Underwater Crystal of Combatant Firmness

Russian secret defense enterprise produces both nuclear submarines and crystal goods

PRAVDA.Ru has recently published an article about the crystal that is produced at Russia and Europe’s largest military dock, Sevmach Enterprise (the city of Severodvinsk, the Arkhangelsk region). A lot of readers sent emails to PRAVDA.Ru office in connection with that article. People were perplexed about the fact that such a top secret military object as Sevmash Enterprise, which produces nuclear submarines, manufactures unique crystal goods. The crystal production of the company does not go together with up-to-date military weapons, although Sevmash Enterprise’s crystal production might be a good competition for Faberge, for example. Yury Blokhin, the chief of the crystal production of Sevmash Enterprise unveils certain roots of this paradox.

“Everything is natural: Sevmash Enterprise preserved the unique technologies that have been developed during the Soviet era, when brightest scientists worked for the defense complex of the country. Our production was set up 20 years ago. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our company was the only organization that realized the best developments in the field of the crystal production. A lot of them do not have any analogues in the world.

“Our first priority is the hand cutting of our crystal goods. The professional level of our engravers and grinders is known very well in the whole world. By the way, the fact that we are based not just in the city of Severodvinsk, but right at the factory, which produces nuclear cruisers, has been exposed recently. In addition to that, one of the most special features of our crystal production is the fact that they were projected especially for the use on board nuclear submarines. Our crystal production contains the same combatant firmness coefficient, as the one that is used for ship arms. Originally, we were guided by the traditions of the Russian navy: only the best things were used for furnishing the saloons of Russian battleships during Peter the Great’s epoch. The kitchen ware was the best as well. Our developments head for Russian naval traditions, which count 300 years in their history. The design of a lot of items was developed by Moscow’s famous artist Tatiana Novikova. Her name means a lot for cut-glass experts of the world.

“We received a lot of emails after the first publication on PRAVDA.Ru. People sent their emails to us from a lot of countries of the world. They want to have the same things, which are used by Russian submariners. This is rather an unusual issue for us to deal with, for Sevmash Enterprise is a secret defense enterprise. Nevertheless, the question pertaining to private deliveries (including deliveries to foreigners) of the so-called Russian underwater crystal is being settled at the moment. In addition to it, we are ready to prepare laser templates and to deal with custom-made engraving of our crystal production.”

Please, send your orders to the following emails: [email protected] and [email protected]

Our postal address:

Sevmash, Shop 32, Crystal Arkhangelsk region, Administrativnoye Shosse, 58 164500, Severodvinsk, Russia

Telephone/fax: (81842) 9-45-88

On the photo: Yury Blokhin

Vitaly Bratkov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov