Abstract <p>This article is devoted to identifying key areas of spatial distribution and technological development of ferrous metallurgy enterprises in the Soviet Union. The concept of “industrial imagination” is proposed—the ability of economic actors to justify capital investments, arguing them with the expected benefits from the exploitation of newly discovered natural resources (iron ore). During the first five-year plans (the second half of the 1920s–1930s), a number of ambitious projects were put forward, but attempts to implement them in practice resulted in protracted construction projects; the Donbass and the Dnieper region retained their positions as leading centers. The Great Patriotic War cemented the shift of the USSR ferrous metallurgy to the East (the Urals, Kuzbass); the role of the largest Magnitogorsk plant proved to be particularly significant. Against the backdrop of the depletion of rich ores, the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s industrialized the development of poor deposits; the “industrial imagination” of the 1970s and 1980s was based on the idea of integrated development of raw materials, envisioning increased efficiency in ore processing and the use of industrial waste. In the context of the slow and uneven adaptation of converter steelmaking technology, as well as the growing demand for sheet metal products in the context of the development of mechanical engineering and gasification, the western regions of the USSR assumed a leading role, and the beneficiaries were not the factories of the Donbass and Dnieper regions but enterprises in the Center and Northwest.</p>