Telegraphic news has been received of the completion of the inauguration period and full operation of the first giant blast furnace in the U.S.S.R., producing daily over a thousand tons of foundry pig iron, equivalent to a daily output of about twelve hundred tons of pig iron for conversion into steel.

I congratulate the workers and the administrative and technical personnel of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works on their successful fulfilment of the first part of the works’ programme.

I congratulate them on mastering the technique of this unique gigantic blast furnace, the first in Europe. Greetings to the men and women shock brigaders of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, who under the adverse conditions of winter fought and overcame the difficulties of inaugurating the blast furnace and putting it into full operation and who are readily taking upon themselves the brunt of the work of building the plant!

I have no doubt that the Magnitogorsk workers will likewise successfully fulfil the main part of the 1932 programme, will build three more blast furnaces, open-hearth furnaces and rolling machinery, and will thus fulfil with honour their duty to their country.

J. Stalin

Pravda, No. 89,

March 30, 1932