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0t--Vladimir Lenin's electric plow

JHOLLAND1

Titanium
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
Location
western washington state
Vladimir Lenin had a vision--electric power as prime source for agricultural mechanization

thus--the central committee for soviet agricultural delivered--in 1920 Lenin personally
attended the inagural of his electric plow--he departed disillusioned--plow refused to bite and break hard soil

Stalin continued to press the cause following Lenin death in 1924--

actual numbers of 3 phase powered tractors produced around 100--they were distributed to MTS--
machine tractor stations in soviet grain belt to be loaned to collective farms

transformer wagons at terminal ends of crop rows stepped main power from 10,000 vac 3 phase to
500-1000 vac as supplied to swing jib attached to each round wheel or crawler unit

plow runs of up to 2400 ft were possible electric hp of 45-50 was typical

a 1955 audit determined electric plowing units cost 2.5 times as much as heat powered tractors--
the era of the soviet electric plow was over
 

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Fascinating, and about what I would expect from a background involving both agriculture and living in Russia.

There are still a good deal of monuments standing that glorify their era of electrification, which they were able to do in very rural areas and over a surprisingly short time. They had a propaganda slogan for rural Russia to the effect of "Communism is Soviet power plus Electrification". Designed to appeal to those whose lives were very much improved by the introduction of electricity. Probably trying to appeal to that positive when the rest of what was forced on rural Russians ranged from unpopular to detested - agricultural plans implemented from above without regard to local conditions, collectivization, etc.

One has to remember that at around this same time, most of the rural USA was without power. City dwellers were served by private power companies, which could realize a timely return on their infrastructure investment. Isolated farms, running a few lights and motors on the end of miles and miles of costly powerline - it just didn't pay. Only government backed Rural Electrification Associations finally changed that. Our farm didn't receive power until 1941 for that reason.

I can see several legitimate reasons the Soviets might have went down this path (and several reasons unique to the Soviet way of doing things). Primarily, they had invested a lot of money into electric infrastructure, while they had poor roads and infrastructure for petroleum handling. Electric tractors played to their strengths. Secondly, after forced collectivization of agriculture, they had lots of labor. The videos showed at least a tractor driver, a transformer operator, a woman riding each drill box. Which is completely unnecessary unless they are really low on seed. Certainly there would have been much unplanned management of all that wire and the mechanisms to spool it. At the same time in our country there would have been one man, or a man and a boy, to run the same set of seed drills on a gas tractor.

The other thought this triggers is just how much the Soviets forced agriculture to be the test tube for their various ideas. They could not stand the independence inherent in farming, particularly small market farming. Lenin complained that it was a nursery of capitalism in the heart of the Soviet ideal. They drove home collectivization in waves, accompanied by liquidation of the Kulaks (literally Fists), which started out defined as the more successful and powerful farmers, before descending into anyone who owned practically anything, including their own draft animals. They had to roll these changes back a few times in order to avert famine and get the food flowing again. But they finally, at great expense and suffering, succeeded in creating a collective structure where all were divested of connection to the land and responsibility for and stewardship of its production. A farm, run by committee.

And that point is where the pet projects of the central planners enter. This was certainly one of those. Others spring to mind. Trofim Lysenko, whose genetic research captured the attention of leaders fascinated by the idea of breeding the perfect, docile worker - the "new Soviet man". No matter that his research was wrong. They decreed that huge swaths of the grain producing regions of the Soviet Union would seed wheat late in attempt to increase yields. Now any farmer who has ever seeded part of a field, been interrupted, and finished the rest weeks later can tell you the result - all else the same, first seeded is most yielded. The Lysenkoists forced them to drill soaked and frozen seeds, into the snow of a December Russian winter. The results were about what you'd expect. Though of course those failures were blamed on "wreckers", who promptly got a one way ticket to the gulag.

So coming out of that culture of cult and repression, I can understand why this electric tractor concept hung on for so long. 1955 would have been under Kruschev, who had an interest in dismantling the inefficiencies that had resulted under Lenin and Stalin. Unfortunately it was too little, too late by that point. It's fascinating on how machines are a window into the people and places who design and build them.
 








 
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