Endlessly Adaptable, the MT-LB has been the Soviet and Russian Army’s All Terrain Pack Horse and Squire for 50 Years
Exploring the Career of the MT-LB multipurpose artillery tractor and the MT-LBu command utility vehicle.
Located 185 km (115 miles) south of Murmansk, Apatity (population 55200) does not usually stand out as a tourist destination for non-Russian travellers. Along with a Geological Museum and scientific institutes dedicated to studying the economic and biomedical effects on human habitation in Arctic regions, Apatity’s official website exalts its All-Russian Plant Growing Institute for holding the largest collection of potatoes in all of Russia or even globally. In January 2018 however, an unnamed Russian man briefly made Apatity world famous: crashing a stolen MT-LB artillery tractor into a closed convenience store to steal a bottle of wine, he had found a novel use for a vehicle that has been endlessly adapted for military and civilian uses around the world.
If Soviet armoured fighting vehicles and artillery were a modern analogue for knights and siege engines in their nation’s ground forces, the MT-LB (Mnogotselevoy Tyagach Legky Bronirovanny: Multi-purpose light armoured towing tractor) would serve the role of squire and packhorse since it was originally designed as a prime mover for towing artillery guns and conveying…
