"Order of the People's Commissar of Tank Production of the USSR
Moscow
July 23rd 1943
In order to achieve rapid organization and preparations for production of heavy IS tank hulls from high hardness steel, I order that:
- The Chief Designer of the NKTP (comrade Kotin) must rework the blueprints of the hull by August 8th of this year to allow for production from high hardness steel. The design must be suitable for mass production.
- Director of factory #200 (comrade Sherbakov) must present the Chief Designer of the NKTP (comrade Kotin) with any complaints about the design of the high hardness IS tank hull by August 27th and at the same time send 2-3 technologists to the factory #100 design bureau to check over blueprints as they are developed.
- Chief Engineer of factory #200 (comrade Eyranov) in cooperation with Chief Metallurgist (comrade Chizhikov) and Chief of the Welding Department (comrade Rabotonov) must accept blueprints for the IS tank hull from factory #100 by August 10th of this year.
- Director of Kirov factory (comrade Zaltsmann director) of factory #200 (comrade Sherbakov) must present the NKTP and GBTU with technical acceptance criteria for IS hulls approved by military representatives.
- The TsNII-48 director (comrade Zavyalov) must produce and test experimental batches of cast and rolled armour of the appropriate thickness and present draft acceptance criteria for cast and rolled IS tank hull components for approval to the NKTP and GBTU by September 1st. Acceptance criteria for cast armour must be approved by Chief Designer comrade Kotin and factory #200.
- Factory #200 director (comrade Sherbakov) must produce two experimental IS tank hulls from high hardness armour in accordance to acceptance criteria by September 5th. To accomplish this, the Chief of the 3rd Main Directorate of the NKTP comrade Habahapshev must give the order to the People's Commissariat of Ferrous Metals to produce a test batch of the armour within 2 days."