Fame can be good, bad, and it can also be ambiguous. This is exactly how the fate of one of the most controversial trucks in the Soviet Union, Kolkhida, developed. Despite all its ambiguity and numerous jokes about this machine, many "Kolkhida" still remain on the run in different parts of the former Soviet republics. However, today we are interested not so much in the truck as in the plant where it was produced. What fate befell KAZ and what is produced on it in our time?
"Revenge for Stalin", "The pride of Georgia - the grief of Russia", "There is no beast more terrible than a lynx and a tractor from Kutaisi." Here are just a few of the jokes that were made about the main truck of the Kolkhida KAZ. The machine was created for the national economy of the USSR and, first of all, for collective farms. It was named after the historical region and the ancient state in the Black Sea region. Despite a number of rather interesting technical solutions, the "Kolkhida" had a weak build, a rather weak diesel engine, which, moreover, quickly overheated and often broke down.
Despite all the ambiguity of the main truck of the Kutaisi Automobile Plant, many breakthroughs and discoveries were made at the enterprise itself. For example, it was here that a domestic truck with a cabover layout was created for the first time in the USSR. However, at first, the plant was mainly engaged in the production of components for other Soviet enterprises. The history of KAZ began in April 1945, when the first stone was laid at the construction site. The first workshops were launched in 1947. Up to 1950, production at KAZ expanded and became more complicated. The enterprise has gone a long way of development from the production of the simplest parts for the ZIS, to the production of its own gearboxes. On August 18, 1951, the first one-piece car, the ZIS-150, was assembled here.
Since April 1948, its own design and experimental department began to operate at the Kutaisi Automobile Plant. Since 1958, at KAZ, military developments have been carried out for the needs of the Soviet army. In 1959, the first own tractor, the Rioni, was developed. By the beginning of the production of the Kolkhida truck in 1967, the capacity of the enterprise had increased several times compared to the moment of its opening. In the same year, the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the CPSU determined the specialization of the established enterprise - the development and production of road trains consisting of semi-trailers and tractors with a carrying capacity of up to 12 tons. Production volumes grew at an accelerated pace until 1985, when they began to slow down. As a result, if in 1990 KAZ produced 5,736 vehicles, then in 1991 only 2,658 vehicles were produced at the plant. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, production at the Kutaisi Automobile Plant completely collapsed to its minimum values.
In 1993, only 650 trucks were produced at KAZ. True, even in the difficult conditions of the "dashing 90s" the design department continued to function at the enterprise. The company's specialists even managed to significantly modify the transmission of their trucks. However, after a few years there were talks about the privatization of the plant. In 1995-1996, there were active negotiations with General Motors about the purchase of the plant, but in the end they could not agree on a deal. The enterprise was slowly dying. Until 2001, KAZ still produced its own trucks, mainly for the internal needs of the country. The last time the plant workers presented their products was in 1996 at the Moscow Motor Show. In the first decade of the 2000s, KAZ every now and then tried to cooperate with foreign enterprises, among which were Mahindra, MAN, Kharkov Tractor Plant and some others.
Since the beginning of 2010, most of KAZ's facilities have been idle. Many workshops were slowly destroyed, dilapidated and overgrown with weeds. Ultimately, the remnants of the plant were bought up by the enterprises of the United Arab Emirates, which removed at least one production line from KAZ, and China. The latter did not export anything, but started producing components for his enterprises at the remaining capacities of KAZ. In 2019, the staff of the plant is only 190 people of the older generation.
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If you want to know even more interesting things about the Soviet automobile industry, then you should read about why pickups did not take root in the Soviet Union, although they tried to create them repeatedly.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/070621/59286/
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