Zlatoust

Zlatoust grew beside the Ay River in the southern Urals, where an ironworks was founded in 1754. Its name is associated with a church dedicated to Saint John Chrysostom. The works drew the settlement into the mining and metalworking economy of the surrounding mountains; during Yemelyan Pugachev's uprising, workers from the plant joined the rebellion.

An arms factory established in 1815 brought experienced specialists from European weapon-making centers including Solingen and Klingenthal. The first consignment of Zlatoust blades reached Saint Petersburg in 1816, containing both weapons for use and decorated examples. Local artists such as Ivan Bushuyev and Ivan Boyarshinov created engraved designs for swords, while the metallurgist Pavel Anosov produced Russian bulat steel blades at the works in the early nineteenth century.