Krasnyi Oktiabr Volgograd Metallurgical Works

a major enterprise in the USSR engaged in the production of high-grade steels. Located in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad and Tsaritsyn), the plant manufactures more than 250 grades of steel and alloys (stainless steel, ball-bearing metal, tool steel), more than 100 rolled steel section sizes, and other types of high-quality metal. Founded in 1897 by a French joint-stock company. During the Civil War and the military intervention of 1918-20, and particularly during the defense of Tsaritsyn, the metallurgical works built armored trains for the Red Army, repaired armaments, and carried out other such tasks. During the prewar five-year plans (1929-40) the plant was thoroughly modernized and converted into a major center for the production of high-quality steel for the industrial manufacturers of motor vehicles, tractors, and agricultural machinery. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) the plant was totally destroyed, but on July 31, 1943, only five months after the Battle of Stalin-grad, the plant performed its first steel smelting, and on August 31 it produced its first ton of rolled steel. Plant operations now include semicontinuous casting of stainless steel (1952), electroslag smelting (1962), the nonfurnace vacuum process for steel (1957), and others. In 1969 steel production was 11 times greater than that of 1913, and the production of rolled steel was almost 13 times greater. The plant has been awarded the Order of Lenin (1939) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1948).