"early 50s Stalinist-style smokestack rubbish, producing nothing worthwhile"> You hit the jackpot! That is one of the most vivid phrases I have read to sum up the entire iconic futility of Communism. I am going to use it and never fail to credit the name katyusha. I always wondered just what was going on in those factories, and what their purpose was besides pollution: I think they were just there for the photographs, mainly, and also to test out
the procedural complexities of smelting, refining, etc etc,
just sort of a massive photo-op for industrialization.
Those countries basically never produced anything that worked. Well, maybe samovars, and those little nesting egg-dolls.
Well, the T-34 and the Katyusha rocket worked pretty well :-).
The industrialization of Russia under Stalin *did* happen, but this is not the place to argue on the effectiveness of that program.