Société Anonyme des Usines Métallurgiques et des Aciéries de “Sormovo”
Общество Желѣзодѣлательныхъ, Сталелитейныхъ и Механисескихъ Заводоъ “Сормово”
“Sormovo” Iron, Steel and Mechanical Plants
Other city spellings: St.-Pétersbourg, Petrograd, Pétrograde
The company was formed in July 1894 with head office in St. Petersburg. Initial capital was 3,000,000 roubles in shares of 100 roubles. Capital was increased to 5,000,000 roubles in 1896, to 7,500,000 roubles in 1899, to 10,000,000 roubles in 1906 and to 15,000,000 roubles in 1913 (though it seems that some certificates were not issued until 1916?). Certificates were replaced every 10 years when the coupon sheet was exhausted.
1894
Description
The original founding of the factory in the Balakhninsk district of Nizhny Novgorod governorate dates back to a joint venture between the Nizhegorodsk machine factory and the factory for towing and towing ships in 1849. Barges and other river vessels were built first. The first paddle steamer was launched in 1850. In 1870 the plant got its own iron foundry. After that, railway material and wagons were also built. After a bankruptcy in 1875, the factory continued to produce under the direction of an insolvency administrator, but the economic crisis of the 1880s made the situation worse.
The factory was saved by St. Petersburg banks, which founded the joint-stock company under the above name in 1894. The initiator of this action was N. N. Bogdanov from the Foreign Trade Bank. The plant was expanded up until the October Revolution and mainly produced railway material including locomotives, steamships, steam engines, finished steel products such as forged parts, shaped steel and sheet metal. The number of workers at Sormowo rose from 500 in the early days to over 12,000 after 1912. Numerous railway bridges were built with Sormowo steel. In 1904, cannons and artillery ammunition, which became the main product during the war, were added to the program. During the war, Sormovo also merged with other engineering works, such as the Warsaw Steel Foundry and the Kolomna Works. In 1918, the company was nationalized and renamed “Krassnoe Sormowo” (Red Sormowo). After reunification, Krassnoe Sormovo became a public limited company again in 1994. (source: HWPH October 2016)