Serp i Molot Moscow Metallurgical Plant

a Soviet ferrous-metallurgy enterprise producing medium and small sectional rolled products, wire rod, gaged steel, cold-drawn wire, hot-rolled sheet steel, cold-rolled sheet and strip steel, shaped castings, and steel cables. The plant was founded in 1883 by the French entrepreneur Goujon. In 1886, rolling, drawing, nail, and auxiliary divisions were in operation. The first open-hearth furnace was built in 1890; the second, in 1892. The plant’s workers took an active part in the Revolution of 1905–07 and the October Revolution of 1917.

In early November 1922 the plant was renamed the Great Serp i Molot (Hammer and Sickle) Metallurgical Plant. Since 1931 it has specialized in the production of high-quality steel items. From 1929 to 1935 the plant was re-equipped, with the erection of new open-hearth furnaces, modernization of the rolling mills and heating furnaces, construction of new bays for the finishing of rolled products, and the opening of the first shop in the country for cold rolling of stainless-steel strip. The plant was granted new land, which was used for the construction of a second steel casting plant, with open-hearth and electric arc furnaces, as well as shaped-casting, gaging, and cable shops. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), the plant worked for the needs of the front.

During the postwar years, technological advancements were introduced into production. For the first time oxygen was used as an intensifier in the steel-casting process in open-hearth furnaces, and automation was introduced for regulating the thermal conditions of the furnaces and for converting them to evaporation cooling. New production processes were developed, such as cleaning the surfaces of sheet, strip, rod, and wire by processing them in an alkali melt, and the first automated system in the USSR was introduced for laying out sectional rolled steel using computer technology. Devices were invented for automating the process of producing silver steel. New modernization of the plant has been under way since 1968. The gross production of the plant in 1973 had increased by 47.9 percent in comparison with 1960. The plant was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939 and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1945.