Kostroma Mechanical Plant - OAO KoMZ

Kostroma Instrumentation Plant
Kostroma Mechanical Plant - OAO KoMZ

Construction of the Kostroma Instrumentation Plant was started pursuant to a Minister of Aviation Industry Instruction dated 30 January 1968. In 1974 the the Kostroma Instrumentation Plant joins the Kaliningrad Machine Building Plant, Moscow Oblast, as its branch. In 1974-76 the plant produced special-use products for aviation industry facilities and the Ministry of Defense.

Kostroma is as old as Moscow. Kostroma was founded by prince Yuri Dolgoruki and that's why, by right, it is called the younger sister of Moscow. Located on the left bank of the Volga River, it abounds in magnificent monuments of old architecture. Its picturesque suburbs have long been a source of inspiration for many Russian artists. The beauty of the Upper Volga scenery prompted Isaac Levitan to create some of his most lyrical canvases. Here, in the village of Litvinivo, not far from Kostroma, Aleksei Savrasov executed studies for his famous picture, The Rooks Have Returned. Much of Boris Kustodiev's career was connected with this land. Born in Kostroma was Fiodor Volkov, the founder of Russia's first theatre. The celebrated dramatist Alexander Ostrovsky lived for a long time here while the writer Alexander Pisemsky, the critic and publicist Nikolai Mikhailovsky and the philosopher Vasily Rozanov all studied at a local school.

At the confluence of the Kostroma and Volga Rivers rise the white stone walls and golden cupolas of the Ipatievsky Monastery. It was founded in the latter half of the thirteenth century to protect the approaches to the city from the upper reaches of the Volga. The monastery experienced especial flourishing in the second half of the fourteenth century when the local boyar family of Godunov became powerful and donated funds for the erection of its stone walls and towers. In 1958, a unique open-air museum of wooden architecture was set up at the walls of the Ipatievsky Monastery. Churches, old houses, barns, water- and windmills, and small bathhouses were brought from various villages in the Kostroma Region. Among the exhibits, the Church of the Synaxis of the Virgin (1552) from the village of Kholm and the Church of the Transfiguration (1713) from the Vezhi pogost command particular attention. Also on display is a large collection of objects of wood-carving whose traditions were passed from father to son.

Modern Kostroma is the administrative, cultural and industrial centre of Kostroma region founded on 13th August, 1944. Kostroma spreads over both sides of the Volga. Its right bank and left bank are united by two bridges - railway and a road bridge. Nowadays, besides the traditional textile industry there are engineering plants, plants that produce radio electronics, medical equipment, woodworking machines, looms etc. Kostroma oblast has transportation machine-building, flax processing and jewellery industries. Agriculture: grain farming, cultivation of flax, vegetable-growing, cattle-breeding.

In 1976, the Kostroma Instrumentation Plant was converted into Kostroma Mechanical Plant, integrated in KPKO Strela Association, Kaliningrad, Moscow Oblast. The facility produced:

• special-use products for aviation industry facilities and the Ministry of Defense;
• machines and apparatus for fabric processing and dying in light industry;
• consumer goods, namely, Kalinka household ironing machines; and
• filtering units for gasoline station wastewater treatment.

In 1990 the Kostroma Mechanical Plant was spun off from KPKO Strela Association as an independent business. Under a privatization program, in 1994 the state enterprise Kostroma Mechanical Plant is converted into OAO (open joint-stock company) of the same name. In 2002 the mill proceeded with implementing production and delivery of equipment for plywood mills. In 2002-04, the major consumers of its products are plywood facilities of the Sveza Group, namely, OAO Fanplit and OAO UIFK. In 2005 KoMZ joined the Sveza Group. Today, manufacturing customized equipment for plywood facilities is OAO KoMZ's core business. Consumers of KoMZ products are:

• OAO Fanplit, plywood mill, Kostroma;
• OAO UIFK, plywood mill in Ust-Izhora, St Petersburg;
• OAO VU FK Novator, plywood mill, Velikiy Ustyug;
• OAO TFK, plywood mill, Tyumen;
• ZAO Fankom, Verkhnyaya Sinyachikha, Sverdlovsk region;