Leningrad Krasnogvardeets Plant

the oldest and largest medical equipment factory in the USSR, the leading enterprise of the Krasnogvardeets production association.

The plant began as the Medical Instruments Concern. Founded in 1721 by the ukase of Peter I, in 1796 it was turned into the Surgical Instruments Plant, which in 1896, after the merger of surgical-instrument, pharmaceutical, and dressing factories, was named the Plant for Military Medicine Supplies. Workers of the plant were active in the revolutions of 1905–07 and 1917, participating in the storming of the Winter Palace. Women workers at the plant initiated the formation of detachments of the Proletarian Red Cross (Krasnyi Krest). In 1922 the plant was named Krasnogvardeets (Red Guard). During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 it filled orders for the front. After the war it was reconstructed and began specializing in the production of complex medical instruments and devices such as mechanical sutures for vessels and organs, endoscopic devices, multichannel electrocardiographs, and instruments for biochemical research. The gross product of the plant was 26.5 times greater in 1972 than in 1940. The plant’s products are exported to dozens of countries and have been awarded ten gold medals at international expositions. The plant has been awarded the Order of Lenin (1946) and the Order of the October Revolution (1971).