Ural Federal University named after the First President of the Russia B.N. Yeltsin (Ekaterinburg, Russia):

V. V. Zapariy, Dr. Hist., Prof., Dept. of History of Russia, e-mail: vvzap@mail.ru
V. D. Kamynin, Dr. Hist., Prof., Dept. of Theory and History of International Relations, e-mail: kamyninv@yandex.ru

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of the chief engineer of the Kuznetsk metallurgical combine, Leonid Emmanuilovich Waisberg (1906–1970) in the initial period of the great Patriotic war to perform an important government task to rebuild the plant on military rails. On the basis of attracting sources of personal origin, fi rst of all the memories of L. E. Waisberg, kindly provided to the authors of the article by the son of the chief engineer Oleg Leonidovich, the process of establishing an armoured steel plant in the rail and beam shop is reconstructed. The sources in the article are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. It is concluded that the government task was completed on time due to the selfless work of L. E. Waisberg, which was highly appreciated by the state. Some facts of L. E. Waisberg’s biography are specified.

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