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The State Enterprise of Special Instrumentation Arsenal, commonly
abbreviated to Arsenal Factory (Завод Арсенал), was one of the oldest
and most famous state-owned factories in Kiev (Ukraine).
It was founded in 1764 by the Russian Empire, as a military
production and maintenance facility, and was initially located at
a fortress compound in the Pechersk (Печерськ) district of Kiev [1].
During World War II (WWII),
Arsenal produced military equipment
for the Red Army,
such as anti-tank, anti-aircraft and artillery guns.
To avoid the factory being damaged or lost due to bombing by the Germans,
production was relocated to the Urals in 1941.
In 1946, shortly after WWII had ended, it returned to Kiev and went on
under the name Arsenal Factory
(Завод Арсенал)
[1].
This is also the time that the company started production of consumer
equipment, such as the
Kiev range of photo cameras.
The latter had become possible as a result of the outcome of the war.
The production facilities of the Zeiss factory in Dresden (Germany)
had been ceased and relocated to Kiev, where they were initially used to
make copies of well-known cameras, like Hasselblad, Zeiss Ikon, Nikon
and Pentacon. The company later also developed its own cameras.
In 2009 — after a history of 245 years —
it was announced that the Arsenal Factory had
stopped nearly all manufacturing of consumer products and that most of the
workforce had been layed off. [2].
This marked the end of the famous
Kiev photo camera brand,
but most of its former staff have since found a new job at
the Arax camera factory,
also located in Kiev (Ukraine) [2].
After that, the original Arsenal Factory continued with the production of special
equipment — mainly for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense — in its
Special Construction Department (SKTB). Plans for an official Arsenal Museum
in the city of Kiev are ongoing, but have been delayed several times [1].
In August 2018, the official website of the Arsenal Factory was closed down [5].
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Monday 21 January 2019. Last changed: Monday, 21 January 2019 - 09:49 CET.
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