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[COMMANDMENTS FOR SOVIET TRACTOR DRIVERS] Sputnik traktorista [i.e. Companion of Tractor Driver] / Compiled by V. Denisov and V. Podobed

Moscow: Ogonek, 1931. Item #1852

48 pp.: ill. 17,5x12,5 cm. In original illustrated wrapper with letterpress design. Intensive foxing, pencil note on back cover, otherwise good.

First and only edition. Printed as a book supplement No. 6 of the monthly “Za rulem” [Behind the Wheel].
This handbook for novices in tractor driving was published during “the tractor five-year plan”. The tractor became “a steel shock worker”, a symbol of early industrialization. It played a crucial role in the collectivization, being in itself a convincing means of agitation for reformation of farming methods, it also attracted peasants to help industrialization of the country.
On December 1, 1920, there were no more than 700 tractors on the whole territory of the Soviet state. Initially, the number was gradually increased by imported vehicles. The Ford company exerted the greatest impact on this area in the 1920s. Among the first factories reconstructed and built during the first five-year plan were those produced tractors. These enterprises were located in Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kharkiv, Chelyabinsk.
This manual contains rules of a tractor maintenance worker, rules for working on a tractor, lists of actions when accepting a new tractor and one returned from repair, terms of use and care of a tractor plow. The authors dwell in detail on the repair of tractors of different companies, listing the most common causes of malfunctions. Several tables compare characteristics of 14 tractors (power, speed, weight, etc.), characteristics of tractor-drawn implements, fuel consumption standards for 1931. The book explains in schemes how to properly connect two or five seeders and plows. Two photographical and one drawn schemes of tractors are given along with tables of a procedure for lubricating mechanisms’ parts with oil.
At the end, the Twelve Sayings of the Tractor Driver are published finishing with “No matter how well you know your tractor, keep learning about it”.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $450.00