[POST]Industrial Urals: Shadrinsk. A town around a plant

Founded in the 17th century, Shadrinsk is a town in Kurgan Oblast. By 1686 the free-peasant settlement of Shadrinsk was already the largest in Western Siberia.

The town has several large factories that produce automobile units, electrodes, telephones and other equipment.

Shadrinsk Auto Aggregate Plant (JSC SAAP) is one of the largest manufacturers of automobile units. Since 1999 it has been part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC).

JSC SAAP is the town’s main enterprise and has a socially responsible business policy. This includes taking care of veterans, assisting the educational and professional development of young people, and other social programs.

The territory around the plants is usually wasteland, separated from the industrial area by a fence.

People are a rare sight. Those you might meet are mainly factory workers who prefer not to use the main entrance or passers-by.

During World War II, most of the plants in the European part of the Soviet Union were moved to the Urals.

This revived all branches of industry in the Urals; nowadays some companies are having difficulties modernizing their production facilities.

The sign says that the factory was founded in 1941 on the basis of automobile workshops evacuated from Moscow, under the direction of Ivan Likhachev.

Ivan Likhachev (1896-1956) was a great statesman and industrialist. He headed the Moscow Automobile Plant (now the Likhachev Plant).

Initially the plant was named after Joseph Stalin (the Joseph Stalin Plant), and later the Joseph Stalin Shadrinsk Auto Aggregate Plant.

Interesting fact: Shadrinsk is the birthplace of renowned Soviet painter and monument sculptor Ivan Shadr.

Shadrinsk has a train station with services to Yekaterinburg and Kurgan, as well as an interurban bus station.

In 1943 Shadrinsk left Chelyabinsk Region to become part of Kurgan Region.

The text on the building reads: “Scientific and technological progress is the key to raising the level of production”

As of 2014 Shadrinsk’s population is 77,000.