Kyshtym

Kyshtym developed as a factory settlement in the southern Urals. Nikita Nikitich Demidov acquired land from Bashkir owners and began construction with the Mining Collegium's approval in 1755. The town's conventional foundation year is 1757, when the Upper Kyshtym iron-smelting and ironworking plant and the Lower Kyshtym ironworking plant entered operation. The early industry was iron production; the copper works associated with the later town belonged to another period.

The factories also became involved in social conflict. During Pugachev's rebellion of 1773–1775, more than two hundred local people joined his forces, and the works cast cannon and shot for the rebels while occupied for over two months. In 1809 the Demidov heir sold the Kyshtym enterprises to the merchant Lev Rastorguev. Another uprising followed in 1822–1823 under Klim Kosolapov. These events give the industrial settlement a history of ownership changes and collective resistance as well as furnaces and output: workers and local inhabitants could become active participants in wider struggles.