The First Tractor

The First Tractor by Vladimir Krikhatsky

The First Tractor is the name of several Socialist realist paintings and other works of art that portray the beginning of collectivisation in the USSR.

The subject of the work of art is typically a Fordson tractor, the first agricultural tractor imported and then manufactured in the Soviet Union. The depicted tractor acted as a symbol of the advantages of agricultural mechanisation and collective farming. Because tractorisation was state policy in the Soviet Union, the paintings had an agitation function. But in the early 20th century, farm tractors generated considerable excitement and enthusiasm nearly everywhere that they appeared (not just by pressure of propaganda), so for many peasants, agitation toward mechanization was "preaching to the choir", even if agitation toward collectivization was not.

The following authors produced works under the title, The First Tractor.