The Irbit Museum of Fine Arts houses a painting by Boris Viktorovich Parkhunov created in 1972 and titled “In a Workshop of the Likhachyov Automobile Plant: Foundry Workers”.

Measuring 145 by 222 centimeters, the canvas immerses the viewer in the intense atmosphere of a 1970s Soviet foundry. Parkhunov depicts a young team of foundry workers at the Likhachyov Plant (known in Russian as ZIL) — one of the flagship enterprises of the Soviet automotive industry. A diagonal shaft of light cuts through the semi-darkness, illuminating the figures: two young men at the center handle molten metal, while a third, in the foreground, manually moves a heavy workpiece. Their bare, sweat-sheened torsos are more than a realistic detail — they symbolize physical labor at a time when mechanization had not yet fully alleviated human toil.

Parkhunov’s palette hinges on contrast: the warm ochre tones of the workers’ skin stand in sharp opposition to the cold metallic hues of the workshop — steel, silver, and deep blue. Human figures and industrial machinery merge into a unified visual field; broad, energetic brushstrokes intertwine the bodies of the workers with the contours of the conveyor and surrounding equipment.

Here, the conveyor belt becomes a symbol of the industrial age. Although the Likhachyov Plant, like much of the USSR, was transitioning toward automation in the 1970s, Parkhunov puts the focus not on the machines, but on the people — their concentration, taut muscles, and resolute gazes. Even amid assembly lines, it is the human being who remains the true “engine” of progress. The artist underscores this idea through composition: the workers are arranged diagonally, like interlocking components of a single mechanism, while the conveyor stretches into the distance, symbolizing the unbroken continuity of labor.

The Likhachyov Plant, where this scene unfolds, boasts a legendary history. Founded in 1916 as the Moscow Automotive Society, it produced the Soviet Union’s first trucks. By the 1970s, the factory was a stage for intense socialist competition: youth brigades vied for the title of “best collective”. Parkhunov — often regarded as an artistic chronicler of his era — does not romanticize manual labor; he portrays its harshness with honesty, yet affirms its dignity. The workers’ upright postures and focused expressions convey pride, discipline, and unwavering commitment to their task.

This painting can be read as a dialogue between past and future. Manual effort still dominates, yet the assembly line heralds the coming age of automation. Parkhunov seems to remind us: “Behind every leap of progress stand real people”. Even the plant’s name honors Ivan Alekseyevich Likhachyov, the visionary director who transformed a modest enterprise into an industrial powerhouse.