Beloretsk is a town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the Belaya River, 245km from Ufa. Population:HistoryTown-factories were a peculiar phenomenon in the town-planning in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Beloretsk Iron Factory was built in 1762-1767 by merchants I. B. Tverdyshev and I. S. Myasnikov, who bought 170,041 desiatinas of land from Bashkirs of Belokatayskaya Volost. Builders and first workers of the factory were purchased serfs from Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, and Ryazan Governorates. Beloretsk itself was founded as a factory settlement in 1762.A Bulletin of 1776 says that the Beloretsk Iron Factory was built in 1762 and had two blast furnaces and fourteen sledge-hammers. However, the first fusion of cast iron was recorded as being done in 1767. In 1777, the factory produced more iron than any other factory in Russia. Productive capacity of the factory was 122,500 poods (~2,000 metric tons) of cast iron and 80,000 poods (~1,300 metric tons) of iron per year. There were 840 male workers at the factory.The village of Lomovka was founded in the vicinity of Beloretsk. The name of the village came from the name of the profession of the people who lived there. They all were draymen who supplied raw materials for the factory. Factory peasants also lived in the village of Arskaya, situated 8mi from their work place.