Makar Nikitovich Mazai

Born Mar. 31 (Apr. 13), 1910, in the stanitsa (large cossack village) of Ol’ginskaia, now in Krasnodar Krai; died November 1941 in Mariupol’. Workerinnovator; steel-worker at the Mariupol’ (now Zhdanov) Il’ich Metallurgical Plant; initiator of competition for the highest steel output. Member of the CPSU from 1938.

In October 1936, Mazai set a record for steel smelting—in six hours and 40 minutes he produced 15 tons of steel with 1 sq m of hearth in an open-hearth furnace. He regularly exceeded work norms by significant amounts. His methods of high-speed steel production spread throughout Soviet metallurgy. In 1937 he studied at the Industrial Academy in Moscow. During the fascist German occupation of the city of Mariupol’ he was tortured to death by the Gestapo. In November 1948 a monument to Mazai was erected in the city of Zhdanov. Mazai was the author of Notes of a Steel Worker (1940). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.