THE ILYICH ABRASIVE PLANT, LENINGRAD, USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600060197-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 17, 2011
• Sequence Number: 197
• Publication Date: July 23, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFIOPTION CON?I1ENTIAL ' -
CF.NTFAL INTEL).IGENCE AGENCY
INFOfMATION REPORT
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED
REPORT
CD
DATE DISTR. :3 Jul' 1954
NO. OF PAGES 5
NO. OF ENCLS. 1
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
1. The Ilyich Plant, located on the north bank of the Neva River in the
Vyborg DiBiric*, of Leningrad, up
until 1932 produced mainll natural abrasive materials. However, after 1;32
the production of electrocorundum and silicon carbide (carborundum) as in-
creased until today it makes up the in portion of production of the
plant. The reprocessing of natural abrasives has been Limited in produc-
tion to materials for fine polishing and finishing operations (super-fini.&h.
r 115zling; 1apptnn, none ).
2. The following artificial abrasives are produced at the Ilyich Plant:
a. Electrocorundum, normal (A12 03 - 87 to 97)
b. Electrocorundum, white (A12 03 - 98 to 99%0
Note: Black electrocorundum (A12 03 - 75 to 89%) as obtained by melting
bauxite of a low silicon content without dioxidation agents is not
produced for industrial use. White electrocorundunL is produced in
an amount equal. to about 20% of normal electrocorundum.
c. Black silicon carbide (iiC - 95 to 98%)
d. Green silicon carbide (sic 97 to 99%)
Note: Green silicon carbide is produced in an amount eqursi to about 15
to 20% of total production.
e. Rouge (iron oxide)
f. Crushed glass
CONF'I 2rrtAL
OISTNIBUTON
II
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C0IVFIDENTIAL
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3. The followinZ natural sorasives are used at the plant for production of
abrasives: corundum, emery, granite, punice. These were used in making
the following:
a. Grinding discs of different sizes, grain, hardness, structure and
binding.
Note: About 80h of the discs produced qre men, by presst' on a ceramic
binding. Molten discs are no longer produced. The remaining 20%
are Tressed on bakelite and valcanite bindings. The discs pressed
on silicon and magnesian bindings are produced in very small
amounts, usually on special order.
c. Segments for combination discs used for flat polishing.
c. Grinding bricks for honiig-process and super-finish.
d. Various hand files and plates.
e. Abrasives with a grain varying from #5 to #500.
f. Paver and linen abrasives (cenEnted) of emery and sandpaper.
g. Various aorasive powders and pastes.
4. The main produ% of the Ilyich Plant, however, is grinding discs and
bricks for :'._i.ine finishing. Grinding discs are also produced at the
Chelyabinsk, Zlatoustov and "Smychka" plants. Various abrasive discs and
paper, linen, pastes and powders from natural abrasives are produced by
some cooperative organizations and artele as well as in the plants belong-
ing to the "Union Graphite-Corundum Trust", such as the Techinsk and
Kyshtym plants.
5. Because there are no diamond deposits in the USSR all diamond abrasives
are imported. (Diamonds founi in the Ulal LUlalsi and Enieseysk `Kraenoyarsk-
districts are a mineralogical rarity.) Because of this fact, wherever
possible, diamonds arc replaced by durable, hard metals. For example,
diamond tools for fine grinding sre replaced b T15k6C, T60k6, etc; diamond
drills by volomit. (91% W `or D
4% C, 2% re - hardness, 9.6
by Moh'a scale). carL,i,.. Apure corundum the hardest material known
next to the diamond, did not have any practical significance; since its
production and use did not occur beyond the limits of laboratory tests
and some factory experiments. Current literature, however, mentions that
after World War II the "bar" carbide began to be used in mass production.
Its application is still limited to finishing jobs and finishing instru- 50X1 -H U M
meats of hard metal. It is difficult to learn whether "bar" carbide is
being reduced in one of the above mentioned plants
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6. The machine building department cf the Ilyich Plant has a small building
section and fairly good mechanical shops. The department produces simple
one and two sired polishing headutocks for the hand finishing of tools,
universal machines for grinding various instruments and tools and specia_-
ized grinding machines for sharpening chucks, spiral drills, etc.
7. The plant occupies a fairly large area (one to it km square). Most of the
buildings are of one story; a few are two stories. The buildings housing
the electro-furnaces and plant management have four storiee. A ]gorge 50X1-HUM
area is given over to unloading and stocking of raw materials, The entire
plant area is crise-crossed with a transportation system
9. The equipment In the mechanical repair shop is very cld and in poor
condition from ne3lect. The equipment in the mechanical shops of the
machine building department is fairly new and well chosen for the produc-
tion. of grinding machines. The equipment in the shops for reprocessing
abrasives is the worst in the plant. It in varied, about one-half being
the plant receives much attention and in the past, old, worn out equipment
as being replaced as quickly as possible. By now the equipment is
probably in excellent shape - at the expense of East German industry.
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COI+IFAENTIAL
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The plant has four, 1^:-charge electrode furnaces for melting electrocorun-
dum and one (possitly two) electric furnaces with a heated core for melting
silicon carbide. Tw;, clectric furnaces for corundum were installed around
1935. They have a moveable base which is placed on a pushcart. Meltings
are made "un block" with a closed charge hole. The size of the molt--
block is about two or 21 meters in diameter and about the same in height
Melting "on release" is not made at all. Two other electrical furnaces
for corundum were installed around 1931. They have stationary bottoms
and the size of the block is less than two meters (diameter). The electric
furnace used for silicon carbide was installed in 1930 - 1931. It is
built on a firebrick base. The side walla can be dismantled after each
melting. The full capacity of this furnace is about 60 tons. The maximum
amount of carbide obtained from one melting is: black, up to 10 tons;
green, up to five tons. The black carborundum is the main production
since the melting process of the green carborundum is more expensive,
requires greater electric power consumption (for o..,:. ton of black carborun-
dum, up to nine thousand lnr/hr; for green, up to 12 thousand kw/hr) and
three to four tons of cooking salt for each melting. The F''blem of
obtaining salt it ,e USSR is unsolable. To accomplish th, norm?a set for
production, it : pore advantageous to produce the black carborundum
since with *h:- same charge, the output of black is almost twice that of
green carborundum. Therefore, the plant is trying to limit the production
of green carborundum to the 2% which is formed -at the core on each black
melting.
tons in grain). This was for both the Ilyyich and the Chelyabinsk plants
since these were the only two plants in production
:'.. The Ilyich Plant uses -~ainly,the Tikhvinck bauxite, although the quality
is lower than the Ura1i--Wwlte. According to Soviet standards the
coefficient of bauxite (siliceous modulus - A12 03) must be between
seven and 10. The Tikhvinsk bauxite coefficient does not exceed 7.8, but
because the Tikhvinak supply is nearby (and Soviet transportation diffi-
oulties are always present) it led-to the maximum use of Tikhvinsk bauxite.
Attached is a t,ble of the basic components of Tikhvinck and Ural bauxite.
(The bauxite eve placed according tc':decreasing siliceous modulus (A1,, 03)
81 02
12. (ruartz a..c sand are delivered to the plant from the Leningrad area. A
better quality ,(than Leningrad) is also brought from Karelia Carelo-
Finnish Soviet RepubliJ. Natural corundia is obtained from Semiz-Bugu in
the r-pkfi Prea. Corundum is also found in Yakutia LY-akut4-l7 along the Chainyga
giver 5i .7 'Chainguia or 1QiaiyagryaJ but it is too far from Leningrad
to be tranap,..?ted efficiently. Emery is obtained from the Priirtysh Mines
near Xyshtym in Chelyabinsk. This emery contains from 20 to 60% of
corundum. Granite (almandine) I obtained from ELrelia (Finnish 88R) and
a very good grade comes from the Urals. Pumice is brought from Armenia
and the North Caucus region.
13. As a rule the ilyich Plant -processed ull raw materials, but In: the late
thirties crushed corundum, began to be produced at, the zyahtym plant of the
Union - Graphite - Corundum Trust and crushed emery at the Techinsk plant
14. I the source of parer for the Ilyich Plant
it is either the Dubrovinsk power plant on the Neva River or the Y v
_.-; aIoatrie plant. There are no other possibilities. The electric
.urosee .....sus are placed usually during the night-time when the electric
poser consumption of other enterprises is reduced.
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CONFIJENTIAL
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15. Th, ylunt wc'rked on t,ee shifts. On the day shift there were about fin=
hundred workers, two hundred on the evening and one hundred to 150 on t:;c
night - morning shift. (These figures are exact for the years 1936 - 1.);7.j
Women made up about 15% of all workers, doing mostly plant administration
work or cleaning. The administrative section was very large, as is common
i. _~., of the rower
in he .-UV 1Ct. the mart.
\!~ 4 e - "" - ~-
taken by the Soviets
The Soviets replaced them with 42, 30 of
them being put teadministrative section.)
The di one (fnu) Gabulov, an ole Party
member The techaicw...,,,u&er
was one G M I litov whn was not F Party an
17. Up until 1935 the production of the -plant was of very low quality. The
crystallization , .,ne abrasives was not large enough, was of the vrong
isometric form . n large amounts of im-rities were present. In crushing,
the grains ca:..e out in swordshape a: d thin, leaf -like forms. The ceramic
bases were very brittle and the discs were not homogeneous. The stamping
of discs did not always correspond to their real qualities. However,
with the help of the Leningrad Chemistry - Technology Institute and
Tanilaah (Central Scientific Research laboratory of Abrasives and polishing)
these difficulties were overcome, with the result that by 1938 the quality
of production was rather good. However, for the important, responsible
jobs, particularly in war (defense) plants, the imported discs were pre-
ferred. In general, the production of the Ilyieh plant was for internal
use and only a all percentage of selected an tested discs were export-gin,
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CONFIDENTIAL
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co'rlai,
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4. A technical committee, for Pxample the one for the Engineers, had the following
members:
(a) chairman - the chief of the Army Engineers;
(b) senior member - the chief of the engineering faculty of the Frunze
Military Academy,
(c) member - the chief of the Military Engineering Academy,
(d) member(s) - chiefs of one or two faculties at the Engineering Academy,
(e) temporary member(s) - a particularly well qualified engineer (usually an
army officer).
Each technical committee, in addition to its members, had a permanent staff, with
a permanent secretariat. The staff was charged with summarizing for and present-
ing to the committee all ideas which came in on the design and development of new
weapons and equipment. Ideas could come from such sources as individual members
of the army, construction bureaus (Konstruktorskii Bureaux - KB) under he
appropriate arms and services, and construction bureaus located in factories
which manufactured items. Each branch of the army had its establish-
ment in or near Moscow the development of new weapons and equipment. For
example, the Enginee... iad such an installation near Moscow - the Military
Engineers Testing Urounds (Voenno Inzhinerni Ispitatelni Polygon). This estab-
lishment had laboratories and a construction bureau. The KB was made up of
officer-engineers (in this case belonging to the Army Engineers) and it was
charged with develc ing new weapons and equipment.
5? When a Technical Committee of a certain arm or service decided that an idea for
a new weapon or piece of equipment was a good one, it gave a "taktiko-tekhnichiskoye
zadanie" (tactical-technical assignment) to the KB of the arm or service. The
assignment indicated the desired weight and size and what the weapon should be
able to do and what it should not do. Also, if complaints were received about an
existing weapon - a machine gun, for example - then a "zadanie" would be given to
the KB and the manufacturer, indicating that certain characteristics should be
corrected or that a new machine gin should be designed. Also a "zadanie" could
go out to check into the feasability of use by the Soviet Army of a weapon which
had been developed by a foreign army.
6. Each Technical Committee had a list of factories capable of producing appropriate
prototyg^s, i e factories having research and testing facilities. It also bad a
i of other plants able to engage in appropriate mass production.
7. After the prototype 1- ueer. produced and if the specific Technical Committee
approved it, the Coss ;ee recommended to the Chief of the Army General Staff
that the item be in' oduced into the army and be mass produced. Th :erel Staff
uecided upon the qur itity it desired and which ;nits should have the L,.-em and so
recommended to the Council of Ministers. The latter body, along with GOSPLAN,
approved or disapproved the recommendation. If approval was granted, the de-
cision was then made as to how much should be produced and the time schedule for
production. GOSPLAH had a section which knew how much material could be made
available and over what period of time. in other words, this section knew which
materials and how much of them were being used in all productioi during any year.
8. The Soviet Council of Ministers could at times exert a negative influence on
military research and development; when oc'as1onally a powerful figure (Stalin,
for example) personally intervened. He did not understand the concept of a
balanced force and favored tanks and artillery, not engineering equipment. The
Council of Ministers vRe also not : tcrested in such equipment as would be useful
for the signal or transportation corpe. Fnor major combat equipment, however, the
Council of Ministers tended to keep any eye on the rate of manufacture and would
even help to speed it up if necessary. Generally, once a recommendation reached
the Council of Ministers, it was approved, particularly if the necessary materials
were available. In general, the Council of Ministers did not engage in research
and development. It did not have a committee or staff division concerned with
research and development of military weapons and equipment. However, at times
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ment of,major weapons and would'demagd reports on the subject. Such interest,
in fact, amounteO to interference rater than help and served to disturb the
balance of the Armed forcei. Li regard tp weapons and equipment.
9. GOSP'LAN did not engage in military research and development, did not cave a
committee for this purpose, and did not have any official connection in this re??
gard with the Council of Iltnisters.. GO AR did assign goals to such Ministries
as those of Amwnition sad Machine Building, specifying which items should be
produced and how many during the year. This, however, was done after the new
weapons e.nd/or equipment had been developed and epproved. GOOPLAB had no
authority over plans for research and development. The Ministry of Defense
placed its requests for the weapons and equipment it needed before the Council
of Ministers. The latter body passed on the request to GOMM for the sole
purpose of having 006ILAN calculate the availability of materials and factories.
Once GOCPLA/ had fulfilled this function, the Council of Ministerq decided upon
the priorities for the uae of materials for the manufacture of the military items
in question.
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