The plant was built during 1931-1936 (mostly during the second pyatiletka), launched on October 11, 1936, and named after Felix Dzerzhinsky. Initially it manufactured freight cars. After the German invasion of 1941, Stalin ordered hundreds of factories in Ukraine and western Russia to be evacuated east. The KhPZ Factory No. 183 in Kharkiv was moved to Nizhny Tagil by rail, and merged with the Dzerzhinsky Works, to form the Stalin Ural Tank Factory No. 183. During the Great Patriotic War it became the largest producer of tanks in the world, including the T-34. After the war, tank production was scaled down, and part of the Vagonka's manufacturing and design assets were transferred back to Kharkiv's Diesel Factory No. 75 during 1945–51.