Russian Secret Military Enterprise Produces Crystal Glasses

Sevmash Enterprise manufactures unique kitchen ware for Russian submarines

Someone might think that it is strange for a supersecret Russian enterprise Sevmash Enterprise (based in the city of Severodvinsk), which manufactures nuclear submarines, to have something like a farm, where they breed song-birds, fish and plants. However, the enterprise has such a department indeed. In addition to that, the secret company pays serious attention to its independent production of crystal. The crystal of the enterprise is hand-made: the crystal is cut with the diamond cutting technology. This seems strange, but the explanation of all that is rather simple. The company gives its birds and fish to submarines’ saloons, whereas the cut glass is used by submariners for drinking 50 grams of dry wine. Submariners drink this amount of alcohol during their underwater trips.

The cut glass production of the enterprise has been to the waters to four major oceans of the planet

The Russian defense industry is definitely like a sanctuary of industrial technologies of high level. It seems that even most highly developed countries do not have analogues of that. The ground of the Russian defense industry, which was laid during Stalin’s era, still remained a stable ground, despite all troubles of the recent years. The unique crystal production of Sevmash Enterprise has been to the waters of four major oceans of the planet. The saloons of all Russian nuclear cruisers have the crystal from this enterprise. The thing is as follows: all items that are used on board nuclear submarines are supposed to have “military” properties.

Underwater crystal has “military” properties

A PRAVDA.Ru correspondent has recently held a unique crystal glass in his hands. There was a symbol of the tragic Kursk submarine cut on that glass. This was a crystal rarity from the same batch of crystal items that sank on the bottom of the Barents Sea together with the submarine itself. By the way, the shape of submarine kitchen ware is designed in a way to prevent it from sliding down off a table during a storm (if a submarine travels on the surface).

Yury Blokhin, the manager of the crystal shop of Sevmash Enterprise said: “We designed this glass together with the very first commander of the Kursk submarine, captain Viktor Rozhkov. We preserved the template of this item, which was made with the help of the laser technology. It is still the same as before. By the way, we have the complete set of laser templates with the heraldry of almost all Russian nuclear cruisers, which were ever manufactured at Sevmash Enterprise (this enterprise is the largest in Europe; it has manufactured almost 120 submarines in total). The first commander of the Kursk submarine phoned us several days ago. He asked us, if we had anything left for the museum of the Kursk sub. We told him that we had a set of unique kitchen ware of the Kursk series. Moreover, we are ready to make exact copies of it with the help of those laser templates.

American captains can drink form the Russian underwater crystal glasses

Yury Blokhin said that Sevmash Enterprise has recently decided to allow the free trade of the underwater crystal items. Any captain of a foreign submarine will have an opportunity to drink whiskey from the glasses, which are used by the captains of Russian submarines. The crystal shop of the enterprise is ready to accept suggestions for the production of exclusive kitchen ware in honor of the submariners, who died as a result of the Kursk tragedy. The company is also ready to produce an extra batch of kitchen ware depicting the symbols and heraldry of any Russian nuclear submarine (not only Russian submarine, to be more precise).

A delegation from the city of Portsmouth (the USA, New Hampshire) visited the city of Severodvinsk in the summer of 1995. When they gave Senator Jim Splaine a crystal glass, he suddenly asked, if it was possible to make the same for an American submarine. This question remained unanswered at that time. Yury Blokhin has recently said that it is possible to do it now: “Send your orders to [email protected] and we will do it,” said he.

Vitaly Bratkov PRAVDA.Ru Severodvinsk Arkhangelsk region

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov