Gorky and plant director I. A. Likhachev outside the Moscow Automotive Plant, 1928

Photos of Revolutionary Russia #36

Gorky and plant director I. A. Likhachev outside the Moscow Automotive Plant, 1928 -- Photos of Revolutionary Russia #36

Famed Russian and Soviet writer Maxim Gorky visits the Moscow Automotive Plant and talks with its director in 1928.

The factory had been nationalized in 1918 and after 1924 started manufacturing the iconic AMO-F-15 truck. The plant was modernized and expanded multiple times and by the 1970s had hundreds of production lines.

Over the course of its history is manufactured numerous models of cars, trucks and buses and was awarded three Orders of Lenin (1942, 1949, and 1971) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1944) during the war. It was a massive production complex that operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In 1956 it was named after Likachev who had been its director for 25 years.

Sadly, after the fall of socialism the plant was one of many that were ultimately abandoned and torn down.