OPTICAL-MECHANICAL FACTORY NO. 349 [GOMZ] IN LENINGRAD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A004200650007-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 4, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: June 23, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This Document contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
INFORMATION REPORT amended. Its transmission or revelation of its contents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form Is Prohibited,
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COUNTRY USSR (Leningrad Oblast)
SUBJECT Optical-Mechanical Factory No. 349
(COMZ) in Leningrad
PLACE ACQUIRED
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 23 June 1954
NO. OF PAGES 7 25X1
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
1. The Optical-Mechanical Plant No. 349 (Gosuda.rstvennyy Opticheskiy Mekhanicheski.y
Zavod),(GOMZ) was located in Leningrad, Vyborgskaya, Storona, in the southern
portion of the square formed by the coordinates N 59-58 and 59-59; E 30-21 and
30-22, just north of the Finland Freight Station.1 To the west and south the
boundaries of the plant area were formed by Chungunnaya Ulitsa, to the north
by the Karl Libknekht Plant for Farming ?liachines,and to the east by plant-owned
athletic fields and a stadium. Access to the plant was by Chungunnaya Ulitsa
and :Arsenalpaya Ulitsa. A streetcar line ran through iLesnoy Prospekt nearby.
(See location sketch and plant layout on pages lj.,7).
2. The plant previously designated LOMZ No. 349 (Leningrad Optical Mechanical
Zbvod.) had been transferred to Siberia during the war but returned in 1944
and 1945. During World War II,,some of the leading personnel of the plant had
allegedly worked in a LOMZ factory located in Leningrad-Shchemilovka, in the
vicinity of the Bolshevik Armament Plant.2
3. The plant management included Semenov (fnu) who had been
1946 until 1951
er kl'nu),, chief engineer from 1946 to 1948, a Jew,
years o age, a pleasant, cultivated person, was discharged and, allegedly, later
worked at a technical institute. Lopatin (fnu), a pleasant and vigorous person,
replaced Per as chief engineer and became plant director after Semenov. Arkhipov
(fnu), who was detached to the Zeiss Plant in Jena when it was being dismantled,
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became chief engineer in 1951. Ab mov (fnu), business manager, allegedly
replaced Chief Designer Galper3i(f'u) in 1948. Galperin in turn, was Mans-
(erred back to a minor position,. Min department chiefs included Shoshin
(fnu), an intelligent person, who h .d been in Jena during the dismantling
of the Zeiss Plant and became chief of ,the optical laboratories after 1947.
Muraveskiy (fnu) until 1951 had bean chief of the-chemical and vacuum labora-
tories, of the experimental workshop, and the spectrum laboratory. Krup fnu
a Jew? who had been chief of tie pptical laborator
named Koslcolova;(fnu). in 191+6, DuOmann, (fnu) became chief~of the foundry.
The chief designers working at the plant included Delyano41(fnu), in charge
of precision measuring. equipment; Dobchin (fnu), chief designer;. and Titov
(fnu), assistant designer, both for astro-physical equipment. Friedel (fnu),
a Jew and former boilermaker wlao had been in Germany, was chief translator.
Colonel Smirnov (fnu), a typical M.VD functionary, was chief of the personnel
department and also chief of the first department. In addition to the above
mentioned plant departments~the.OTK`- Otdel Tekhn.icheekogo Kontrolya (techni-
cal control section) and the Otde1 Snabzhi niyf3. aunnly Rar?t nn
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25X1
4. In October 1946, 286 engineers, foremen, and skilled laborers from the Zeiss
Plantin jIena, with their depndents a total of about 700 persons, were deported
to the USSR. Seventy-nine of these experts were assigned to GOMZ No. 349 in
Leningrad, and another group of about the same strength went to the Progress
Plant, located near the Finland?Ras~enger Station. After the train arrived in
Leningrad on 30 October 1946, about 50 percent of the persons assigned to GOMZ
No.349 were billeted in old buildings in Leningrad - Kamennyy0strov, while the
others moved into four houses on Kuf?akina Doroga in Shchemilovka, a southeastern
quarter of Leningrad. After about one-and?a.-half years, all German experts
employed at the plant moved with their families into the four buildings in
Shchemilovka,where kitchen facilities were very limited. The Germans were
permitted to move freely within a perimeter of two kilometers. Wider movements
could only be made with escorts,who had to be requested one day in advance.
In the beginning, German engineers 'worked together with the Soviets,, but
later they were given their-own offices and supervised by Ohief.Translator Friedel.
German and Soviet personnel continued to work together in the astro-testing
laboratory, the grinding shop, the optical laboratories for spectrographs, the
experimental workshop, the laboratory for filter and sensitometer standards,
the laboratory for vacuum evaporation, and the laboratory for quick spectrum
analysis. German experts were also employed in the astro*physical workshop,
the precision measuring workshop, and the measuring workshop.
5. When the German engineers arrived in October 1946, the equipment of the various
departments and workshops was replaced by apparatus and machinery which had
either been.dismantled in Jena:or.copied from such machinery. By about mid-1947,
this process was completed,and training of the Soviet personnel on the new
equipment was initiated. After mid-1948, the entire production of the plant
was taken over by the Soviets, and the German experts acted as supervisors.
Many of the machines dismantled in Jena were stored for years in the open; other
German equipment was spoiled by careless handling. So, the Soviets derived very
little profit from the machinery spized in Germany. The confusion involved in the
distribution of the laboratory equipment and the technical designs from Jena to
GOMZ Plant No. 349, the Progress Plant, and to the State Optical Institute was
to a certain extent, eliminated by the German engineers. The plant library
was well equipped with literature from Jena and Dresden. However,; improper
handling by the Soviet personnel prevented efficient utilization of the literature
available. technical literature was translated 25X1
in Moscow and then distributed among the plants involved. 25X1
technical magazines were procured by an agency in Moscow and evaluated. Addi-
tional literature was available at the State Library or could be borrowed :"from
the State Optical Institute. There~wao no regular circulation of foreign magazines
or Soviat1 technical publications as, for instance, Zavodskaya Laboratbriya and
the proceedings of 'the Moscow Academy of Sciences.
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6. In early 1952, the monthly output of the plant amounted to 40 ISP.22-type
quartz spectrographs,including the perta?3ning_, projectors, photometers, and
spark and arc generators; 20 ISP-.51 glass spectrographs; five Litrov quartz-
glass spectrographs made from captured Zeiss material; ten sensitometers;
10 Beckmann-type spectral photometers; 100 precisian measuring instruments of
various types,including about 10 measuring microscopes and 40 optimeter tubes;
30 motion picture projectors and 500 to 1,000 photographic cameras. Individual
samples of astronomical. instruments were also produced at the plant. No in-
formation, was available on the types and output of range-finders and telescopes.
Occasionally, an outgoing shipment of range-finders which, how- 25X1
ever, may have been material from Jena. The Lyubitel and Komsomolets type of
cameras were cheap products made of plastic material and fitted with poor
quality lenses. Also the motion picture projectors were of poor quality., and
copies of obsolete Western models. Professor Prokofyev.(fnu), of the State
Optical Institute,occasionally mentioned at conferences that 10 percent of the
spectrographic apparatus were rejected. However, when asked back by a German
expert, Prokofyev admitted only T5 to 20 percent of the consumers may be ir;,a
position of determining defects, and that probably a still smaller percentage
of people would be able to judge the quality of such apparatus. The instruments
for spectrum analysis of metals, the measuring microscopes, optimeter tubes, and
similar products,were generally of excellent material and copied from Jena models.
During the first two or three weeks of a month, there was,-. very little work for
the assembling department, since only very small stocks of single parts were pro-
duaad,because of a lack of raw materials and semi-finished products. Most of
the assembly work concentrated toward the end of the month when overtime had to
be worked in order to fill production quotas. Overtime work was not paid.
7. The plant departments had only small funds available to cover the requirements of
small parts etc. Becaube of the improvized utilization of captured German
material and of unsuitable raw material at the foundry, many of the parts
produced did not meet specifications. This endangered the fulfilment of pro-
duction quotas. Waste of time and material also resulted from poor organization
at the plant.
8. At the end of each month,the finished products were packed and either stored
in a special building for the final inspection by special personnel, or shipped
to receivers given according to orders by the ministry in Moscow.
9. In early 1952, the plant had s.: work force of about 3,000 people,including
about 50 percent women. Wages, which were to be paid every two weeks, were
often paid up to eight days behind schedule, because wages were calculated,
on the basis of the fulfilment of production quotas. Only some privileged
departments occasionally received small advance payments. The personnel
accepted this procedure without grumbling.
Comment; The LOMZ optical plant is medium size and is reportedly
oca ed in a southeastern part of Leningrad, on the Neva River, Bortovskaya
Street, north of the Bolshevik Plant. D.uringWorldWar TI:, large sections of
the GOMZ Plant were evacuated to Kerbyshldy near Kazan (N 55-45, E 49008)
also to Omsk ( N 55-00, E 37-29).
Legend to Location Sketch on page 4
1. GOMZ No. 349, Optical Plant.
2. Plant area of the Karl I.Libknekht Plant for, farming machines.
-3. Sport field and stadium.
4. Cemetery.
5. Fin;larid Freight Station.
6. FinLaid -Passenger Station.
7. Litenyy Bridge.
8. Kirovskiy Bridge.
9. Svobodnyy.Bridge.
10. Grenadyerskly Bridge
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Location Sketch of GOMZ No. 349 0pticalPlann in LeninMx?ad
z
ScaI About 1?22,,500
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Legend to Layout Sketch on page 7
1. Lesnoy Prospekt.
2. Multi-track railroad installations of Finland Station.
3. Area of Finland Freight Station.
4. Tracks leading to the freight station.
5. Plant railroad connection.
6. Chungunnaya Ulitsa.
7. Fence around plant area.
8. Entrances to the plant,
9. Entrances for vehicles,
10. Area of plant dispensary.
11. Athletic field and stadium,
12. Area of the Karl Libknekht Plant for farming machines.
13. Quarters of fire department.
14. Park.
15. Fountain.
16. Two separate courtyards.
17. Coal storage dump.
18. Crane installation.
19. Guard house.
20. Factory building which had served as temporary quarters for plant personnel
until 1952,
21. Administration building.
22. Two designing offices.
23. Various workshops.
24. Three connection archways.
25." Ruin.
26. Workshops and lathe shop for astro-physical instruments.
27. Packing department, store, and experimental workshop.
28. Transformer station.
29. Processing of abrasive agents.
30. Carpenter shop and electric department.
31. Foundry and pattern shop.
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32. Workshops, welding shop, and quartz laboratory.
33. Garages.
31k Dispatch office.
35. Potato dump #
36. Four sheds.
37. Battery shop.
38. Messhall, conference rooms, and library.
39. Storage building.
40. Shops .
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Layout Sketch of GOMZ No. 349 Optical Plant in Leningrad
Not to- scale
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