Belarus tractors held more than 95 per cent of the Russian 80–100 hp segment.
Belarus MTZ versions
- MTZ-2 (1953): the first serial wheeled Belarus.
- MTZ-5 (1959): the next generation of universal wheeled tractor.
- MTZ-50 and MTZ-52: the classic 1960s tractor, the 52 being the four-wheel-drive version.
- MTZ-80 and MTZ-82: the long-lived 1970s family, still familiar across the former Soviet Union.
- Belarus A3523i (2021): a prototype of the first Belarusian autonomous tractor.
- Belarus 3522: presented by the works as the most powerful tractor made in Europe.
More vehicles from the former Soviet Union are collected in the Avto section.
Video: AVTO MTZ 52
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Belarus (tractor), English Wikipedia: history, licensing, exports, models
- Минский тракторный завод, Russian Wikipedia: dates, production figures, models, exports