1. The damping properties of VNS-2 steel are mainly due to the dissipation of vibrational energy of a nonmagnetic nature. The capacity of the steel to dissipate energy during the attentuation of the vibrations is largely determined by the amount of residual austenite in the structure. Steel VNS-2 has its greatest damping characteristics when the structure contains finely dispersed austenite resistant to the \gg\ar\ga transformation. Steel VNS-2 has the minimum damping capacity after quenching from the single-phased γ state and aging at 400°C—this is because under these circumstances the dislocations are pinned to the greatest extent, while copper precipitation and segregation of carbon also take place. 2. Magnetoelastic damping makes its greatest contribution to the damping of the vibrations (30% of the total) at the 550\dgC aging stage. The magnetomechanical hysteresis of the steel is in this case determined by the degree of pinning of the domains by copper precipitates and carbides. The formation of stable austenite during the α→γ reverse transformation suppresses magnetomechanical damping. 3. The amplitude dependence of the damping confirms existing data regarding the stabilization of the physicomechanical properties of VNS-2 steel by the formation of a high density of thermally stable lattice distortions in the structure after double annealing at 650\dgC for 6 h.