Podolsk Mechanical Plant logo

Podolsk Mechanical Plant (PMZ; Russian: Подольский механический завод, romanized: Podol'skiy Mekhanicheskiy Zavod) was a mechanical plant in Podolsk, Russia.

History

The Podolsk factory was established in 1900 as Kompaniya Singer, the Russian branch of the Singer Corporation.[1] It was the sole sewing machine factory in the Russian Empire, and by 1914 it employed over 5,000 workers.[1]

The company was nationalized after the Russian Revolution, and it was renamed Zavod imeni Kalinina to commemorate a visit to the factory by Mikhail Kalinin.[2]

The first motorcycles were built in the factory in February 1934.[3] In 1935 they commenced series production of the PMZ-A-750 which had been design by Pyotr Mozharov at NATI, for the Soviet Army.

The factory was partially evacuated in Autumn 1941. In 1942, the plant was re-established as an ammunition manufacturing site. The production of sewing machines resumed in late 1945.[4]

The company became Kontsern Podolsk in 1990 and was privatized in 1991.[2] In August 1994 a controlling stake in the plant was sold to Semi-Tech.[2] After the takeover by the Canadian company, thousands were fired, and the workforce dropped from 18,000 to 2,000 workers.[5]

The factory was broken up into three entities: ZAO "Industrial Sewing Machines Plant", CJSC "Domestic Sewing Machines Plant" and CJSC "Foundry".[6] By late 2003, the Industrial Sewing Machines Plant was practically liquidated and merged with the Domestic Sewing Machines Plant.[6]

References

Citations
  1. 1 2 Himsl, Jenna Elizabeth (May 2017). "Stitched Together: The Singer Manufacturing Company and Its Employees in Revolutionary Russia, 1914-1930". University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Singer Buys Back Its Former Factory". The Moscow Times. 24 January 1995. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "PMZ-А-750". Мотомир Вячеслава Шеянова. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  4. ↑ "Podolsk Engineering Factory I/N Kalinin No. 460" (PDF). CIA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-23. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Higgins, Andrew. "Internal Combustion: Does Car BomberOn Red Square Bode Unrest for Russia?". WSJ. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  6. 1 2 Petrov, Nikolay (9 February 2004). "Локальное оживление после общего обвала" (PDF) (in Russian). Promweekly. p. 7. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
Bibliography
  • "Entsiklopediya Mototsiklov. Firmi. Modeli. Konstruktsii.", Za Rulem, Moscow (2003). Энциклопедия Мотоциклов. Фирмы. Модели. Конструкции. - За Рулем - Москва (2003) p.434-5 ISBN 5-85907-340-2
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.