Beloretsk Metallurgical Combine

(full name, M. I. Kalinin Beloretsk Metallurgical Combine), one of the oldest metallurgical enterprises in the USSR. It is located in the southern Urals in the Bashkir ASSR. High-quality iron ore of the Komarovo-Zigazin deposit and nonmetallic minerals are mined for the combine. More than 50 kinds of high-quality steel (1968) are smelted and about 130 kinds are rolled; metal ware is manufactured.

The Beloretsk Metallurgical Combine was developed on the basis of the blast furnace conversion plant founded in 1762 by the foundry owners I. B. Tverdyshev and I. S. Miasnikov. This plant had blast furnace, refining, and puddling facilities. Until 1917 there were two blast and three open-hearth furnaces, a sheet-and-bar mill, and a wire mill. The plant workers took an active part in the revolutionary movement in the southern Urals. In July 1918 the 270th Beloretsk Socialist Regiment was raised from the plant’s workers, and it carried out heroic raids as part of the Urals Partisan Army under the command of V. K. Bliukher. Under Soviet power the plant was rebuilt and expanded, new kinds of products were developed, and the production processes were mechanized and automated. In 1957, with the metallurgical plant as a basis, a combine was founded by the addition of the former Tirliansk Sheet-rolling mill, the Tukan mine, and a steel cable plant. The combine was extensively developed in the years of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). From 1913 to 1969 the production increased by a factor of 20 for cast iron, 10 for steel, 7.7 for finished rolled products, and 20.8 for metalware (wire, cable, and other items). Between 1958 and 1969 the productivity of labor doubled. The combine has received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1966).