Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ) • Красногорский механический завод (КМЗ)
Krasnogorsk, Russia (Красногорск, Россия) 1942-1945
In the Russian armed forces, military service binoculars were marked to identify them as government property.
Military service binoculars were issued to soldiers with specialized functions. For example, a group leader or an artillery observer was issued a set of binoculars to perform his duties.
The most common type of military service binoculars was the 6×30 Standardized Model B-6 military service binoculars.
The number “6” identifies the magnification power of the binoculars (in this case, “6” indicates that objects appear six times closer than their actual distance).
The number “30” identifies the diameter in millimeters of the front (objective) lenses — the light gathering lenses — in this case 30 millimeters in diameter.
Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ)
6×30 Standardized Model B-6, 1943, N43117776, Krasnagorsk, Russia
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Soviet Russian 6×30 Standardized Model B-6 military service binoculars, production serial number, N43117776, heavy, made of brass, manufactured in 1943 by the Krasnagorsk Mechanical Factory, Красногорский механический завод (КМЗ), of Krasnagorsk, Russia. These Russian military binoculars are marked with white characters stamped on the left prizm cover with 6×30 at the top, followed by the Soviet hammer, sickle, and star insignia, over the manufacturer’s trademark logo, then by the production serial number, N43117776. The first two numbers, 43, indicate year of manufacture. At the bottom is the marking of an unknown repair depot that repaired these binoculars in 1958. These 6×30 Standardized Model B-6 military binoculars are accompanied by the original brown leather carrying strap and brown leather case with carrying strap. The Krasnagorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ), Красногорский механический завод, Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (КМЗ), was established in 1942 in the northwestern Moscow suburb of Krasnagorsk, about 18.6 miles from Red Square. |
Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ)
6×30 Standardized Model B-6, 1943, N43117776, Krasnagorsk, Russia
|
|
Soviet Russian 6×30 Standardized Model B-6 military service binoculars, production serial number, N43117776, heavy, made of brass, manufactured in 1943 by the Krasnagorsk Mechanical Factory, Красногорский механический завод (КМЗ), of Krasnagorsk, Russia. These Russian military binoculars are marked with white characters stamped on the left prizm cover with 6×30 at the top, followed by the Soviet hammer, sickle, and star insignia, over the manufacturer’s trademark logo, then by the production serial number, N43117776. The first two numbers, 43, indicate year of manufacture. At the bottom is the marking of an unknown repair depot that repaired these binoculars in 1958. These 6×30 Standardized Model B-6 military binoculars are accompanied by the original brown leather carrying strap and brown leather case with carrying strap. The Krasnagorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ), Красногорский механический завод, Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (КМЗ), was established in 1942 in the northwestern Moscow suburb of Krasnagorsk, about 18.6 miles from Red Square. |
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Description area
Dates of existence
History
KMZ
KMZ
КМЗ
Dove prism. Dove prism with a beam passing through it. Dove prism with the beam passing through it.
Призма Дове.
Первоначальный, с 1942 года, знак завода (полный знак имел в своём составе изображение серпа и молота с пятиконечной звездой — над призмой Дове 2)).
Объективы, выпущенные для комплектования камер других предприятий (производства завода Арсенал), могли маркироваться только заводской маркой: ЗОРКИЙ.
The original, from 1942, factory mark (the full mark included an image of a hammer and sickle with a five-pointed star – above the Dove prism 2)).
Lenses produced for equipping cameras of other enterprises (manufactured by the Arsenal plant) could be marked only with the factory mark: ZORKY. Призма Дове с ходом луча через неё.
Знак был зарегистрирован в 1946 году 3)), но использовался с 1949 года.
The mark was registered in 1946 3)), but has been used since 1949.
Призма Дове с ходом луча через неё.
Современный вид эмблемы.
Modern appearance of the emblem.
A complete modern emblem of the enterprise with a logo in Latin script. Various variants of the “ZENIT” logotype – “ZENIT”. “Cut” font (currently not used): Modern style: 
Полная современная эмблема предприятия с логотипом в латинском начертании.
Различные варианты начертания логотипа «ЗЕНИТ»–«ZENIT».
«Разрезной» шрифт (в настоящее время не используется):
Современное начертание:
Founding and post-war years
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Красногорский Механический Завод (Krasnogorskij Mechanicheskij Zavod, Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant), often abbreviated to KMZ but currently rather spelled as Krasnogorsky Zavod, is, with LOMO in St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest optical factories, and therefore also one of the world’s larger.
Krasnogorsky Zavod is located in the Russian town of Krasnogorsk, thirty kilometres from the Red Square. The town was originally known as posjolok Ban’ka (settlement Ban’ka; Ban’ka being the small river running through Krasnogorsk). After a State Optical Factory resided there in 1926, the town was renamed to “rabochij posjolok Ban’ka”, worker’s settlement Ban’ka, and finally to ‘gorod Krasnogorsk’ (the town of Krasnogorsk) on the 7th of October 1940. KMZ was officially founded in February 1941 as a defense factory, to supply the army with optical apparatus like sights and rangefinders.
During the Second World War German forces came within close range of Moscow, but ground to a halt somewhere near Krasnogorsk. By that time the plant had long been evacuated, like so many others, to the suburbs of Sverdlovsk, a town in the Ural mountains. After the war, KMZ developed a civil optics branch. One of its first products were opera glasses for the Bolshoy Theatre. In 1947 the first FED-Zorkis were produced from leftover FED parts, the first ZK and BK lenses were manufactured out of seized Zeiss products for Zavod Arsenal in Kiev, and the first Zeiss Ikontas were assembled in Krasnogorsk: the Moskvas. In the 1950’s came Zenits, Iskras and Moskvas. Later eras brought essentially more of the same: though there were quite some experimental models, most of the cameras produced at KMZ were Zenit or Zorki derivatives.
Like most State factories in the Soviet Union, KMZ had both a military and a civil role. The civil role focused on cameras, lenses, binoculars, laser equipment, night vision devices, medical-optical apparatus, et cetera. The more important defense tasks involved making arial cameras for ground observation, telescopes for stellar observation, aiding the Russian space program not only by optical products (for instance the camera that made the first picture of the dark side of the moon), but also by testing facilities, making tank sights, artillery sights, aircraft parts, et cetera.
KMZ was more than a small workshop on a single site, it was a huge conglomerate plant with many sub-suppliers (for example UOMZ and ROMZ). KMZ kept many employed, as was in line with the communist ideal of banishing unemployment: in its heyday, KMZ ran a hospital, two culture palaces, one or two colleges, a stadium, an electric plant, a pump station, kolchozes and many more. KMZ also owned many of the houses in Krasnogorsk. The town of Krasnogorsk housed some 100.000 people and certainly one third of those were employed by KMZ. It seems fair to say that KMZ dominated the town.
In September 1976, KMZ was renamed to PO KMZ, PO standing for “Proizvodstvennoe Obyedinenie”, a Production or Industrial Union. A PO engulfed more than one factory: it was the name for an entire line of factories and suppliers. That’s why plants as Vilieka, Rostov and Valdai are known as “KMZ’s sister factories” and not as separate plants: they were cogs in the PO KMZ machinery. In 1979, the government renamed KMZ “PO KMZ imeni S. A. Zvereva”, the PO KMZ in the name of S. A. Zverev.
In 1991, when the communist system was abolished, most State factories had their problems in switching over to a competition-driven capitalist system, and KMZ was no exception. Suddenly companies needed to make profit. The markets opened up for foreign products and the Rouble inflated rapidly. For KMZ’s workers, it meant either seeking another job or be content with a lower wage. For KMZ, the position was unenviable: not used to producing economically, the market was flooded with better and cheaper Japanese compacts, and their product lineup was a hardly competitive line of Zenit-E descendants. Krasnogorsky Zavod responded by at first canceling some of its products, like for example the KRASNOGORSK-3 16mm cine camera and the Russar 20mm (both of which had potential), and then by developing new ones: the cheaper -12 reflexes like the 212k, the 312m, and recently the 412dx. KZ further focused itself on niche products, like their Horizon-202, gyro-stabilised binoculars, night vision devices, the Zenitar 16mm fisheye, high-speed film cameras, radar devices, and others.