Krasnogorsky zavod (russian: Красногорский завод им. С. А. Зверева, , Krasnogorsk Works named after S. A. Zverev) is a Russian factory in Krasnogorsk near

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

which specializes in optical technology. Part of

Shvabe Holding Shvabe Holding (russian: Швабе) is a holding company within the Russian state-owned Rostec group responsible for development and production of high-tech optical-electronic systems both for military and civil purposes, manufacturing of optical ...

(

Rostec Rostec ( rus, Ростех, p=, r=Rostekh), officially the State Corporation for Assistance to Development, Production and Export of Advanced Technology Industrial Product Rostec (russian: Государственная корпорация по � ...

state corporation). During the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

period it was called Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works (, ). The abbreviation KMZ () is still in common use.

Products

KMZ is known largely for its

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...

and movie

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

s of the

Zorki Zorki (russian: Зоркий, meaning sharp-sighted) is the name of a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978. The Zorki was a product of the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ), which also pr ...

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

and Krasnogorsk series, several million of which were produced. It also has a large military optics and mechanical engineering division. Image:Zorki4.jpg,

Zorki 4 The Zorki 4 was possibly the most popular of all Zorki cameras, with 1,715,677 cameras made by the KMZ factory in Krasnogorsk, Russia. The Zorki 4 was also the first of the Zorki cameras to be exported in large numbers to the west. It is a fully ...

rangefinder camera Image:Zenit12.jpg,

12 SLR camera File:Kinokamera Krasnogorsk-2.jpg, Krasnogorsk-2 movie camera Image:Krasnogorsk-3_camera.jpg,

Krasnogorsk-3 The Krasnogorsk-3 (Красногорск-3) is a spring-wound 16mm mirror-reflex movie camera designed and manufactured in the USSR by KMZ. A total of 105,435 Krasnogorsk-3 cameras were produced between 1971 and 1993.Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

202 panoramic camera Image:%D0%A4%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82_%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0-2.jpg, Moskva 2 camera

History

Founding and post-war years

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

had acute need for precision optical instruments. The existing factories were either inaccessible, such as LOMO in

besieged Besieged may refer to: * the state of being under siege * ''Besieged'' (film), a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci {{disambiguation ...

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, or overloaded with demand, such as

FED Fed, The Fed or FED may refer to: People * Andrey A. Fedorov (1908–1987), Soviet Russian biologist, author abbreviation * Feds, a slang term for a police officer in several countries * John Fedorowicz (born 1958), American International Grand ...

which had just been evacuated from

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Berdsk. The KMZ factory was set up in 1942 near Moscow, which by then was no longer in immediate danger from German troops, on the site of a recently evacuated mechanical plant. Initially the company took over production of

scopes Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * CinemaS ...

and

binoculars Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...

as well as

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

cameras. After the end of the war, KMZ began producing photographic lenses in 1945 to the specifications of the Carl Zeiss corporation, whose factory in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

had been overrun by the Red Army and largely carted off as war reparations.

1950s and 1960s: Years of creativity

The mid-1950s saw the beginning of a period of heightened R&D activity at KMZ. During this period, KMZ also produced the world's first subminiature SLR camera, the Narciss, an all-metal camera using 16mm unperforated film in special cassette, frame size 14x21mm. Narciss has a focal plane shutter, speed B,1/2,1/5,1/10,1/25,1/50,1/125,1/250 and 1/500 sec.

1970s and 1980s: Catering to the domestic market

The pace of R&D for consumer products at KMZ substantially slowed down at the end of the 1960s. During the 1970s consumer production at KMZ shifted towards producing large numbers of individual, relatively simple models of the existing product lines.

Since the 1990s: Collapse and reconstruction

After the

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, KMZ production was largely in disarray. Now, it is a group member of the multi-national Russian Shvabe Holding.

Logo

Before 1949 the KMZ logo was a simple dove prism, nicknamed "tomb" by factory workers. In 1949 the logo was changed to the present form, depicting a prism with a refracted ray of light.

References

Select bibliography

External links

Official company website
(in Russian)
Actual company photographic products
(in Russian)
Website of the company's photography and R&D division
(in Russian)

(in English)

(in Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:KMZ Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Optics manufacturing companies Photography companies of Russia Photography in the Soviet Union Soviet photographic lenses Defence companies of the Soviet Union Movie camera manufacturers Krasnogorsky District, Moscow Oblast Shvabe Holding Companies based in Moscow Oblast