State Izhora Plant of the People's Commissariat of the USSR Shipbuilding Industry in 1941

Soviet historiography has formed a thesis according to which the restructuring of the domestic industry on a war footing began after June 22, 1941. A specific example of the Leningrad Izhora Plant of the People's Commissariat of the Shipbuilding Industry (NKSP), one of the largest metallurgical enterprises in the northwest of the USSR, speaks in favor of refuting this thesis. The Izhora Plant met the war mobilized, loaded to the limit with military orders. The main activity of the plant in the pre-war period was the production of ship and tank armor, as well as armor for coastal defense structures. In addition, in 1941 the plant had to master the production of a diesel engine for ships, armored hulls for the Il-2 attack aircraft and tunneling equipment for the construction of the Leningrad metro. The rate of munitions production, gained by the Izhora Plant by the beginning of the war, changed little after the start of hostilities, but the range of products was significantly adjusted, all efforts of the plant workers were concentrated on the implementation of the tank program, and the manufacture of ship armor was discontinued. The evacuation of tank production began mainly with the enemy army's approach to the plant. Some of the metallurgical equipment was successfully transported to the east, but the bulk of the machines and units remained inside the blockade ring. The plant, as a production unit, managed to make its most significant contribution to the country's defense before September 1941, after which its production volumes in Leningrad decreased by more than an order of magnitude.