The plant traces its origins to the mid-18th century, when deforestation around existing Ural mining operations made iron smelting prohibitively expensive. New works needed to be sited near fresh timber. The location chosen, about 15 to 20 kilometers from the Kama River, offered forests, proximity to mining resources, and water power. Count Pyotr Shuvalov established the works, but when he died in 1763, the state seized the Votkinsk and Izhevsk factories to settle his debts. Under Catherine the Great's directive beginning in 1773, the plant produced steel anchors for military shipbuilding. By the first half of the 19th century, it was responsible for at least 62 percent of Russia's total anchor production. In 1811, a self-taught metallurgist named Badaev pioneered an innovative steelmaking method at the plant, producing high-quality steel used for everything from surgical instruments to metal-cutting tools.

In the 1840s, the enterprise underwent a transformation under the supervision of Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky -- the father of the composer. The plant shifted from pure metallurgy to machine building. By 1847 it was constructing boats; by 1868, steam locomotives. The challenge was delivery. Votkinsk sat on a shallow river with no rail connection. Ships had to be finished before the spring floods, and locomotives rode specialized barges downriver to the nearest station. Approximately 400 ships of various types and 631 steam locomotives were built this way. The plant also contributed steel bridge components during construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and by 1915 it led the Russian Empire in total bridge length constructed. The craftsmen of Votkinsk even fabricated the framework for the tower of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1858.

The Russian Civil War gutted the factory. Looted by all warring parties, it closed in 1922 and reopened three years later as a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. In 1938, it was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Defence Industry, renamed Plant Number 235, and pivoted to ammunition. During World War II, it produced the 45mm M1937 antitank cannon and, from 1943, the 76mm M1942 divisional gun. The postwar years brought air defense guns and civilian products like narrow-gauge locomotives and tower cranes. Each transition erased the previous identity, but the underlying capability -- precision metalworking at scale -- endured through every reinvention.

In 1957, the Soviet government converted the plant into the country's primary producer of ballistic missiles. The first deliveries were short-range liquid-fueled weapons with a range of 150 kilometers. Capability escalated steadily: tactical missiles in the 1960s, the solid-fueled TR-1 Temp system in 1966, intermediate-range weapons in the 1970s, and the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile beginning in 1998. The plant currently produces the RS-24 Yars ICBM and the submarine-launched Bulava missile. Two separate facilities operate today -- a final assembly plant 12 kilometers outside town, and the main plant in downtown Votkinsk where components and civilian goods are manufactured. The site that once floated steamships on spring floods now assembles weapons capable of reaching any point on Earth.