Novokuznetsk , city (1989 pop. 600,000), S central Siberian Russia, on the Tom River. Steel, mining equipment, chemicals, and aluminum are produced. The old town of Kuznetsk was founded by Cossacks in 1617 and was a trading center until the 20th cent. It was developed in the 1930s as Stalinsk, an iron and steel center of the Kuznetsk Basin, and was merged with its newer industrial section in 1932. The name Novokuznetsk dates from 1961.