The Beginning of the Steel Age

The «iron age» of Vyksa started in the first decades of the 18th century. According to the famous Decree of 1719 by Peter the Great, it was allowed «for everyone in Russia to prospect for, purify, and smelt metals». Just the same period saw the emergence of the first «bell-pit» wells in the vicinity of Vyksa where primitive ball iron production was started. The true – industrial – metallurgical development, however, was launched in this area in the context of the Decree issued by Elizabeth, Peter the Great’s daughter, who became, unknowingly maybe, Russia’s first environment-minded ruler. «To prevent forest devastation», Empress Elizabeth OF Russia decreed to shut down several plants located within 200 versts (700,000 ft.) from Moscow. The list compiled by the Senate included the enterprises owned by Andrey and Ivan Batashev, famous «iron works industrialists», so the bothers had to search for new premises.

At that time, Vyksa’s outskirts were ideal for establishing a new metallurgical enterprise. The availability of rich iron deposits in the area, the Oka River, an important transportational route, located nearby, and the proximity of the site of the famous Nizhni Novgorod fair became the determining factors for the Batashevs. In 1757, two years after the relocation, the Unzha Works – the Batashevs’ enterprises located in the Vladimir province – started its first cast iron production.

As for the development of production in Vyksa, it was seriously hampered by the following factor: this was the «territory of newly-converted Mordovians» and a special monarch’s permission was required to start construction work in this area. In the August of 1765, the brothers received a regal present from Catherine the Second: a few days after Ivan Batashev’s birthday, and some time before his saint's day, the empress signed a special decree permitting the brothers to develop the banks of the Vyksa and Veletma rivers.

The construction of the new Upper-Vyksa Works was started immediately; and a year later, in 1766, it produced about 5 thsd tonnes of cast iron, a significant volume by the standards of that period.

The enterprising Batashevs used an interesting method for acquiring land: the new lands were mortgaged on a very high security, while the serf peasants from the purchased villages were transferred to plants and became workers. Thus, the Batashevs increased the floating capital of their enterprises and provided them with additional labor force. In three years, from 1762 to 1764, this practice resulted in a triple increase in the volume of production at the Batashevs’ Unzha and Gusev Works.

By early 19th century, the Batashevs owned as many as eighteen metallurgical plants, fourteen of which they built themselves.

Vyksa Stories

The ironworks owned by the Batashevs became an industrial symbol of that period, so it is no wonder that many interesting legends and stories circulating with regard to their enterprises and the owners themselves.

One of the stories is related to the period of Turkish campaigns in the late 18th century. At that time, the Batashev plants were the main suppliers of cannons, cannon balls, and bombs for the Russian army. During one year alone, in 1770, the Vyksa enterprise produced ahead of schedule about 150 cannons of different calibers, as well as «innumerable bombs and cannon balls». However, the cannon production was new for the Vyksa plans, so some of the Batashevs’ cannon exploded during tests. To investigate the matter, a new state inspecting engineer from Saint Petersburg was assigned to the plants, and he helped the Vyksa producers solve the production problem. As the legend has it, the name of the new inspecting engineer was Osip Abramovich Hannibal, a captain II rank of the Russian fleet, who was Alexander Pushkin’s grandfather.

According to another legend, the treasury was short of finance for the production of cannons. So, the Batashevs sent a missive to Catherine asking «the Mother not to worry» on that account, «We will send as many cannon as needed for Russia».

The junior brother, Ivan Rodionovich, was reputed in Russia to be a great connoisseur of the beauty and an avid theater-goer. It was Ivan who was the owner of the famed Batashev Hall, at the Vshivaya Gorka in Moscow, which was considered to be one of the most beautiful and extraordinary monument of the Moscow architecture of the 18th century. This house was one of the few buildings that survived the 1812 Fire due to its lodger at that time – Joachim Murat, a renowned general of Napoleon’s army.

Having occupied the luxurious Batashev palace, Murat and his aides immediately demanded that dinner be served; what the servants of the legendary manufacturer could find, however, was a simple roll for the marshal and a loaf of brown bread for the rest. After their unexpectedly humble repast, the guests ordered an individual room for each; all of them wanted to sleep in the master’s bed too. «Like dogs, we were made to ‘play fetch’», Batashev’s Moscow manager wrote to him. Notwithstanding the fact that his house was left practically unharmed, Ivan Batashev spent 300 thousand rubles, an exorbitant sum for those times, on redecorating his rooms «after the French».

The Batashevs were surrounded by a kind of romantic aura: it was whispered about their love affairs, secret Batashev palaces, the Murom gang affiliation, which were groundless rumors as a rule.

Famous writer D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak thought that the Batashevs had a «secret sympathy for the faith of Old Believers», and not the least grounds for such conjectures was the patriarchal social life style at the Batashevs’ plants, where the working community lived like a family, celebrating holidays and grieving together.

«Those who worked at the Vyksa plants were famous for their diligence; idler or dawdlers were soon out», wrote one of the Batashevs’ historians, «The worker who had a drink on a weekday, be it a dram, freshened the nip on a Monday, or could not wait to have a drink until Sunday was punished by whipping. The offender was punished three times, and in case of a new offence was recruited to serve in the army and sent to a settlement in Siberia».

New England

In the 19th the owners of plants changed what we call now their strategy. The Batashevs shifted their focus from increasing the volume of production and the number of their plants to expanding the range of their products. They reduced their cast-iron output and started producing finished products. According to one of their contemporaries, «these plants are equipped with everything that is necessary for production. The manufacturer, according the Russian tradition and the Ore Plant Law, has a settlement abundantly populated with peasants used by him for the plant business exclusively. Women and children have decent and adequate jobs for the plants. The daily payment for water mine-diggers during the business season is eight kopeks, and the off-season payment is five kopeks. Apart from iron strip, the Vyksa plants produce various implements: kettles, cast-iron cauldrons, axes, hammers, crow-bars, and the like».

The prosperous plants owned by the Batashevs were quite successful in their competition with Demidov’s plants. For a long time, the Vyksa ironworks were dubbed «New England», with one of the main reasons being that they were always equipped according to the latest technological standards.

The Snoved Plant owned by the Batashevs was the first in Russia where they used a machine for continuous operation of their iron-melting blast furnace. Mechanics Lukin and Yastrebov built it as far back as in 1799, 25 years earlier than famous mechanic E. A. Cherepanov. In 1815, they also constructed a steam engine at the Upper-Vyksa Plant, well before the 1820s when the Batashevs’ plants launched an industrial production of steam engines. The Batashevs’ «steamers» were on a par with the world-famous ones produced by Berdov, and were installed on the majority of Volga steamships.

The Batashevs’ enterprise produced such an exotic in that period product as ultrastrong high-carbon figured steel. As early as in 1820, it was reported to the Mining Engineering Department of the Russian Empire that the Batashevs’ plant manufactured «…a product similar to damask steel».

The 19th century became an epoch of prosperity and success for the Batashevs’ plants. Their products were awarded first degree diplomas and golden medals at international exhibitions held in Paris, Leipzig, Milan, Turin, Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod, and Kazan. The cast-iron produced by the Vyksa plant became world-famous. According to reputed historian P. P. Svinyin, «It is soft and exceptionally resilient at the same time, and I have never since a product with such properties at any of the plants when traveling in Russia, Sweden, England, or the USA. Cast iron is generally characterized by its hardness, frailty, and brittleness; this cast-iron, however, is supple like a spring and strong in its aggregation. This is evidenced by the bracket supports and stud bolts made of this cast-iron used for supporting the boxed in the Peter Theatre, Moscow».

In the period when the second water pipeline was installed in Mytishchi, the Vyksa plants produced 13 fountains and more than 40 versts of cast-iron pipes. But the Vyksa products were not restricted to foundry-iron and cast-iron ware. Molded cast-iron decorations and the famous statues of horses gracing the Triumphal Arch in Moscow were produced by Vyksa master workmen according to the design by famous Russian sculptor Vitaly. The artistic fountains and water supply systems produced by the former Batashev plants, which were then called Shepelev plants after their new owner, were installed in many major Russian cities.

Shabolovka – Vyksa Steel Works

After his death, Ivan Batashev’s plants were owned by his son-in-law general D. D. Shepelev, a hero of the 1812 Patriotic War. The Shepelev plants became ones of the major industrial centers in Russia, and it is small wonder that the names of many famous people were associated with them. Writer Sukhovo-Kobylin, one of the close relatives of the plans’ manager, wrote his famous Krechinsky Wedding in Vyksa. Some specialists believe that D. D. Shepelev was a prototype for A. Pushkin’s character Prince Vereysky, «experienced» fiance of Masha Troyekurova, depicted in his novella Dubrovsky.

In the researchers’ opinion, the Vyksa plants were the scene where the action in N. S. Leskov’s novellette Iron Will took place. Renowned architect A. M. Gornostayev – who designed Prince Pozharsky’s shrine in Suzdal and the Assumption Cathedral in Helsinki, built cathedrals on the Balaam Island and for the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Hermitage, Saint Petersburg suburbs – was born and grew up in D. D. Shepelev’s family in the Vyksa plant area. Historian P. P. Svinyin once stayed at the Shepelev’s and chanced to see Gornostayev’s exceptionally talented paintings, so he persuaded the boy’s tutors that their charge should pursue art education.

D. D. Shepelev took an active part in the career of famous Russian painter M. I. Scotti. This is what the painter wrote him from Rome in 1843: «Judging by your letter I can see that you have not changed. Do not be angry with me and trust my word to return to Vyksa. When I come, I will work for you according to your instructions and to the best of my capabilities».

The most significant hallmark in the history of the plant is undoubtedly associated with Russian architect-constructivist and inventor V. G. Shukhov. In 1898, the designer of the future Shabolovka Television Tower created a water tower in Vyksa. The tower tank was supported by a hyperboloid-shaped base made of a mesh of straight-line bars. It was this water tower that became the prototype for Shukhov’s famous structure – the symbol of the Soviet television in the 1940s-1970s. In 1898, V. G. Shukhov also designed the building for Vyksa plant’s sheet mill workshop with its roofing system in the form of a metal-mesh vault. This building has survived up to the present day.

The Epoch of Achievements

Like everywhere in Russia, Vyksa experienced tumultuous times in the early 1920s. When World War I started, manager of the Vyksa plans A. I. Lessing, a German citizen, had to leave for his homeland. It had been due to his efforts that the Vyksa metallurgical production had seen a vigorous growth in the late 19th century. On the initiative of A. I. Lessing, they constructed new buildings for the production of the most saleable goods: iron, nails, and steel ingots. The rails produced by the Vyksa plants were used for the installation of all railroads in the Russian Empire. The Vil, Vyksa, and Doschaty plans were linked with the Oka River area through a railroad, which considerably facilitated the transportation of raw materials and finished products.

However, the war dictated its terms, so the production facilities were remodeled for fulfilling defense orders, and the enterprises were controlled by one state manager after another. At the time of the 1917 Revolution, the Vyksa plants were one of the agencies of the High Road Department under the Ministry of Railways.

During the entire Civil War, the plants remained the only stable metallurgical enterprises in the European part of Russia producing metal products. The Volga region suffered from a severe famine in that period. In 1918, a telegram was sent to Lenin from now-unknown senders in Vyksa, reporting that «their troops armed with machine-guns are traveling by steamships to get their bread by force». In his reply, Lenin considered their actions to be a «splendid plan for a mass machine-gunned movement for bread», calling the Vyksa expropriators «true revolutionaries».

In those circumstances, the Vyksa Works, operating then as part of the Oka Mining District, not only retained but also developed their production levels, and by 1925 exceeded the pre-war performance by 5.6%. Three years later, in 1928, the Oka Mining District was disbanded, and a unified enterprise – Vyksa Steel Works – was established on the basis of the primary productive facilities of the plants once owned by the Batashevs.

The Soviet history of Vyksa Steel Works had no such an entertaining romantic aura that had surrounded the Batashevs’ enterprises for almost two centuries. The tales bantered around in parlors about the Batashevs’ riches and secret mints gave way to ample figure testifying to stunning production results. Vyksa Steel Works had never been stagnant in its technical development, and in the industrialization era Vyksa Steel Works saw a rapid modernization. Only within a five years’ period, from 1930 to 1935, its primary production facilities were electrified, two Martin furnaces, second to none in this country, were installed, and the one and the only in the USSR workshop for the production of electric-welded pipes was constructed.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Works mastered, within a record-braking timeframe, the manufacture of entirely new products required by the defense industry. Even though the steelmaking plan was increased almost tenfold, Vyksa exceeded their target.

The armor steel produced in Vyksa was used not only for making tanks and armored trains. In 1942, this armor was used for assembling the bodies of a unique Vyksa project – a railroad armored motorcar B-64V. The letter «V» stood for «Vyksa». The light motorcar was designed for traveling … on rails! The car was put on railroad wheels, and it successfully passed all tests. The only drawback it showed was its slow motion speed.

Equally impressive are the Works’ chronicles after the Victory. From 1971 to 1991, five new workshops were built, and three new production lines were mastered at the Works. Vyksa Steel Works became the largest producer of electric-welded pipes and railroad wheels in the USSR. The Works was the first in this country that mastered the powder metallurgy technology, and its electric-welded pipe workshop No. 5, built in 1987 on the basis of the Japanese technology, was considered to be the best in the Soviet Union. In the last year of the USSR’s existence, electric-welded pipe workshop No. 5 – ultramodern and the most advanced technological facilities in the Soviet pipe industry – was commissioned at the Works.

The Present Day of the Steel Giant

The market transformation era has not become a period of decline for Vyksa Steel Works. The Works managed to retain its unique historical image, mostly due to the fact that it became part of United Metallurgical Company in 1999. The leader in pipe production, the main supplier of railway wheels for JSC « Russian railways », VSW continues to develop and improve the manufacture.

In the new millennium, the Works has put into operation unique modern equipment – the area for producing pipes with external corrosion-resistant coatings. The technology for applying two- or three-layer coatings makes it possible to extend the pipe service life 2-2.5-fold. Since the summer of 2002, the laboratories of the Ministry of Railways have tested the railroad wheels produced by Vyksa Steel Works that are second to none in the world. The Works is active in carrying out the research and development work toward creating wheels of the next generation in terms of hardness and wearability. They will be characterized by enhanced serviceability and axle weight limit – no other manufacturer in the world has ever produced wheels with such high engineering performance.

In 2004, under the contract signed with Russian Railways (a legal successor of the Russian Ministry of Railways), the Works made decisive steps toward launching a serial production of new generation wheels. In July, Vyksa Steel Works put into operation an out-of-furnace steel processing unit, which made it possible to start producing metal meant for manufacturing wheels with totally new high quality properties. As early as a month later, in August, a unit for the shot-blast hardening of railroad wheels was put into operation at Vyksa Steel Works. The investments in the implementation of these two projects amounted to $20 mln. The use of these two units made it possible to for Vyksa Steel Works to substantially improve the durability of wheels and extend their service life 1.5-2-fold as compared with regular wheels.

In 1992, Vyksa Steel Works started to bring its system for the certification of quality of its products in line with international standards. As early as two years later, in 1994, the Works obtained an API Spec Q1 Certificate and an API license to use the API official monogram on its products.

However, the most demonstrative evidence of Vyksa pipes’ high quality is the enterprise’s victories in major international biddings. The companies participating in transnational projects related to the resource development of the Sakhalin shelf – Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 – not only preferred the produce of Vyksa Steel Works to the pipes of other manufacturers but also made a special mention of its high quality. For its accuracy in fulfilling its schedule work, the enterprise was awarded special certificates by Exxon Neftegaz Limited – the operator and the customer of the Sakhalin 2 Project – and ABB Lummus Global, a contractor for onshore and offshore facilities. In 2005 ÎÌÊ had success in tender of JSC «Gasprom and ÀÊ «Transneft » for delivery of large diameter pipes for the largest national pipeline projects - North-European Gas pipeline (NEGP, subsequently named «Nord Stream») and oil pipeline «the Eastern Siberia – the Pacific Ocean » (ESPO pipeline). In 2007 ÎÌÊ became the only Russian company that had won the tender for delivery of VSW pipes for off-shore part of «Nord Stream Project» across the Baltic Sea. In 2008-09 VSW effect deliveries of large diameter pipes for the construction of underwater section of «Nord Stream», line gas pipeline «Central Asia–China» and «Bovanenkovo -Uhta ».

Vyksa Steel Works – a holder of the Order of Lenin and state statuses («Leader of the Russian Economy» and «Russia Business Elite»), a winner of international prizes («Golden Mercury», «Golden Cliche», and «Golden Palm-branch») – looks forward with the confident composure of the patriarch of the Russian metallurgy. The enterprise’s 250 years of successful experience give it sufficient grounds to feel that way.

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