Electron-microscopic and x-ray investigations of structurally-phase and intense-deformed condition of material made of defective and conditional forged billet at «Yurmash» have been carried out. It is ascertained that in steel made from the defective forged piece the fraction of perlite is 1,5...2 times higher and lamellar perlite prevails. Local long-range tensions in both conditions of material are commensurable with fluidity limit. The content of sulfides is considerably higher in the steel made from the defective billet. They are located in the body of ferrite grains and along the interfaces. In the material made from the conditional forging they are located only inside of grains. The scalar density of dislocations in ferrite grains and in ferrite layers of perlite of the defected billet is one and a half time higher than in conditional metal. All the totality of the listed above circumstances allows stating that the main cause of cracking of large-capacity billets made of steel St52, 3N is not a full conformity of the chemical compound to branded requirements