- Kiev Arsenal factory
Kiev Arsenal factory ( _ru. Завод "Арсенал", "Zavod Arsenal") is one of the oldest and most famous industrial factories of the Ukrainian capital
Kiev .Infobox Company
name = Zavod Arsenal
type = State-owned company
genre =
foundation = post-WWII period
founder = Soviet government
location_city =Kiev
location_country =Ukraine
location =
origins = Kiev Military Arsenal of theSoviet Army
key_people =
area_served =
industry =arms industry
products =arms equipment, variousoptics and precision mechanics products
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner = State ofUkraine
slogan =
homepage = zavodarsenal.kiev.ua
dissolved =
footnotes =History
Pre-1918
Started in 1764 as a repair and production facility of the Russian army it was initially based in a
Kiev fortress compound in thePechersk (Печерськ) district of the city. It is now a large state-owned company. Workers at the factory included sniperLyudmila Pavlichenko , who worked as a grinder at the factory prior to 1941.The Revolution and World War II events
In
January 29 ,1918 , the workers of the factory organized an armed pro-Bolshevik mutiny known as aKiev Arsenal mutiny or a "January Rebellion" againstTsentral'na Rada , the Ukrainian assembly that declared the independence of Ukraine. To commemorate the event, the Soviet authorities preserved the historic defensive wall bearing the traces of shelling (situated on the city's "Moskovs'ka Street" near the "Arsenal'na" metro station).While the civil production lines were added to the factory starting from 1918, the factory produced mostly the military related products throughout its history. In the 1920s, 1930s and during the
World War II the factory mainly produced theartillery ,anti-tank andanti-aircraft guns. In summer 1941, immediately after the outbreak of the war between the Soviet Union and the axis powers, the factory was quickly evacuated to the Russian city ofPerm in theUral mountains far away from hostilities. The factory buildings in Kiev suffered heavy damages from Germanbombing s. The relocated "Arsenal" continued to play a major role in the arming of the Nazi-fightingRed Army .Post-war
After the war, the Arsenal was practically built anew at its Kiev location and partly converted into a
civil company named "Zavod Arsenal" (while the other, smaller, part remained an unremarkablemilitary repairing facility under a different name). Since that time, the name "Arsenal" is mostly associated with the larger company rather than with the military one (occupying the oldest building of old arsenal). During theCold War arms race , Arsenal developed dramatically, becoming an important manufacturer of the military-related products and employing tens of thousands of people. The factory mainly specialized in optical components for the Soviet military and space programs. The factory also produced the professional grade photographiccameras "Kiev" but civil production played only a minor role in factory output. Tens of thousands of people where employed at the "Arsenal"Perestroika and independence
After the beginning of the
perestroika , the military orders have dropped drastically and the Arsenal factory fell into a still ongoing crisis. The management attempts to convert the factory by concentrating more on the consumer optics and other civil products did little to help the factory to emerge from the crisis. Comparatively insignificant figures of civil production sales could not support the employment of military-specialized workers in such numbers and maintain the gigantic premises.After the beginning of Kiev's economic growth in the mid-1990s, the company found itself a significant
real estate holder in an elite commercial and administrative district. The company's real estate, rather than largely deteriorated equipment and expertise, became its major asset. However, the industrial activities (both civil and arms-related) continue to this day. The modern day military equipment produced at the Arsenal is mostly imported byRussia for its military and space program needs. The factory civil production includes consumer optics, medical and banking equipment, gauges for thenatural gas and optical diode-basedtraffic lights .Art museum project
In 2004, a Ukrainian oligarch and art
philanthropist Viktor Pinchuk suggested to establish amodern art gallery in the oldest 19th century building of Arsenal. This large fortress-lookingbrick structure, situated on the "Tsitadel'na Street" and recognized asarchitectural monument, now belongs to Ukrainian military and is poorly maintained. Later,Viktor Yushchenko , thePresident of Ukraine , expressed his support to the museum idea but suggested that the museum had to be state-run and dominated by more traditional art pieces in order to become a "Ukrainian Hermitage". The process of converting the building to a civil use is underway while the nature of the museum is still discussed.External links
* [http://www.zavodarsenal.kiev.ua/ zavodarsenal.kiev.ua] - Official website uk icon/en icon/ru icon
* [http://www.archunion.com.ua/gradsovet_06_01_11.html archunion.com.ua] - Plans for the construction of an art museum ru icon
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