Neva Machine-Building Plant

Neva Machine-Building Plant 

(full name, V. I. Lenin Neva Machine-building Plant), a large Soviet enterprise for construction of power machinery. Located in Leningrad. The plant manufactures centrifugal compressors driven by gas turbines with a power of up to 25 megawatts (MW) and by steam turbines with a power of up to 30 MW for the chemical, petroleum, gas, and metallurgical industries, as well as complex shaped castings and forgings for power machine building. Part of the plant’s production is exported. The plant was founded in 1857 as the Neva Foundry and Mechanical Works (it was also known as the Semiannikov Works, after the family name of one of the founders). In prerevolutionary Russia the plant produced warships, locomotives, and metallurgical products.

The workers of the Neva Machine-building Plant took part in the revolutionary movement. In 1905 they went on strike for 110 days, fought at the barricades, and established, without authorization, an eight-hour workday at the plant. The fitter I. V. Babushkin of the Semiannikov Works, a pupil of V. I. Lenin, became the organizer of Marxist societies in the workshops located beyond the Nevskaia Zastava. During the October Armed Uprising the workers kept order in their part of the city, and the Red Guards from the plant took part in the storming of the Winter Palace. In 1922, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution, the name of V. I. Lenin was conferred on the plant.

The restoration of the plant, which had been destroyed during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), was basically complete by 1948, and the prewar production level was attained by 1951. As a result of the modernization, gross production in 1972 exceeded that of 1951 by a factor of 8.

The plant is a manufacturing enterprise of unit and some short-run production; it also conducts research and experimental work on new machines and types of steel. To achieve a further increase in production, modernization of the metallurgical shop complex is being continued. The plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1939 and the Order of Lenin in 1957.

A. V. PETUKHOV