In the 1930s, the Shymkent Lead Plant produced approximately 70% of all lead manufactured in the Soviet Union. On 20 January 1934, the plant produced its first batch of lead.
The newly established plant produced twice as much as other lead plants across the Soviet Union. In 1937, it accounted for 75.3% of the USSR’s total lead production.
On 26 April 1939, the Shymkent Lead Plant, named after Mikhail Kalinin, was awarded the Order of Lenin by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1939, the plant produced 73.2% of Kazakhstan’s lead output and 62.1% of the total lead produced in the Soviet Union.
Built during the pre-war Five-Year Plans, the Shymkent Lead Plant played an important role in achieving victory in the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front of World War II). It became one of the country’s largest industrial enterprises.
