1947 KIEV Production Line Photo

1947 Photograph of KIEV Production at Arsenal Zavod

8"x10" glossy silver gelatin print.

Caption on the back, handwritten in pen, reads: "Director of factory Arsenal comrade Gulyayev."

In this photograph it would appear that that one of the cameras has a tag that reads "APPARAT No. 38" , or a number close to that. So, I believe that this photo was taken at the very start of production, in 1947, at Arsenal.

Also, you will notice that the lenses are not of the ZK variety. Here is what Charles Barringer, an expert in Zeiss history and equipment has said about the photo and the lenses in particular:

"In this case, I find it interesting that they are primarily equipped with Tessar 3.5/5cm lenses, which further would seem to be of the bright chrome sub-species (based on the specular reflections), which is rather more unusual than the standard aluminum ones. Does this suggest that these lenses were imported from Jena prior to the more common ZK becoming available from Krasnogorsk?"

So possibly the ZK lenses were not ready at the time of this early photo, and the initial cameras were at least fitted with Zeiss Jena Tessar temporarily, at least until the ZK lenses were ready. But were any of the first Kievs actually released with these German lenses?

Altix: Considering the tag on a camera. I think that there is written "Podarok No. 38" or "Podarok No. 33" that means "A present #38".