Kryviy Rih as the center of heavy industry of the USSR: the role of Kryvbas scientists in the development of the mining industry

Abstract

The article completes the cycle of investigations within the framework of the historical and foundational research of the State Printing Archive "Printed editions of the 1970s: thematic and content priorities", planned for 2023. The object of the research was the priority topics that were covered in domestic printed editions of the specified period , the subject of which is the periodical and continuing editions published in Kryvyi Rih during the 1970s, namely: the yearbook "Mining ore production", published by the Scientific and Research Mining and Ore Institute (SRMOI) of Kryvyi Rih, and materials of all-Union and republican scientific and technical forums (seminars, conferences, etc.). Relying on the specified primary source base, the author considered the main directions of development of mining science in Kryvyi Rih during the researched period. The purpose of the proposed exploration is to form conclusive generalizations about today's little-known local prints, conduct a content analysis of their content, update important historical events from the past of Kryvyi Rih and personify the mining science of the Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin. Having achieved the set goals, the author claims that in the 1970s, Kryvyi Rih became an all-Union recognized center of scientific and practical mining. In the city, despite its modest (district) administrative-territorial status, powerful scientific schools were formed, higher, secondary special and vocational-technical mining education flourished. Having a closed cycle: from mining (Kryvyi Rih mines, quarries) and beneficiation of iron ore (five mining and beneficiation plants operate on the territory of the city) to the production of the best types of iron and steel (Metallurgical Plant "Kryvorizhstal", Kryvyi Rih Coke Chemical Plant) — Kryvyi Rih became the industrial pearl of the Soviet Union. In modern Ukraine, the city has rightly earned the name "iron heart of the state".