Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — a shipbuilding enterprise in the Sormovo District of Nizhny Novgorod, one of the oldest shipyards in the country: in July 2024 the plant celebrated its 175th anniversary.[1] Over its history it has built river and sea vessels, steam locomotives, tanks, submarines, and hydrofoils; today it is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and serves as its primary facility for river-sea class vessels.[2][3]

History

The plant was founded in July 1849 on the Volga riverbank between the villages of Sormovo and Myshyakovka; it celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2024.[1] Below is a chronicle of its production.

On 21 July 1849, the company "Nizhny Novgorod Machine Works and Volga-Kama Towing and Kedging Steamship Company" purchased a plot of land on the Volga bank between the villages of Sormovo and Myshyakovka from Kryukova, a landowner from Balakhna. As early as 1850, the first vessel was launched — the wooden paddle steamer Lastochka.

In 1860 an economic crisis erupted and the bankrupt company sold the plant to the industrialist Dmitry Benardaki. As "Benardaki's Plant," the Sormovo works remained known until the Bolsheviks nationalized it.

On 4 February 1872, the joint-stock company "Sormovo" was organized. The plant operated 48 workshops and seven technical bureaus. Thanks to its successes and efficiency, the plant received large defense orders from the government.

From 1898 onward, the plant began producing steam locomotives.

In 1920, the first tanks in Russia were built at the plant.

During the war, the plant was awarded the rotating Red Banner of the State Defense Committee. The workers' labor kept the banner for 33 consecutive months. This is the only such case in the entire history of the Great Patriotic War.

From 23 February 1930, production of submarines commenced.

Among the submarines built was the S-13, captained by Marinesco, which sank the transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff.

After the war, owing to advances in technology and the military-technical competition with America, as well as the technologies and equipment obtained from Germany following the latter's defeat, the pace of submarine construction increased further still.

In total, 275 combat submarines were built at the enterprise, including 26 nuclear-powered ones.

In 1933 the plant was among the first in the country to switch to all-welded hulls.

It was at this plant that the renowned designer of high-speed vessels and ekranoplans Rostislav Alekseev began his career.

Civilian shipbuilding resumed on 27 May 1947 with the laying of the motor ship Bolshaya Volga; thereafter dry-cargo vessels, tankers, tugboats, and ferries were built. The flagships of the Volga passenger fleet were developed and constructed here — the diesel-electric ships Lenin and Sovetsky Soyuz.

In 1955, the first industrial continuous steel casting installation in the USSR was created at Krasnoye Sormovo.

In August 1957, the first passenger hydrofoil, Raketa-1, was launched. Later, high-speed vessels were built for both rivers and seas — Chayka, Meteor, Burevestnik, Kometa, and others. The plant's leading position in hydrofoil development (at the time) brought it worldwide fame and recognition.

During the war years

From July 1941, the plant launched production of T-34 tanks and ammunition.[4] In March 1945, the ten-thousandth Sormovo-built T-34 rolled off the assembly line.[4]

For this work, the enterprise received the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class, while more than 600 workers, engineers, and technicians were awarded orders and medals.[4] The symbols of wartime Sormovo — M-13 Katyusha shells, T-34 tanks, and submarines S-102 and S-13 — are displayed on the side of the "Victory Railcar," a Nizhny Novgorod tram that began running in August 2024.[4]

Radiation Accident of 1970

On 18 January 1970, in the workshop where the nuclear submarine K-320 of Project 670 Skat was under construction, an unauthorized reactor startup occurred: the reactor ran at beyond-critical power for fifteen seconds, and workers were killed in the reactor compartment.[5] The release amounted to 75,000 curies; radiation levels exceeded the norm by thousands of times, and there were no dosimeters in the workshop.[5]

Decontamination was carried out by more than eight hundred workers in three shifts over the course of three months, washing the premises with soap and water; radioactive runoff flowed into the Volga.[5] The workers received no awards or special status; the survivors formed an organization called "Yanvar 70" (January 70), which for many years sought official recognition and compensation payments.[5]

Industrial Heritage

The plant's grounds are themselves a monument to industrial architecture: twelve of its structures hold the status of cultural heritage sites of regional significance.[6] These include the factory administration building on Barrikad Street, a rolling mill dating to 1892, a locomotive assembly shop from 1893, a central boiler house from 1897, a wheel-rolling shop from 1907, and a power substation from 1916; nearby stand the Church of Alexander Nevsky from the late 19th–early 20th century, an income-generating apartment building from 1898, a parish school building from 1902–1903, and two residential buildings from 1927 on [6]

Kominterna Street. In September 2023, the ANO "ASIRIS" published a virtual guidebook covering these sites, bringing together key facts about the plant and an account of the Sormovo workers' uprising.[6]

The Plant Today

Krasnoye Sormovo is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and builds river-sea class vessels based on the unified "Platform No. 1."[2][3] In June 2023, the plant signed a contract with the State Transport Leasing Company for 34 dry-cargo vessels of project RSD59: the first ten were to be delivered by the end of 2024, the next twelve by September 2025, and the final twelve by January 2027. RSD59 project dry-cargo vessels belong to the Volga-Don Max class: their dimensions are calculated to match the maximum parameters of the Volga-Don Shipping Canal, allowing maximum efficiency in cargo capacity while complying with inland waterway restrictions. The vessels are capable of carrying general and bulk cargo, including grain and coal, timber, metal and scrap metal, as well as oversized, long-length, heavy, and hazardous cargo.

Technical specifications of the series-production RSD59 dry-cargo vessels: length — 140.88 m, beam — 16.98 m, side height — 6 m, deadweight in river mode — 5,128 t, in sea mode — 7,535 t, cargo hold volume — 11,292 m³, endurance — 20 days in river mode and 12 days in sea mode.[9][8] This is the sixth joint series since 2015: prior to it, the two organisations built around fifty vessels worth 61.1 billion rubles.[7]

In 2026, the plant became a pilot site for the federal project "Digital Shipbuilding Production": the implemented system allows the entire construction cycle to be tracked in real time — from the order portfolio to quality control — with foremen recording shift-and-daily assignments digitally and procurement synchronised with the work schedule.[2][3] Modernisation is proceeding in parallel: equipment upgrades, automation, and robotisation in preparation for the transition to large-block flow-line construction. In addition to dry-cargo vessels, during the 2020s the plant has been involved in building vessels for the fishing industry and passenger fleet: in particular, the crab vessel Kapitan Zhitnikov was built on order from the Russkiy Krab group of companies under the first stage of the state investment quota programme, and the passenger electric vessel Peterhof of the Moskva 2.0 series was handed over to a carrier.[8][3]

Chronicle of events

Details of each event are in the article about it; here are the dates and gist.

Sources

  1. Biznes News. Time to Earn — Dry-cargo vessels of the RSD59 project, built at Krasnoye Sormovo, belong to the "Volga-Don Max" class: their dimensions are designed for maximum use of the carrying capac
  1. Newsroom24 — Dry-cargo vessels of the RSD59 project belong to the "Volga-Don Max" class: their dimensions are calculated with the limiting parameters of the Volga-Don Shipping Canal in mind, which allow
  1. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Sergey Plyaskin congratulates the Krasnoye Sormovo team on its 175th anniversary (July 19, 2024) (archive)
  2. Newsroom24 — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant selected as pilot site for the federal project "Digital Shipbuilding Production" (August 25, 2026) (archive)
  3. Biznes News. Vremya zarabatyvat' — OSK implements digital production management platform at Krasnoye Sormovo (August 25, 2026) (archive)
  4. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Nizhny Novgorod launches new "Victory Railcar" dedicated to the history of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (August 28, 2024) (archive)
  5. nn.aif.ru — AiF — Nizhny Novgorod — Liquidators of the nuclear reactor accident, members of the Yanvar' 70 society, recall the tragedy at Krasnoye Sormovo (January 21, 2008) (archive)
  6. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Virtual guide to the historic buildings of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (September 6, 2023) (archive)
  7. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Krasnoye Sormovo to build 34 dry-cargo vessels under contract with GTLK (June 15, 2023) (archive)