Russian 3T D-7

Typical Stalin-era Soviet tactic...reverse-engineer it & claim you invented it...they did it w/the B-29 too.

Hi, Old 3T Lover.
Neat find. Thanks for sharing. I don't know for sure about the build license situation but Cat did sell some equipment to the Russians back in the 7M-3T era, before the cold war got really 'arctic'. There 'may' have been some sort of license agreement but I suspect that some 'industrial strength carbon paper' would be more likely to have been used.

I doubt that 'gadget' on the back of the tractor in the second clip is a 'ripper'. It looks more like some sort of equipment attachment point to me, sorta like a 3-pt linkage. I grant you that it does look pretty solid though, at least for a 3-pt linkage.

Just my 0.02.

My reading of the history of CATERPILLAR finds them exporting a lot of machines to the Soviet Union during the Depression to the point of that that market greatly aided CAT to get through the hard times. I believe Deas is right that they had a license to build them over there.

Thanks for sharing the films.

Jan

Komapartsu in the 80's made a d85e I think it was, that looked like a carbon copy of a D8K with Komapartsu decals on it.

My reading of the history of CATERPILLAR finds them exporting a lot of machines to the Soviet Union during the Depression to the point of that that market greatly aided CAT to get through the hard times. I believe Deas is right that they had a license to build them over there.

Thanks for sharing the films.

Jan

[quote="janmeermans"]My reading of the history of CATERPILLAR finds them exporting a lot of machines to the Soviet Union during the Depression to the point of that that market greatly aided CAT to get through the hard times. I believe Deas is right that they had a license to build them over there.

Thanks for sharing the films.

Jan[/quote]

The official history of John Deere Company says pretty much the same thing-Stalin was buying a lot of ag machinery to try & implement his "5-year plans", & he was selling off the Czar's treasure to finance it...that's how the Rockefellers, Mellons, & Gettys got so much Russian art & jewels...but-it helped JD survive the Depression.

I believe we were sending Cats to Russia, and locomotives and airplanes and ???, during WW II on the lend-lease program.