# Andrey Filatov (engineer)

Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov (Russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Фила́тов; born 19 August 1912 in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire – died 6 June 1973 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR) was a Soviet metallurgical engineer, manager, and the eleventh director of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (1968–1973). He was a Hero of Socialist Labour (1971) and a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR.

## Biography

Andrey Filatov was born on 19 August 1912 in the city of Kharkov in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), to a working-class family. He lived in the Belgorod region. He completed six classes of a seven-year school. In 1930, following a Komsomol call, Andrey Filatov arrived at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine.
After arriving, Filatov enrolled in the factory and plant school at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine. During his studies, this school was in the city of Verkhneuralsk. In 1931, he graduated from the school, specializing as an operator in the coke chemical industry, and in the same year, Filatov began working at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine.

### Career

He worked as a bricklayer during the construction of coke ovens. For a time, Filatov worked in the coke chemical production of the combine, and then moved to the rolling mill shop, working as an assistant roller. Andrey Dmitrievich completed evening classes at one of the Magnitogorsk technical schools, after which he became a foreman.
In 1938, Filatov moved to the technical control department of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, where he worked as a controller, deputy head, and head of the site. Alongside his work at the combine, he studied in the evening department of the Magnitogorsk State Technical University, receiving a diploma in engineering metallurgy in 1944.
After graduating from the mining and metallurgical institute, Filatov started working in the wire-strip shop of MMK, where he took the position of head of the site of the technical control department. In 1950, Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (later CPSU), and was appointed as the deputy head of the shop. In 1951, Andrey Filatov headed the wire-strip shop.
From 1960 to 1962, Filatov worked as the head of the production department of the combine, and from 1962 to 1968, he held the position of chief engineer of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine.

### Director of Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine

In 1968, Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov succeeded Feodosiy Dionisievich Voronov as the director of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, becoming the eleventh director of the largest metallurgical enterprise in the USSR.
Under the leadership of Andrey Filatov, four open-hearth furnaces (№ 32, 31, 30, 35) of the first open-hearth shop of MMK were converted into two-bath steelmaking units, six open-hearth furnaces became single-channel, which significantly increased steel output. Additionally, coke oven battery № 4 was reconstructed (in 1970), as well as coke oven battery № 3 (in 1971).
In May 1969, the fifth sheet rolling shop of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine was commissioned, which included the installation of the "2500" cold rolling mill. This shop became a significant achievement of the metallurgical enterprise, as it allowed metal production for automobile manufacturing.
In 1969, along with the head of the fifth sheet rolling shop Leonid Radyukevich and the deputy chief power engineer of the combine Khussid, he was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union in the technology field.
In 1972, director Rychkov, Boris Nikolayevich made a film "Personal Responsibility," which tells about the work and personality of the directors of two major USSR enterprises – Andrey Filatov (MMK) and Nikolay Slyun'kov (Minsk Tractor Plant).
In May 1973, the first stage of the sixth sheet rolling shop was commissioned, and it became fully operational after Andrey Filatov's death, in the autumn of the same year. This shop produces tinplate, widely used in the food industry. As of 2013, this shop has no analogs in the Russian Federation.
During Filatov's directorship at the enterprise he was entrusted with, eighteen new steel grades were mastered, and a liquid steel vacuuming unit was implemented.
Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov paid great attention to the city's social infrastructure and the metallurgical combine. During Filatov's leadership, nine kindergartens and nurseries, a new hospital building for the MMK medical unit; children's camps, a rest house, a sanatorium building in Yalta, children's health facilities; a dairy plant, a potato storage, a vegetable processing shop, a fruit storage facility were constructed.
Filatov issued a verbal order regarding housing distribution, now giving priority to families where both spouses worked at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine. Changes in housing policy caused dissatisfaction among the city's residents, and metallurgists' spouses began to switch to less skilled work at MMK to improve their housing conditions.
Member of the CPSU Central Committee since 1971. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR XVIII convocation from 1970.

### Death

In 1973, Filatov fell ill, and in June 1973 he went to Moscow for surgery. However, due to a medical error, a thrombus detached. Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov died on 6 June 1973 in Moscow and was buried at the right-bank cemetery in Magnitogorsk.
Filatov was meticulous, extremely hardworking, and modest. He always spoke his mind, argued. At the same time, A. Filatov respected his opponents and was able to admit his mistakes. Andrey Dmitrievich had a phenomenal memory.

## Legacy

Personal Responsibility. Documentary film (1972)
In 1974, the publishing house "Soviet Russia" released N. Kartashov's book "Comrade Director."
In 1979, the novel "In the Sweat of Thy Face" by Soviet writer Alexander Ostapovich Avdeenko was published. The novel is dedicated to Magnitogorsk during the time of Filatov's management of the combine. The novel actively covers Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov's housing policy.
In 2000, the Professional Lyceum №13 of Magnitogorsk (now Magnitogorsk Polytechnic College) was named after Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov, who was a graduate. Notably, it was thanks to Filatov that this educational institution received its current building at the intersection of Karl Marx Avenue and Steelevare Street
In 2011, the second part of the duology by Valery Nikolaevich Kucher, "Magnitka – Forever. Part 2. Affairs and Fates of Soviet Directors," was published. Chapter 6, part 1 "Audacity and Boldness of the Innovator" tells about the work of Andrey Dmitrievich Filatov as the director of MMK from 1968 to 1973.

## Awards

* Hero of Socialist Labour (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 30 March 1971, Order of Lenin and gold Hammer and sickle) medal – for outstanding achievements reached in fulfilling the tasks of the five-year plan for the development of ferrous metallurgy
* Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1969).
* Order of Lenin
* Two Orders of the Badge of Honour
* Medal "For Labour Valour"
* Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"