Manufacturer catalog

Kharkiv Locomotive Factory

Kharkiv Locomotive Factory was the Kharkiv heavy-engineering works that began as a locomotive plant and became one of the Soviet Union's early armored-vehicle production centers. Its KhPZ and later Factory No. 183 lineage links the plant to the Kharkiv tank design bureau, wartime evacuation to Nizhny Tagil, postwar Kharkiv diesel and tank production, and the industrial succession later known as the Malyshev Plant.

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The factory's public record spans both railway and armored-vehicle production. Kharkiv business records for the present Malyshev enterprise identify a machine-building and transport-equipment site in Kharkiv, while armor references trace the tank-design bureau at the Kharkiv steam-locomotive plant to 1927 and describe the plant's later role in Soviet tank production.

Kharkiv Locomotive Factory is the historical Kharkiv industrial name behind Soviet tank records where sources use KhPZ, Kharkiv steam-locomotive plant, Factory No. 183, or postwar Malyshev terminology for the same production lineage. Later Malyshev Factory and Malyshev Plant names describe successor phases of the Kharkiv state-enterprise armored-vehicle complex.

locomotives and heavy machine buildingtracked armored vehicle productionmain battle tankstank diesel engines and transmissionsarmored vehicle modernization lineage

Notable Systems

T-54/T-55, Main battle tank / medium tank family, Tanks

T-54/T-55

Main battle tank / medium tank family

Postwar Kharkiv tank production included T-54 work and later T-55 production after the plant was operating under the Malyshev name, making the catalog entry a direct continuation of the Kharkiv tank-production lineage.

Sources: Preserved Tanks Kharkov Locomotive Factory reference, GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overview
T-64, Main battle tank, Tanks

T-64

Main battle tank

Reference sources describe T-64 production at the Kharkiv/Malyshev plant from the 1960s, after the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory's tank bureau and production lineage had become part of the later Malyshev enterprise.

Sources: Preserved Tanks Kharkov Locomotive Factory reference, GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overview
T-84 Oplot, Main battle tank, Tanks

T-84 Oplot

Main battle tank

The Ukrainian T-84/Oplot family belongs to the later Malyshev/KMDB armored-vehicle lineage that grew from Kharkiv's historic locomotive and tank-production complex.

Sources: GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overview, Ukrainian Defense Industry homepage

Manufacturer History

  1. Kharkiv locomotive works founded

    Open historical references identify 1895 as the founding year for the Kharkiv locomotive-building works that later became associated with the Malyshev plant lineage.

    Sources: Preserved Tanks Kharkov Locomotive Factory reference

  2. Tank design bureau established at Kharkiv plant

    GlobalSecurity traces Ukrainian tank-building origins to the creation of a specialized machine-building design bureau at the Kharkiv steam-locomotive plant in 1927.

    Sources: GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overview

  3. Malyshev name adopted

    Preserved Tanks records the former Kharkov Locomotive Factory / Factory 75 site being renamed Malyshev Factory in 1957, before T-55 and T-64 production milestones under the later name.

    Sources: Preserved Tanks Kharkov Locomotive Factory reference

  4. T-80UD production reported

    GlobalSecurity states that the Malyshev Factory started production of the T-80UD in 1986, illustrating the later armored-vehicle production role of the Kharkiv industrial successor.

    Sources: GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overview

Successors
Factory No. 183Malyshev FactoryMalyshev Plant
Website links
Malyshev Plant websiteUkrainian Defense IndustryKharkiv Chamber member listingPreserved Tanks location reference

Kharkiv Locomotive Factory is a historical name in a plant lineage that later appears in sources as Factory No. 183, Factory 75, Malyshev Factory, and Malyshev Plant. The Malyshev Factory and Malyshev Plant names are maintained separately in this catalog, so aliases already assigned to those names are not repeated here.

Manufacturer Sources

  • Kharkiv Chamber Malyshev enterprise listingPublisher: Kharkiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry | Note: Supports the present Kharkiv machine-building enterprise identity, address context, and machine-building/transport-equipment business categories for the plant lineage. | Accessed: 2026-07-11
  • GlobalSecurity Malyshev Plant overviewPublisher: GlobalSecurity.org | Note: Supports the 1927 Kharkiv steam-locomotive plant tank-design-bureau milestone, T-80UD production context, and Malyshev armored-vehicle production lineage. | Accessed: 2026-07-11
  • Preserved Tanks Kharkov Locomotive Factory referencePublisher: Preserved Tanks | Note: Supports the historic Factory 75 / Kharkov Locomotive Factory location context, 1957 Malyshev rename, and T-55/T-64 production milestones. | Accessed: 2026-07-11
  • Ukrainian Defense Industry homepagePublisher: Ukrainian Defense Industry / Ukroboronprom | Note: Supports current Ukrainian state defense-industrial context for successor enterprises associated with the Kharkiv armored-vehicle production base. | Accessed: 2026-07-11
  • Malyshev Factory logo Commons filePublisher: Wikimedia Commons | Note: Supports the rights-clear image choice; the Commons page identifies the file as public domain. | Accessed: 2026-07-11

Produced weapons

Category

Tanks

Heavy armor built around direct fire, protection, and battlefield shock.

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T-54/T-55, Main battle tank / medium tank family, Tanks2014 Russia-Ukraine War, 2009 Boko Haram Insurgency +7 moreT-54/T-55Main battle tank / medium tank familyBuilt in: Soviet Union / Poland / CzechoslovakiaThe T-54/T-55 is a Soviet tank family built around a low-profile tracked hull, four-person crew, and 100 mm D-10-series gun. It became one of the most widely produced tank families of the Cold War, with Soviet and licensed production spreading across Warsaw Pact and partner states. Direct conflict sourcing traces the family from North Vietnamese T-54 use in the 1975 fall of Saigon and Iraqi T-55s in the Gulf War to recent secondary fire-support, capture, and loss contexts in Ukraine, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nigeria, and Sudan.