Arsenal Factory

Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise
	National Space Agency of Ukraine
Website	arsenalcdb.com.ua

50°26′24″N 30°32′32″E / 50.4400°N 30.5422°E / 50.4400; 30.5422

Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise (Ukrainian: Казенне підприємство спеціального приладобудування «Арсенал», romanized: Kazenne pidpryiemstvo spetsialnoho pryladobuduvannya Arsenal), also known as the Arsenal Factory, is one of the oldest factories in Kyiv.

History

Pre-1918

The factory was established in 1764 as a repair and production facility of the Imperial Russian Army 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, who worked as a grinder 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-

Tsentral'na Rada, the Ukrainian assembly that declared the independence of Ukraine. To commemorate the event, 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

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

bombings. The relocated "Arsenal" continued to play a major role in arming the Red Army

.

Post-war

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

"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, 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

traffic lights

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

In 2019, Intergal-Bud construction company bought 1.4 ha or Arsenal Factory and rebuilt one of buildings into an office space.^[2]

Art museum project

In 2004, a Ukrainian

Art Arsenal

(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

Camera lenses

Arsat

General

Fotar

Notable people

References

^ ^a ^b "Баланс (Звіт про фінансовий стан) 010420" (PDF). arsenalcdb. 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-21.
^ Ірина, Автор: Стасюк (2022-02-15). "Корпус заводу Арсенал перебудували під бізнес-центр: фото до і після". Хмарочос (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-04-27.

External links

arsenalcdb.com.ua - Official website (in Ukrainian) – (in English) – (in Russian)
Archunion.com.ua - Plans for the construction of an art museum (in Russian)

[auto-1] "Баланс (Звіт про фінансовий стан) 010420" (PDF). arsenalcdb. 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-21.

[2] Ірина, Автор: Стасюк (2022-02-15). "Корпус заводу Арсенал перебудували під бізнес-центр: фото до і після". Хмарочос (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-04-27.

[2]