Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise (), also known as the Arsenal Factory, is one of the oldest

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

History

Pre-1918

The factory was established in 1764 as a repair and production facility of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and the factory was initially based in a Kyiv Fortress compound in the Pechersk (Печерськ) district of the city. Workers at the factory included sniper

Lyudmila Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (; 10 October 1974) was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She is credited with killing 309 enemy combatants, thus being considered as one of the deadliest snipers in history. She served in th ...

, who worked as a

grinder Grinder may refer to: Machinery *Various types of grinding machine, used in a machining operation to refine the surface of materials *Food grinders **Blade grinder, includes food processors, blenders, electric coffee and spice grinders, etc. **Co ...

at the factory prior to 1941.

The Revolution and World War II events

On January 29, 1918, the workers of the factory organized an armed pro-

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

mutiny known as a

Kiev Arsenal mutiny The Kiev Arsenal January Uprising (), sometimes simply called the January Uprising or the January Rebellion, was a Bolshevik-organized workers' armed revolt that started on 1918, at the Arsenal Factory in Kiev during the Ukrainian–Sovie ...

or a ''January Rebellion'' against Tsentral'na Rada, the Ukrainian assembly that declared the independence of Ukraine. To commemorate the event, the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of 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 Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the factory mainly produced

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

, and

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

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

Perm Perm or PERM may refer to: Places * Perm, Russia, a city in Russia **Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 ** Perm Governorate, an administr ...

in the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

, far from hostilities. The factory buildings in Kiev suffered heavy damages from German

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

s. The relocated "Arsenal" continued to play a major role in arming the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Post-war

After the war, the Arsenal factory was reestablished anew at its Kyiv location and partly converted into a

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

company named ''Zavod Arsenal'' (while the other, smaller, part remained an unremarkable

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

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 the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more State (polity), states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and ...

, 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 Government space agencies, established by the governments of countries and regional agencies (groupings of countries) are established as a means for advocating for engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, ...

. The factory also produced the professional grade photographic

cameras A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

"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

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

, military orders dropped drastically and the Arsenal factory fell into a crisis which is still ongoing. The management attempted to convert the factory by concentrating more on consumer optics and other civil products, but these attempts 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. Today, control systems, gyroscopes, accelerometers and other products are used to create 'Neptune', 'Vilkha', 'Hrim-2' missiles and missile systems, 'Korsar', 'Stugna'

ATGM An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

. Products of the company are used in Ukrainian space program. Civil production includes consumer optics, medical and banking equipment, gauges for the

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

and optical diode-based

traffic lights Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa, Zambia, and Namibia – are signaling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control the flow o ...

. In addition, the company performs calculations and manufacturing of optical systems and other products to order. In 2019,

Intergal-Bud Intergal-Bud is a Ukrainian real estate development company. It has built residential and commercial real estate in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr, Uzhhorod, Rivne, and Odesa. History Intergal-Bud was founded in Lviv in 2003. In 2009, the com ...

construction company bought 1.4 ha or Arsenal Factory and rebuilt one of buildings into an office space.

Art museum project

In 2004, a Ukrainian oligarch and art

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Viktor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk (; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes magazine'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list of wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune of US$1.44 billion. ...

suggested to establish a

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

gallery in the oldest 19th century building of the Arsenal. This large fortress-like

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

structure, situated on the ''Tsytadel'na Street'' and recognized as

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

monument, now belongs to the Ukrainian military and is poorly maintained. Later,

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards Western world, the West, European Union, and N ...

, the

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

, 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 succeeded and in 2007 the museum called

Art Arsenal The ''Mystetskyi Arsenal'' National Art and Culture Museum Complex, also known as ''Mystetskyi Arsenal'' () is Ukraine's flagship public cultural institution, a museum and art exhibition complex located at 10–12 Lavrska Street (Kyiv), Lavrska ...

(Mystetskyi Arsenal) was officially opened. Nowadays,

(Mystetskyi Arsenal) which is based in some buildings of the Arsenal enterprise, is one of the biggest and most popular art location in Ukraine.

Product brands

;Photo cameras *

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

* Salyut Cameras * ;Camera lenses * Arsat ;General * Fotar

Notable people

Boryslav Brondukov Boryslav Mykolayovych Brondukov (; ; 1 March 1938 – 10 March 2004) was a Ukrainian film character actor, People's Artist of Ukraine.

Usher Ayzenberg Usher most commonly refers to: * Usher (occupation), a person who welcomes and shows people where to sit ** Church usher ** Wedding usher, one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony ** Field usher, a military rank ** Usher of ...

Boris Ayzenberg Boris may refer to: People * Boris (given name), a male given name * *List of people with given name Boris * Boris (surname) Arts and media * Boris (band), a Japanese experimental rock trio * ''Boris'' (EP), by Yezda Urfa, 1975 * "Boris" (son ...

References

External links

arsenalcdb.com.ua
- Official website – –

- Plans for the construction of an art museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Arsenal Factory Defence companies of Ukraine Optics manufacturing companies Aviation in Ukraine Economy of Kyiv Buildings and structures in Kyiv Manufacturing companies established in 1764 Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Defence companies of the Soviet Union Manufacturing plants in Ukraine State Space Agency of Ukraine Companies established in 1764 Military history of Kyiv Photography equipment manufacturers