Soviet's Motor-cars

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 47, 26 February 1936, Page 10

Soviet's Motor-cars

LIGHT MODEL SELECTED MANUFACTURING PLANS RIGA (Latvia}. Commissar Stalin personally selected the new light model automobile, 6000 of which will be produced at the Moscow automobile factory named after him during the coming year. The Soviet dictator visited the factory and rode in the new machine, which closely resembles the lower priced American models for 1935, and suggested that the standard equipment for the car include an extra wheel as necessary on Russia’s poor roads. The Stalin auto works also plan the production of 55,000 heavy trucks against the 30,000 manufactured this year. Many of these machines have been exported to Turkev and other Near East countries anu a demand for spare parts has developed which the Soviet trade monopoly could not supply now. During the coming year special attention will be; paid to this branch of manufacture. The Moscow Pravda admits that unless the work is hastened there is little possibility of the new manufacturing programme being completed. The Stalin factory, which was planned and constructed by American engineers during the first five-year plan, is now being completely remodelled by Soviet engineers, reports the Pravda, which hints that plans drawn by the latter are not always practical. , Costly Mistakes.

For instance, the press department of the factory, containing 120 presses, some weighing 400 tons, must be completely dismantled and moved 420 yards to a new building. Work which Soviet engineers estimated would be accomplished in a few weeks has taken five months to complete, und the factory is both disorganised and demoralised.

Barracks to house 12,000 new workers are far from being completed, and the entire reconditioned plant is only 50 per cent, finished. Of 1355 new lathes and machines ordered from other Soviet factories only 600 have been delivered. The new factory will have a staff of 500 engineers and technicians, and will contain 20,000 different machines.