BRICK INDUSTRY DEVELOPS; PRODUCTION OF HOLLOW BUILDING BLOCKS INADEQUATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600300054-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: April 10, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
ii~~vnMMIIV IV rl'(VM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCP.STS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic -Construction materials
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily and weekly sex,
WHERE
PUBLISHED UssR
DATE
PUBLISHED 27 Dec 1949 - 24 Fe
LANGUAGE Russian
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DATE Of
INFORMATION 1949
ERICK INDUSTRY DEVELOPS;
PRODUCTION OF HOLLOA BUILDII7G BLOCKS INADEQUATE
Brick Producti.oa and Nex Plants
The "Moagorkirpich" (Moscow City Brick) Trust operated very successfully dur-
ing 1949. The 1949 year plan, which had been considerably augmented over 1948,
xas fulfilled in November. By 1 January 1950, Moscow construction pro,]ects xere
to receive an additional 20 million bricks. Production costs xere belox plan and
during the third quarter of 1949 Moscox brick plants gained a saving oP 18 rubles
on every 1,000 bricks.(1)
Brick plants of the Kiev Oblast Administration of Construction Materials In-
dustry produced 8 million bricks above the 1949 year plan for Kiev construction
proJects.(2)
In connection with the considerable increase in housing_coastruction planned
for 1950, a number of sew enterprises for the production of bonatruction materials
will be built in Zaporozh'ye. preparations are under xay Por the construction of
a brick pleat with a capacity of 60 million bricks per year. p plant for the pro-
duction of gypsum blocks will also be built during 1950.(3)
The Ministry of Construction Materials Industry USSR is building six sex
brick plants in Moscox, Leningrad, Ryazan', Poltava, Zaporozh'ye, and Kirovograd
oblasts. These plants xill produce bricks and facing materials by s new dry-press
process and will be equipped with presses designed by Engineer p. p. Meliya, Stal-
in prize Laureate.(4)
Technical Council Proves Inadequate
The Technical Council of the Ministry of Construction Materiels Industry Bel-
orussian SSR was founded over a year ego. The council consists of leading workers
of the ministry, workers of the Academy of Sciences Belorussian SSR, of the poly-
technical institute, and of the Scientific Research Institute of Construction Mn-
terials Industry. Tne technical council has a ride sphere of activity, as the de-
mand for brick and other construction materials in the republic is extremely great.
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duction cycle,+mastering new~ts~ towering production coats, speeding up the pro-
conatruction work many otleTatruction materials, and ind`u3tris1lzing
sideraticn. -- these and problems should be
given serious con-
However, the council has limited its activity to the revision and improvement
of new construction plena, and is neglecting all other phases of its work, The
Scientific Research Institute of Construction Materials Industry recently devel-
oped several types of new materials, which. are very sloxly finding their way into
construction enterprises. The Technical Council has not once discueaPd the i?t,.,._
duction of new building materials. Improvement oP the brick quality has also been
neglected. It is no secret that there is much to be desired in this respect.
Auring the one year of its existence, the council of the ministry hen solved
only three important problems oP the building industry; designing a small furnace
for burning milled peat in artificial driers, a new firing kiln, and a tunnel dri-
er.
The council has no direct contact xith construction enterprises. Out o.^ 12
permanent council members only one, ponomarev, director of Brick Plant No 1, is a
represeLtative of induatry.(5)
New Industrial Torn Has Brick Shortage
The town of Berezniki on the Upper Kama, Molotov Oblast, has developed into an
important industrial and cultural center and is continuing to grow, Hoxever, dur-
ing the postwar period, constructio^ oP new housing has been very slow. It has
taken from 3 to 5 years to build apartment houses which could have been completed
in a few months or in one year. Huilder5 have blemed the lag in construction on a
brick shortage. This is partly true, because brick production hen not been given
sufficient attention. The "Sevuraltyazhstroy" (Construction of North Ural Heavy
Industry Enterprises) Trust is supposed to produce silica bricks. It has adequate
supplies of sand for this purpose. gowever, the required 'lime ie almost entirely
at the disposal of the soda plant in Berezniki, ps a result, there are malty inter-
departmental arguments and fruitless discussions.
It xould be entirely possible to produce sufficient quantities of brick in
Berezniki, as the necessary plants exist, sad it would only be necessary to prt
them in working condition. 'there is no shortage of sand sad lime.
Several years ago, Chief Engineer Chernov oP the soda plant srorked out a meth-
od for producing inexpensive bricks of good quality from xaste material, that is,
incompletely burnt lime and distillation residue. T'..ia process would help to in-
crease the output of essential building materials, re`ieve the soda plant of con-
siderable looses, and prevent pollution of the Kama River water. The "Glavsoda"
(Main Administration of Soda Industry), lfiniatry oP Chemical Industry, agreed with
Engineer Chernov s suggestion, but nothing was done about it. Production oP car-
bonated bricks did not come under the jurisdiction of the soda plant and the lat-
ter was not su.!'ficiently interested to spend money and effort on this project.
Therefore, production of carbonated bricks has been postponed Prom year to year,
Gently beeaoa ahortegerofkwateruotFihe ~ y problem in Berezniki. There has re-
erating in Berezniki. All of thew use artesian welliwatPrsittaeverentoe~nises op-
titiea. This means there are numerous water consumers, but nothing~as been done
for the construction of new water pumping wells or the discovery of new ground
water. This matter is under the jurisdiction of txo ministries, the Ministry of
Electric power Plants and the Ministry of Communal Economy RSFSR. The further
grouts and c.evelopment of Berezniki is hindered by a lack of coordination betxeen
individual ministries. It ie up to the Ministry of City Construction to bring or_
der into this situation.(6)
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New Products of Ceramics Industry
The Saburtalo Brick Plant in Georgia has mastered the production of five-
sided hollow bricks. All presses of the plant are to be converted to this new
type oY production and the plant intends to produce 200,000 unfixed bricks by
12 March.
The five-sided hollow brick is a valuable buildi:,g materiel. It has many ad-
vantages over the regular type of brick; its production is less costly, the use
of raw material (clay) is reduced by 15-20 percent, the productivity of machines
and kilns is increaFed, the work ?~ facilitated, and transportation is improved
be,:ause the five-sided brick is considerably lighter than the ordinary brick. All
these considerations arc? extremely important in view of the many construction
projects in the Georgian SSR.(7)
Postwar construction work in the Ukraine, reconstruction of cities and vil-
lages and construction of nex buildings provided in the Five-year Plan, have made
it necessary to study possibilities of using local construction materials. Ukrain-
ian technicians, architects, and construction xorkera were the first ones in the
USSR to solve the problems connected xith mass production and use of hollow cera-
mic blocks for construction. The use of hollow ceramic blocks by Ukrainian con-
struction pro~ecte is now beyond the experimental stage. Thirty-five plants of the
Ministry of Construction Materials Industry U'.:rainian SSR have produced more than
100,000 cubic meters of various blocks and 14,000 square meters of ceramic facing
materials. In Kiev alone, ceram.:c blocks were used in the construction oP 200
houses.
Experiments have proved that hollow ceramic blocks used in construction are
in certain respects superior to brick, rood, or slag block structures. Ceramic
blocks are highly refractory; lightweight and durable, and have high heat resis-
tance. There are large reserves of raw material for the production of cea?amic
blocks and the lox cost of their production makes it possible to use this conetruc-
tioa material on s large scale. If xe assume the production coat of bricks for
one brick house to be 100 percent; the cost of ceramic blocks for a similar house
would be 77 percent. Of equal importance is the fact that by reducing the thick-
ness of walls built of ceramic blocks, the productive area of a building is in-
creased. When mass production of ceramic blocks has been mechanized, production
costs x111 be considerably lcwer.
Builders and architects of Kier are working out new types oP products made of
hollow ceramic blocks, and are applying them more widely in the construction of
buildings. Much has been done in this field by a group of workers headed by p. V.
Vlasov, active member of the Academies of Architecture USSR and Ukrainian SSR, and
architect A. V Dobrovol'skiy. In the near future, builders plan to construct
houses entirely of hollow ceramic blocks, except for the floors, doors and xin-
dow frames. This will greatly cut down the use of timber.(8)
:'ins t?: story houses of hollow ceramic blocks have been built in Dneprodzer-
zhinsk. Thls material has good insulating qualities and is considerably lighter
than slag brick, although it has a slightly larger volume. Construction of cera-
mic block xalls is leas time-consuming than construction of ordinary brick walls.
(9)
Criticizes Production of gollow Bricks
Various types of hollox -eramic products are pox being produced by 35 enter-
prises of the construction materials industry of the Ukrainian SSR. The results
achieved by Ukrainian ceramics industry workers have Pound gAneral approval, but
so far other republics have done nothing to follow their example. Even the Min-
istry of Construction Materials Industry RSFSR has not drain any practical con-
clusions sad has not taken steps to organize this type of production on a ).ergs
scale.
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During 1949, ceramic blocks were being produced only in Leningrad. In Mos-
cow, where the demand for good wall-building materials is especially great, pro-
duction oP hollow ceramic blocks has not even been organized. Enterprises oP the
Moscow City Administration of Construction Materials Industry (chief, Antonenkov)
have not produced a single ceramic block or a single porous brick. The Kuchino
Brick Plant is the only enterprise under the Moscow Oblast Administration oP Con-
struction Materials Industry (chief, Golovanov) xhich has begun production oY hol-
low wall-building materials. The miaictry has not shown any interest in the work
of this plant. Workers of the Ministry of Construction Materials Industry RSFSR
have no contact with construction organizations. rn 1049, the Kuchino Plant pro-
duced over 11 million porous bricks, but only 1.5 million of these bricks were used
for conatructiott oP a tall building, which wen their original purpose. The re-
mainder x;:s used like ordinary solid bricks.
The 1950 year i,lan provides Por the production of ceramic blocks only in Len-
ingrad, Moscow, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and in the Crimea.(10)
The Ministry of Construction Materials Industry Belorussian SSR has had meay
discussions regarding conversion of the brick industry to the production of hollow
ceramic products (porous bricks, wail blocks, ceiling blocks). gowever, very lit-
le progress has been made in this direction. In 1949, the production oP hollow
blocks constituted 4.5 percent of the entire brick output. According to plan, this
type of production is to be 8.3 percent of the total brick output in 1950.
So far, the production of hollow ceramic products in Belorussia has been as-
signed to two plants only, Vitebsk Plant No 32 and Grodno Plant No 20. The Grodno
plant has made the best progress, but even here the new branch oP production has
not been sufficiently developed. The plant has excellent vacuum presses at its
disposal. However, production losses (xaste and breakage) for hollox products are
still very high. In the case of unfired blocks, losses constitute 8.8 percent,
and for fired blocks 16.5 percent. qs compared with production of solid bricks,
the amount of waste in the case of unfired bricks is 4 percent and fired bricks
1.1 percent. p comparison of these figures shows that much rem$ins to be done Por
the improvement of technological processes.
The problem of transporting hollow blocks to construction pro,jecta also re-
quires attention. Consumers are extremely careless in loading the blocks for
transportation.
So Par nothing has been done by the ministry to advertise the new product.
Not a single building plan has been worked out in Belorussia which would take into
consideration the use of hollow ceramic blocks as a wall-building material. ps a
result, even in Grodro and Vitebsk xhere hollow blocks are the basic wall materi-
al, the walls of newly built houses have the former thickness, which is no long-
er ~uatified. This means that the main advantage of hollow blocks, their high in-
sulating quality, is not being utilized.(11)
1? Vechernyaya bioskvs, No 305, 27 Dec 49
2. Pravda UkrainY, No 3, '+ .:an 50
3? Pravda Ukrainy, No 8, 10 Jan 50
4. Leningradskays Pravda, No 22, 26 Jan 50
5? Sovetskaya Helorussiya, No 4, ti Jan 50
6? Trud, No 8, 10 Jan 50
7? Zarya yostoka, No 17, 24 Jan 50
8. Pravda, No 4, 4 Jan 50
9? Komsomol'skaya Pravda, No 22, 26 Jan 50
10. Proigyshlennost' Stroitel'nykh Materislov, No 8, 17 Feb 5G
11. Promyshlennost' Stroitel'nykh Materislov, No 9, 24 Feb 50
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