Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant (Russian: Златоустовский машиностроительный завод; also rendered ZlatMash, and formally JSC/АО "Zlatmash") is a mechanical-engineering and defence manufacturing enterprise in Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It was established in 1939 primarily for the production of small arms and later became a principal Russian producer of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and related rocket and space hardware. The plant is a city-forming enterprise for its district and has been part of the State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos".
Foundation and early history
The first government decision to build the plant was taken in May 1938; after an assessment of eleven candidate sites, the Urzhum platform, about 12 km from Zlatoust, was selected. On 28 June 1939 the design assignments and general plan were approved in Moscow, and construction began that year; Nikolai P. Poletayev was appointed director on 29 June 1939. Sources variously refer to the new works as Plant No. 54 and Plant No. 385.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, equipment and personnel from the Tula Arms Plant and the Podolsk Mechanical Plant were evacuated to Zlatoust in October–November 1941, and production of the Maxim machine gun and the Volkov-Yartsev (VYa) aviation cannon began. The plant subsequently manufactured the Berezin machine gun, the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh-41), the Degtyarev anti-tank rifle (PTRD) and, from 1944, the Goryunov SG-43 machine gun. Plants No. 54/66 and No. 385 were merged in 1945, and the combined enterprise received the Order of Lenin on 16 September 1945. It was later awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1969) and the Order of the October Revolution (1978).
Missile and space production
In December 1947 a design unit, SKB No. 385, was created within the plant; this organisation later became the Makeyev State Rocket Centre in Miass. From 1953 the plant produced tactical missiles (R-11/8K11) to the documentation of Sergei Korolev's OKB-1. In 1959 the R-11FM, the first submarine-launched ballistic missile adopted by the Soviet Navy, entered service; the underwater-launched R-21 followed in 1963. In 1967 the plant became the first in the world to ship a factory-filled and ampoule-sealed liquid-propellant missile (the RSM-25/R-27), for which a dedicated ampouling and fuelling complex was built. According to Russian sources, subsequently all ballistic missiles in naval service were manufactured and test-worked at the plant, including the R-27U and later the R-39 and the RSM-54 Sineva.
The enterprise also participated in space programmes, manufacturing brake propulsion units for the Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz spacecraft (1961–1980), components for the Energia–Buran complex, and tooling and non-standard equipment for the Baikonur launch complex.
Institutional subordination changed over time: from 1965 to 1991 the plant reported to the USSR Ministry of General Machine-Building, and in 1998 it was subordinated to the Russian Space Agency, and from 2009 it formed part of Roscosmos. A separate closed facility at the nearby settlement of Zlatoust-36 (now Trekhgornyy) is identified in reference sources as a warhead assembly and disassembly site, distinct from the machine-building plant itself.
Civilian production and current status
Alongside defence orders, the plant has produced consumer and industrial goods, including the "Mechta" electric cookers (from the 1960s), equipment for polyethylene sleeve film, "Termal" heating radiators, medical equipment, crane manipulators, and civilian and hunting firearms. Its registered activities include the manufacture of aircraft and space vehicles and associated equipment.
Assessment
The Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant is a well-documented industrial enterprise with coverage in encyclopaedic, governmental and specialised reference sources. Its history and product lines are comparatively well established; details such as exact founding dates and plant numbering vary between Soviet-era and later Russian accounts, and such discrepancies are best treated as matters of historical record-keeping rather than settled fact.
