Electric and gas-generating tractors in the agricultural sector of the South of Russia in the 1930s: mass-staffs and application features

Abstract

The article is based on the materials of the Don, Kuban and Stavropol regions as the most important agricultural regions of Russia, highlights the process of development and introduction of gas-generating tractors in Soviet agriculture during the 1930s, which represented a special direction of mechanization of agricultural production in the period under review. The author’s statement that in the 1930s the author’s work was carried out is convincingly justified. Representatives of the Party-Soviet leadership paid close attention to the development of gas-generating equipment as consuming cheaper fuel in comparison with petroleum products and it led to the rapid development of these technical devices and their quantitative growth, including in Soviet and collective farms. It was proved that, despite the efforts of the designers, gas-generating tractors had a number of significant drawbacks, which made their operation difficult and became one of the most important reasons for their usage stopping in agriculture.