MAZ

The Minsk Automobile Plant was the Soviet Union's largest builder of heavy trucks. It was founded in 1944 in Minsk, in the Belarusian SSR, immediately after the liberation of Belarus, using captured equipment, and in 1947 it produced its first truck, the MAZ-205.

The earliest MAZ trucks were based on documentation from the German Büssing works, but Soviet engineers soon developed designs of their own. In 1951 came the MAZ-200, a long-haul truck and tractor unit that underpinned Soviet long-distance transport for years. In 1956 the plant added the MAZ-525 quarry dump truck with a 25-tonne payload.

In the 1960s MAZ launched an entirely new family, the cab-over MAZ-500, which became the main Soviet long-haul truck for two decades. In the 1970s it built heavy road trains and special chassis for oversized loads, including missile systems. MAZ remains the leading truck manufacturer in Belarus today.