Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ekaterinburg, Russia):

Vas. V. Zapariy, Cand. Hist., Associate Prof., Researcher, e-mail: pantera.zap@gmail.com

Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg, Russia):
V. V. Zapariy, Dr. Hist., Prof. of the Dept. for History and Social Technologies, Ural Humanitarian Institute, e-mail: vvzap@mail.ru

The work is devoted to the contribution of the leading industrial research institutes of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry to the improvement of metallurgical, welding and machining production in the tank industry of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. The evacuation of the main capacities of the tank industry to the east required not only the transfer of workers and industrial equipment to the sites of civil engineering plants, but also the restoration of key technological processes in the new location. It was required in the emergency conditions of war, in a new place, in conditions of a lack of personnel, equipment and energy, the collapse of production cooperation, to create workable production facilities capable of mass production of tanks. Thanks to the concentration of industry management under the leadership of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry, the country's leadership managed to preserve the scientific and technical potential of branch research institutes, which in the pre-war period were engaged in specialized work in the field of armor metallurgy, electric welding, mechanical processing and mechanical engineering technology. Their human and technical potential was integrated into the production teams created in the east after the evacuation of the tank-building giants. All this made it possible, in the extreme conditions of war, in conditions of serious personnel and technological limitations, to create workable territorial production complexes for the production of medium and heavy tanks.

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