Gorky Automobile plant in the years of Great Patriotic war.

The 22 of june, 1941. This sunday was unusually festive for workers of
Automobile Plant. On the eve, on saturday, the plant personnel marked animportant labour achievement - the assembly of the 1,000,000 th engine.
Factory's newspaper «Autogigant» issued with the big title across wholestrip: «There is the millionth engine!». «Gorkovskaya kommuna»congratulated the plant personnel on a big labor victory. On the radiothere was a concert for the best workers of the plant. Already in themorning there were a lot of people on the bus 'stops. Some of them weregoing to Striginski wood, the other - to the Oka's beach, the lovers ofsports hurried to the stadium. Everywhere there were happy faces, music.
Who could think, that in a few hours everything would be changed? Who couldknow, that it had already changed ...

An hour later it was a big meeting in front of the plant. «... We declareourselves mobilized to defend our beloved Motherland and are ready to workand to struggle, ..., up to complete victory over the enemy !».

And immediately there were the first applications requesting to directpeople to the front. On the same day after the meetings many workers wentto their work places. On the 22 of june the master of tools and stamps
Shabanov together with a grinder Dorogavtsev and a fitter Rykalin andothers performed a huge work, without going out of the workshop for 21hours. In usual conditions four days were required for this work. On thesame day the planeman of the workshop of hot stamps N. N. Tulumbasovcompleted three rates. V. D. Pastuhov surpassed the rate in 4 times andafter the shift till the night he worked at the another task. There weretens and hundreds of similar examples of labor heroism.

In the hour of trouble hundreds of people went to the Communist Party
Commitee, Young Communist League commitee, millitary registration office.
In their applications they asked to direct them as volunteers to the front.
More than 100 applications were received from the workers on the 22nd of
June and their number being increased every day.

The bright manifestation of patriotism, readiness of people to defendtheir Motherland was the creation of territorial armies. People ofdifferent ages and professions went there. They were united by a commonambition - to battle out liberty and independence of the Motherland withweapons in their hands. In a short period of time about 10 thousand ofworkers became territorial armies members. After a hard working day theywere trained to shoot, to master a rifle, a machine-gun, a grenade.
Hundreds of YCL members headed self-protection groups. Special detachmentsfor guarding the industrial objects, for struggling against fire, spies andsaboteurs were created in workshops.

* * *

War changed the conditions and tasks of working of all enterprises ofindustry and transport. It was necessary in the shortest possible period torestructure industry to the military way, maximally use all reserves andpossibilities for the victory over the enemies. Gorky Automobile Plantworkers in the shortest time-limits had to pass to the output of lighttanks, of tanks engines, armoured cars, mortars, ammunition. At that timethe director of the plant was Ivan Kuzmich Loskutov (was born in 1900).

The restructuring of the enterprise was developed according to a newschedule. The equipment was placed in the workshops according to the newplan. Technological chain of producing units and details was reconsidered.
Such plants as «Red Sormovo», «Red Etna», Gorkovskii metallurgical,
Pavlovsky buses ', Kulebaksky metallurgical and others rendered muchassistence in the timely supply of the steel bodies of tanks, rolled metal,normals, driving tools, various materials.

Manifesting the greatest persistance, energy, initiative, the Gorky
Automobile Plant staff successfully mastered new production processes,continuously increased the output of tanks and tanks engines, mortars andammunition. It was impossible to imagine, that a man is able to workcontinuously for 20-30 hours. But now workers, fulfilling the tasks of thefront, did not go out of the plant day and night. In the foundry the ovenbroke down. With the risk of his life electrician N. K. Sorokin togetherwith his assistant A. V. Lupov began repairing the oven, without coolingit. The same day it was repaired. Emergent military order was fulfilled intime.

The restructuring of manufacture to a military way of production wasconnected with the problem of cadres. Thousands of people went to war, andthe front imperatively required the new production. At the Gorky Automobile
Plant, just like nationwide, powerful patriotic movement of women formastering the new professions began. They replaced husbands and brothers,came to machine-tools, persistently mastering new specialities, for a longtime have not abandoned the workshops fulfilling military orders. Only inthe first month of war more than 1500 housewives came to the factory.
Practically there was no such profession which was not mastered by sovietpatriots. More than 500 women in short period successfully mastereddifficult (male) professions - they became blacksmiths, steel founders,warmers, etc. Amid the workers awarded at the end of 1941 for selflesslabor there were many women: P. E. Mokshina, N. V. Vorobyova, T. I.
Maslennikova, D. K. Emelianova, M. V. Malysheva, A. V. Alexandrova andothers.

The factory's staff had difficult technical and organizational tasks.
If to pre-war preparing, setting up and mastering of the passenger car M-1took two years and the significant quantity of import equipment, andmastering of more difficult weaponry was ended at the plant in five monthswithout any additional equipment. At the enterprises new processes werearranged: the production of rubber and its parts, the manufacturing ofcarbide, metal rolling etc. Because of absence of metal sheets the planthad to begin the output of trucks with wooden cabins.

Understanding the importance of Gorky city as a large industrialcentre, enemy tried to paralyze the activity of one of the principalarmories of the country. Workers met courageously the first air raids.
Thousands of workers, engineers, technicians, housewives, students came outafter work and learnt to construct bomb-proofs. The hundreds of groups tostruggle with incendiary bombs functioned at the enterprise. The workersgave more and more tanks, tank's engines, military machines, mortars,ammunition to the front every day.

Thanks to the great organization work and selfless labor of the staffof GAZ at the end of 1941 the restructuring of manufacture to the militaryrails was mainly ended. The output of production for the front (except theautomobiles) grew from month to month.

Movement for combining of professions at the plant was increasing. Inaugust of 1941 there were 668 people who were mastering severalspecialities. At the beginning of october the members of YCL of the plantset a new form of socialist competition - front brigades. In a few days,front brigades were created in many workshops. On 15 october of 1941 32front brigades were functioning at the plant, which united 256 youngpatriots. The first front brigade of V. Shubin, V. Tikhomirov, I.
Yakimenko, V. Shabaev, P. Davydova, F. Liubavin and others displayed theexamples of genuine labor heroism.

In the short time-limits the plant mastered the manufacturing of a newtank T-70 and armored car. For the development of the constructions of thenew types of light tanks and armored cars, the main designer of the plant
A. A. Lipgart, deputy of the main designer N. A. Astrov and designer V. A.
Grachev were awarded «The Goverment bonus».

* * *

The summer of 1943 brought the difficult trials to the warriors of the
Soviet Army and the workers of the plant.

On the 4 of june, 1943 at 23.40 the air alert was declared. The enemydropped high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the plant, lighted by theenemy's missiles. A lot of workshops, houses of Sotsgorod, offices,building were burnt. Water-supply was broken, there was nothing toextinguish the fires. In many workshops the wooden walls were set in fire.
The substation, which was receiving the electricity from Gorenergo was putout of action by splinter of bomb. The plant was in the flame. More than
100 high-explosive bombs were dropped to the plant on the first day of air -bombing. Blacksmith № 3, chassis workshop, the main conveyer, partiallyspring workshop and another workshops were put out of action. Severalhouses, children's garden, a hospital were destroyed in the plant'ssettlement.

But the enemies continued air-bombing. From 4 to 22 of june of 1943they appeared at the same time over the plant. Many workshops weredestroyed or capitally damaged, arterial communication networks wereseriously damaged, the production cycle was impaired. At all enterprise 50buildings and constructions, more than 9 thousand metres of conveyers, 5900units of process equipment, 8 thousand of engines, 28 cranes, 8 workshopssubstations, 14 thousands of kits of instruments and many other weredestroyed or damaged.

But despite the destructions, the plant continued to live and to work.
The largest Gorky factories: «Red Sormovo», «The engine of revolution»,
«Red Etna», the aeronautic factory of Orjonikidze and other enterpriseswere engaged in reconstructive work. Workers, restoring the plant, at thesame time increased the tempoes of manufacturing. And on the 18 of augustof 1943 all the workshops of the Gorky Automobile plant were working.

28 of october, 1943 plant workers and builders reported to the national
Committee of Defense about the plant recovery. The manufacturing program ofthe IV quarter of 1943 to goods production was fulfilled 121%. Annual planwas completed ahead of time, on the 17 of December.

Victory was provided not only in the workshops of the factory, but alsoin design bureaus. The outstanding designers were A. A. Lipgard, V. A.
Dedkov, V. A. Grachev, N. A. Astrov, A. M. Kriger, I. N. Sorochkin, L. V.
Kostkin, V. K. Rubtsov, N. I. Efimov, N. F. Denisiuk. They all were awardedby the local authorities and the government for their work. At thebeginning of 1945 by efforts of the chief-designer A. A. Lipgard, designers
A. M. Kriger, Y. N. Sorochkin, L. V. Kostkin and other talanted designersnew lorry automobiles GAS-53, GAS-AA ? ?, GAS-63, car M-20 «Victory»
( «Pobeda») were created.

At that time Soviet soldiers successfully stormed Berlin. The newsabout our victory was brought out among the workshops of the plant. Twohours later the order which was the shortest one in the war period undersignature stamp «urgently» appeared - 1293. The factory director I. K.
Loskutov congratulated workers on their great victory, and the day of 9thof May was declared completely out of work for all workshops anddepartments. Thousands of tanks, automotive installations and lorries weregiven to the front by GAZ during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Forsuccess in the all-union socialist competition the Red Banner of GCD wasgiven to the GAZ staff for 33 times. The Red Banner GCD as the symbol ofcourage and labor heroism was passed over to them for eternal storage.

Literature

1. «Gorky Automobile Plant», Moscow, 1981.

2. «Gorky Automobile Plant», Moscow, 1964.

3. «Labour and deed write the history», Gorky, 1981.

4. The materials from the archive of GAZ.