The enterprise has received the following awards:[citation needed] On April 19, 1896, the Americans Rothstein and Smith were given permission from the Russian government to establish the Nikopol-Mariupol Mining and Metallurgical Society.

The location of the factory in Mariupol was advantageous from a geographical position due to the proximity of raw materials and fuel resources, presence of the marine auction port and labor force of peasants from the nearby villages.

The factory received its modern name in the 1920s when the Petrograd sovnarkom confiscated all of the property from the previous owners during the nationalization of all the industry in the region and to commemorate the leader of the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.

During the war, the most valuable equipment was dismantled and it was sent on to the factories in the Urals and Siberia, and the blast-furnace and martin stoves were put out of action.

After the liberation of Mariupol at the end of 1944, the plant only had 70% of its production power, but it almost immediately started shipping armored steel to the war front.