Uralmash Uralmash is a heavy machine production facility of the Russia n engineering corporation OMZ . The facility is located in Yekaterinburg , Russia . The surrounding residential area where workers live is also called Uralmash . Uralmash ( ) is an abbreviation of , " Ural ’ s ’ kiy Mashinostroitelnyy Zavod , " literally ‘ Urals Machine - Building Plant ’ . Historically , the plant was also called , " Ural ’ s ’ kiy Zavod Tyazhelogo Mashinostroyeniya , " ‘ Ural Heavy Machinery Plant ’ or , " UZTM , " and for a time carried the honorary name of Ordzhonikidze Ural Heavy Machinery Plant , after Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze . History . The Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant began operations in 1933 in compliance with the plans of the Government of the USSR for the industrialization of the country . During the pre - World War II period , Uralmash manufactured its products ( blast furnace equipment , sintering machines , rolling mill s , press es , cranes , etc . ) for the mining and metallurgical industries located in the Urals and Siberia . The majority of these products were produced from individual designs . At the same time the plant began to develop military equipment , with the production of F . F . Petrov designed Howitzer M - 30 . During World War II large - scale production of armoured materiel was organized at the plant . At first the plant manufactured armoured tank hulls , later expanding to production of T - 34 tanks and the SU - 122 , SU - 85 , and SU - 100 gun tank destroyers based on the T - 34 tank design . The self - propelled gun mounts built at Uralmash demonstrated their effectiveness on the battlefield as a successful combination of maneuverability of T - 34 tanks and huge firepower of ordnance pieces . After World War II , the state made large investments in the reconstruction and expansion of the Uralmash plant . This modernisation favoured both increased output and the production of new machines and equipment — shovels , drilling rig s , crushers and mills . In the 1950s the state began efforts to equip the aviation and rocket industries with heavy hydraulic presses . Uralmash , in response to this new demand , created a range of this type of equipment . In 1949 the plant produced the first dragline excavator . In 1960s the plant designed and manufactured draglines with booms 90 – 100 m long . Now more than 200 walking draglines are in operation at mines in Siberia and the Far East . One third of the total coal amount produced by the open casting is mined with the help of draglines . The drilling rigs manufactured by Uralmash were of prime importance in the development of oil and gas regions of the USSR , including West Siberia with its severe climate . The extra deep drilling rigs designed and manufactured at the plant made it possible to reach the depth of 13 km ( at the Kola Superdeep Borehole ) and to obtain for the first time rock samples approximately 3 billion years old . In addition to land - based rigs , Uralmash also designs off - shore drilling equipment . For at least part of the late 1980s and early 1990s , the plant was controlled , at least in part , by the Uralmash gang , a racketeering organization . In accordance with Russian Federation law , Uralmash was transformed in December 1992 into an open - end joint stock company under the name " The Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant " . In 1996 Uralmash it became part of OMZ , one of Russia ' s largest engineering corporations , founded and initially led by Kakha Bendookidze . In February 2007 OMZ and Metalloinvest agreed to create a common manufacturing complex . OMZ contributed its holdings in Uralmash to the joint venture while Metalloinvest contributed its holdings in ORMETO - YuUMZ . The consolidation will result in the creation of a large machine - building conglomerate with a leading position in the CIS metallurgical equipment market with a joint market share in the metallurgical equipment segment in Russia exceeding 40 % . The first director of Uralmash was A . P . Bannikov . The current director is Oleg Danchenko .