The company's factory was established on April 30, 1897, by the French Ural-Volga Metallurgical Society (Russian: «Урало-Волжское металлургическое общество»).

[10][a] In November 2016, Gerasimenko was detained in Cyprus on fraud charges, over the alleged theft of a $65 million loan from VTB Bank.

[15] For his freedom from incarceration, Dmitry Gerasimenko "sold" the plant, which was in bankruptcy proceedings, to Pavel Krotov in late November 2018.

[19] During the War in Ukraine, "the full development of the factory is hindered by a large number of debts, including to commercial banks" causing financial difficulties which disrupted production at Krasny Oktyabr and Uralvagonzavod so significantly that, in 2019, the 2013 order for pressure reactor containers for nuclear powered submarines was not completed, and the 2012 order for the initial 132 T-14 Armata MBT or 44 tanks annually, which were to be delivered in 2015 for experimental testing, had not been fulfilled but instead Uralvagonzavod "will supply only 16 vehicles by the end of 2019" or later and would not complete the initial order until after 2021 or later.

Because of ongoing financial difficulties, Krasny Oktyabr had reduced its work force from 5,200 employees in December 2016 to less than 4,000 in October 2017 and then to only 800 with a 20% to 30% reduction in salary and pay.

[d][21][22][23][24][25] Numerous financial difficulties at Krasny Oktyabr resulted in production delays of the ultra high strength armoured steel "44S-Sv-Sh".