KMZ
History
In 1941, in order to produce optical equipment for the Soviet war effort, several workshops were consolidated in a former earthenware factory in Krasnogorsk, a western suburb of Moscow, in order to produce optical equipment for the Soviet army. The combined optical workshop became Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) – Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk.
In 1946 the KMZ factory began making cameras, starting with the Moskva folding camera. In 1948 they began producing FED cameras to offset slow production from the FED factory, and by 1949 they made some design changes and thus production of the Zorki began. In 1952 KMZ created and SLR based on some modifications of the Zorki, and thus the Zenit was born.
