Leningrad Sevkabel Factory

Leningrad Sevkabel’ Factory 

an enterprise manufacturing various cables and wire, particularly cables involving complex production processes (oil-filled, underwater, ship, radio-frequency, and other cables). It includes a research institute, a special design office, and also a branch for the production of enameled wires (in the city of Pskov).

Founded in 1879 it belonged to Siemens and Halsk, a German firm, up to the Great October Socialist Revolution. The factory’s workers were active in the revolutionary movement. The factory got the name Sevkabel’ (North Cable) in 1918. It was renovated with new equipment during the prewar five-year plans (1929–40). It suffered greatly from shelling and bombing during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, but work did not cease (part of the factory was evacuated to Kuibyshev). The factory made the cable laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga for the transmission of electric power from the Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Plant to besieged Leningrad. A continuous vulcanization unit that altered the technology of manufacturing cables and wires with rubber insulation was created in 1949, and the production of coaxial cables, used in long-distance television transmissions, was begun in the 1950’s. Output nearly quadrupled between 1940 and 1970.

T. S. TARASOVA