‘Belarus’ is a series of four-wheeled tractors produced since 1950 at Minsk Tractor Works, MTZ in Minsk, Belarus. These tractors are very well known throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States and are exported to more than 100 countries worldwide, including the United States and Canada. At the end of World War II, agricultural infrastructure in the Soviet Union (USSR) was in a poor state, production of agricultural machinery having been nonexistent during the later years of the War. Those tractors and machinery still working on the Large Collective Farms were tired from heavy use and also dated, most having been produced in the early 1930s or earlier. At best, these tractors were unreliable and were poorly maintained. The Communist state ordered new tractors to be made at several locations within the USSR, the main assembly plant for MTZ being in Minsk, Belarus, with smaller tractors being produced in other locations, while other factories produced high-horsepower articulated and tracked tractors. All these tractors were exported under the name “Belarus”, but were of a different design to each other.