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Magnitogorsk is a mining and industrial city by the Ural River in Russia, with one of the largest Iron and Steel works in the country.
This monument commemorates the vital role Magnitogorsk played supplying the steel for weapons in WW II. The rapid development of Magnitogorsk was at the forefront of Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plans in the 1930s. Its huge reserves of iron ore made it a prime location to build a steel plant capable of challenging its Western rivals. However, a large proportion of the workforce were ex-peasants, and were typically unskilled, with little experience. To solve this, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work.
The substantial iron ore reserves have since been depleted, and must now be imported from elsewhere.
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