Pin made in the Soviet Union. The text on the pin reads:”Novokuznetsk”. Novokuznetsk is a city in Kemerovo Oblast in south-western Siberia, Russia. It is the second largest city in the oblast, after Kemerovo. It had a population of 547,904 as of the 2010 Census. It was previously known as Kuznetsk until 1931, and as Stalinsk until 1961.
Founded in 1618 by men from Tomsk as a Cossack ostrog (fort) on the Tom River, it was initially called Kuznetsky ostrog. It became the seat of Kuznetsky Uyezd in 1622. Kuznetsk (Кузне́цк) was granted town status in 1689.
Joseph Stalin’s rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union transformed the sleepy town into a major coal mining and industrial center in the 1930s. It merged with Sad Gorod in 1931. In 1931–1932, the city was known as Novokuznetsk and between 1932 and 1961 as Stalinsk , after Stalin.