After the Second World War, the Soviet Railways continued their electrification program, this time targeting the Kropachyovo-Zlatoust-Chelyabinsk line of the South Ural Railroad. As local factories were recovering from the war efforts, the Soviet government (then led by Joseph Stalin), ordered 20 of these locomotives. Known by their factory classification of GE 2-D+D-2 406/546 8-GE 750-3300V, in the Soviet Union, they would have received the classification of the A-series locomotive (from American locomotive, in Russian Американский электровоз). At the time, this was the strongest electric locomotive, producing a power of 4320 kW, being comparable to the UP Big Boy.