Moscow Electrical Machinery Plant

(full name, Vladimir Il’ich Moscow Electrical Machinery Plant), one of the oldest machine-building enterprises in the USSR. It was founded in 1847 by the Englishman W. I. Gopper (the Gopper and Company Trading House) and purchased in 1916 by the businessman L. A. Mikhel’son. Until 1914 the plant manufactured steam engines, transmission equipment, and parts for textile factories; in 1914 it was reorganized for production of military equipment and armaments. In 1892 a Marxist society was organized at the plant. In 1905 fighting druzhinas from the plant were at the barricades in Zamoskvorech’e and Krasnaia Presnia. During the February Revolution of 1917 the plant’s workers freed political prisoners incarcerated in the Taganka prison. Red Guard detachments of plant workers were organized. In October 1917 they took an active part in the battle for the Kremlin and the battles at the Moskvoretskii Bridge, at the Krymskii Bridge, and at Ostozhenka (present-day Metrostroevskaia Street). V. I. Lenin repeatedly spoke at workers’ meetings. On Aug. 30, 1918, upon leaving the plant, he was wounded by the Socialist Revolutionary terrorist F. Kaplan.

The task of supplying the Red Army with arms and ammunition was successfully fulfilled by the plant’s workers in response to a personal request by V. I. Lenin. After the Civil War of 1918–20 the workers manufactured equipment specified by the plan of GOELRO (State Commission for the Electrification of Russia) for the pioneer projects of Soviet power engineering, and also hydraulic peat-cutting machinery. On Sept. 9, 1922, the name of Vladimir Il’ich was added to the plant’s title. On Nov. 7, 1922, on the fifth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Lenin sent his greetings to the plant’s workers.

During the first five-year plans the plant produced equipment for Magnitka, the Kuzbass, Dneproges, the Moscow subway, and other construction projects of the greatest importance to the country. The plant was the first in the country to produce rockets for Katiusha launchers (1941). After the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) the plant manufactured self-propelled harvesting combines; since 1947 it has also built asynchronous electric motors for general industrial use. From 1955 to 1965 the plant was modernized; production of large electric motors for steam power plants and the petrochemical industry was introduced.

The Moscow Electrical Machinery Plant has research laboratories. Its products are exported to many countries. The plant has been awarded the Order of Lenin (1942), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1942), and the Order of the October Revolution (1971).