Russia of the beginning of the last century had great opportunities for the production of cars, but the demand for them was small (not only because of their price). The network of roads and their quality did not contribute to the rapid development of this type of transport. When moving a hard -to -pumped wheel, along artificial roads or on dry dense soils, its effectiveness is high and the efficiency is close to a hundred percent. But. But then there were a lot then in Russia (and then in the USSR) roads with artificial coating? Indeed, during the Raspour (rain, snow, our climate, in general), our roads completely lost the bearing capacity and, roads turned into off -road, and in order not to get bogged down in the rut, they preferred to move around the virgin lands.
Before the full power was earned by the American Ford Automobile Plant (1907), the championship in the production of cars belonged to France – this. By the density of the road network and the specific gravity of the highest types of roads, even by the middle of the 20th century, France was in the first place in the world (120 km for every 100 kmom), built by the Putilov plant (1916) on the basis of the truck, could be moved along our roads, only Using bracelet circuits of anti -sceneration. The Technical Committee of the GVTU decided to equip Kegress with devices for almost the entire car park of the Russian Army. From the proposal of the meeting: “… the need of the acting army in cars that can pass by off -road is extremely great and hasty, and therefore, according to the commission, all measures should be taken to the speedy manufacture of Kegress appliances for the required number of cars of all types: armor, freight and passenger cars “. Putilovsky, Izhora and Obukhov factories were supposed to be involved in the re -equipment of armored cars.
Of the components manufactured by the Izhora plant in 1917, 115 armored vehicles were collected for the needs of the Red Army in 1918. At the same time, the Putilov plant manufactured a small batch of half-noisy armored vehicles Ostin-Kogress who took part in the battles against the troops of Rodzianko and Yudenich (and the 1920 Soviet-Polish war). In the same 1918, 37 armored squads were created from the armored army (composition: a company of infantry on trucks and 3 armored vehicles), in general, the Red Army was transferred 50% of the car available in the country.
Before the First World War, the largest manufacturer of automotive equipment in Russia was the Russian-Baltic Curon Factory (cars and aircraft were not its main products) producing more than three hundred cars a year, and a small batch of armored vehicles was made on the basis of the Russo-Balt truck. Due to failures on the Western Front (1915), this plant was evacuated deeper in the country, some of the equipment was sent to Fili, where the construction of the buildings of the new automobile plant was started, but it was completed only in 1922, and then, which produced a small batch of cars, the plant was redesigned To the production of aircraft of the company “Junkers”.