This list includes the heavy steel manufacturing plants where main production and assembly of medium and heavy armoured vehicles took place, initiated first in the late 1920s as a prerequisite for the developing Red Army doctrine that called for large tank forces.
Many were based on pre-Soviet imperial Russian shipbuilding or locomotive factories, and may have changed names more than once.
The majority were evacuated and consolidated in the Urals in the fall of 1941, shortly after the disastrous German invasion of June 22.
After World War II, some remained in their new location, others were moved back or re-established at other factories.
In various sources, the Russian "завод" is translated either as "factory", "plant", "works", or simply transliterated as "zavod".