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Soviet Optics - Post-War

In post-war years, optical science and industry underwent rapid development in the USSR. Under reparation conditions, Soviet plants received plenty of equipment from German optical factories, and over 300 optical mechanics specialists came to the USSR from Germany to help master the new equipment and put it into operation. At that time around 34,000 people worked at the optical plants of the country.

In 1946, the construction of optical glass production capacities began at the Lytkarino plant. The capacities of the plant were designed to produce 1,200 tons of glass per year. In the future, these volumes completely covered the demands of the country's industry for optical materials.

Gradually, the plants began increasing the share of civil production. Thus, in 1946, the first photographic camera Moskva-1 was produced in the USSR. A little later Krasnogorsk Plant started the production of the Zorky camera, which became one of the symbols of the city. And in 1952, Soviet engineers developed the first domestic reflex camera Zenit. The new product became so popular that three years later the millionth camera came off the assembly line. The compact amateur camera became the ancestor of a whole generation of reflex cameras that improved every year and gained popularity not only in the USSR but also abroad.

There were other important innovations of the optical industry at the time, e. g. the production of the first electron microscopes, geodetic surveying rangefinders, and radar rangefinders that were successfully used in cartographic works in the Antarctic.

Maksutov, since the early 1940s had worked with mirror telescopes, and in 1955, developed a camera objective based on lenses AND mirrors that let a 1000 mm camera lens be produced that was only 8 inches long. He also designed microscope objectives that, with mirrors, could work at wavelengths impossible using normal optical glass.

Soviet achievements

The second half of the 1950s became one of the most successful periods in the history of domestic optical science and instrument engineering. Revolutionary discoveries by scientists and space exploration provided additional opportunities for the development of the optical industry.

In 1956, Soviet specialists designed the world's first tank sight with independent two-plane sight line stabilization that allowed tanks to conduct precision fire while moving. Foreign analogs of this sight were developed 17 years later.

Kazan was one of the largest centers of the optical industry at that time. On April 12, 1957, a branch of S.I.Vavilov State Optical Institute (BSOI) opened in the city. Originally, this organization combined fundamental and applied research with the development of processes for the production of equipment and instruments for military tasks and the national economy. In 1966, BSOI was reorganized into the State Institute for Applied Optics (SIAO).

After the war, the achievements of optical plants became an integral part of the space exploration era. In 1957, the Soviet AFA-39 camera took the first photographs of the surface of Earth from an altitude of 200 km. In 1959, the first images of the hidden hemisphere of the moon were made. The pictures of Earth's natural satellite were taken by means of the AFA-E1 photographic system installed on an interplanetary automated station.

The products of Soviet plants received high marks at international industrial exhibitions, and the works of Soviet scientists received wide international acclaim. Thus, in 1958, at the World Expo in Brussels, Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant (today part of Shvabe Holding) won the Grand-Prix for a set of replaceable objectives, an honorary diploma, and gold medal for the EM-5 electron microscope, FP-22 high-speed camera, and S-180 aurora research camera. At that time, a group of Soviet scientists was awarded the Nobel Prize "For the Discovery and Interpretation of Cherenkov Radiation," as was mentioned above. Among other achievements of that period, we should mention the discovery of a technology to connect optical parts by deep optical contact and growth of the first single lead sulphide crystals.

Space exploration

In the 1960s, the dynamic development of optical science and industry continued. More and more Soviet optical companies started participating in various domestic space programs. On April 12, 1961, the launch of the Vostok spacecraft with Yuri Gagarin on board was filmed with the use of a KT-50 cinematographic theodolite developed by Krasnogorsk Plant.

In the same year, the USSR developed and produced a space orientation instrument called Vzor for the Vostok spacecraft that was used for the first human spaceflight in history with Yuri Gagarin on board. The Geofizika Central Design Bureau was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for the successful accomplishment of governmental tasks.

In the late 1960s, a number of nationally important projects were performed by Krasnogorsk Plant: unique high-precision astronomical unit for photographing space objects to determine the coordinates and trajectories by means of correlation with reference stars of the celestial sphere, and large high-resolution Mezon-2A objective used to photograph the surface of the Earth from an artificial satellite.

All the optical companies that have been participating in the performance of governmental space exploration projects since the 1960s are part of Shvabe Holding today.

Laser era

The 1960s were marked not only by the active process of space exploration but also by the development of laser technology. The invention of the first laser in 1960 became possible thanks to fundamental scientific achievements, first of all by Alexander Prokhorov, Nikolay Basov (USSR), and Charles Townes (USA) - all Nobel Prize winners for quantum electronics research.

Since the laser was invented, practically every year new types have been created for various purposes. In 1961, the neodymium glass laser was developed, and within the next five years, laser diodes, dye lasers, carbon dioxide lasers, and chemical lasers were invented. In 1963, Zhores Alferov and Herbert Kroemer (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000) developed the theory of semiconductor heterostructures which were the basis for the creation of numerous types of lasers.

In the early 1960s, the Government of the USSR launched a wide-scale research and development program both in the sphere of lasers and laser-based systems and tools. In 1961, Mitrofan Stelmakh, a talented Soviet scientist and engineer, and Alexander Shokin, Head of the Governmental Committee for Electronic Technology, presented a motion to the Government on the establishment of a specialized institute for quantum electronics. Soon, Polyus Research Institute was established where research in the sphere of quantum electronics began immediately. In 1964, the first optical gyroscope in the USSR was developed at this institute.

Aleksey Bonch-Bruyevich significantly contributed to the development of laser science. For over 25 years, he was head of the physical optics department, one of the leading departments of SOI. From the early 1960s, Bonch-Bruyevich focused on issues of laser physics. In cooperation with the employees of the institute, he developed the first neodymium glass laser that was serially adapted by Soviet industry in 1964 - earlier than the production of such lasers began abroad.

In 1969, Luch Central Design Bureau was established with the goal of developing powerful lasers of various types and purposes (later, Astrofizika Scientific and Production Association). It was there that in 1980, the first LE-1 aerospace laser locator was developed. The team of developers was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize and two State Prizes, and the company was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

The Special Design Bureau (SDB) within the Luch Central Design Bureau for the development of lasers (SDB-3, later, Granat Experimental Design Bureau) was headed by Viktor Orlov in 1969. In 1981, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the development of the 1K-11 Stilet self-travelling laser complex. In the 1960s, ruby crystal lasers and T-130, KM-20 and KM-43 laser gyroscopes were developed by the optical companies of the country. Beginning in 1970, the team of Granat Experimental Design Bureau performed a number of fundamental studies in dozens of spheres on laser technology.

Civil and special products

Together with fulfilling orders for the defense industry, the optical companies of the USSR developed and serially produced unique medical equipment. Thus, they maintained the tradition established by Theodor Shvabe, whose company had produced medical equipment.

In 1973, the first laser surgical unit Skalpel-1 for bloodless operations was developed in the USSR. Meanwhile, the production of hemodialysis equipment ("artificial kidney") began. At the same time, the technology of the serially produced Zenit-V camera was used to develop a special Zenit-VE camera to picture internal organs of humans through endoscopic instruments. At the international Healthcare-80 exhibition that took place in Moscow, Soviet medical equipment created by optical companies was highly appraised by the world community.

At the same time, in the late 1970s, the share of military products manufactured at optical plants increased. During that period Soviet designers and engineers developed optical-electronic sighting stations for the IV generation of fighter aircraft. Furthermore, the production of astronomic sighting systems began at Ural Optical Mechanics Plant, as well as the engineering of gyro-stabilized optical-electronic systems.

In 1971, in association with a number of research institutes the first mobile infrared theodolite-radiometer Sobol was developed in the USSR on the basis of the Krasnogorsk Plant. The device was used to determine the coordinates of a flying object by its infrared radiation.

There were also a number of other remarkable events in the optical industry in the 1970s:

• In 1975, Geofizika Central Design Bureau was awarded the Order of the October Revolution for special achievements in new equipment production.
• In 1979, the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant was assigned the name of Sergey Zverev, former Chief Engineer of the plant and later Minister of Defense Industry of the USSR.
• In 1979, Zenit-EM was recognized as the best camera by "What camera?", a popular English magazine for amateur photographers.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the USSR was one of the few countries in the world that could boast a complete closed cycle of development and production of optical instruments and systems - from fundamental research to mass production. Soviet optical products successfully competed with their western counterparts in the quality-price ratio. Not only were Soviet cameras in demand abroad but also industrial and scientific optics.

Beginning from the mid-1980s, a number of production facilities were respecialized for the production of consumer goods: field binoculars were replaced by tourist binoculars and opera glasses, military sights were replaced by sports and hunting ones, military and defense night vision systems were replaced by video surveillance security systems.