There is a swagger about the Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) these days: the giant sign above the gate proclaiming the October Revolution gleams as never before, while a second plaque portraying Lenin has the communist leader’s chin jutting out with even more than its usual assertiveness.

This is a survival story. MTZ is perhaps the only non-military mass-manufacturer in the former Soviet Union that can still claim to have a 10 per cent global market share for its products, largely a result of its 88 per cent share of the market for tractors in the Commonwealth of Independent States.