On March 30, 2015, the government of Sevastopol, together with the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the aim of restoring the Sergo Ordzhonikidze Sevastopol Marine Plant. Over the past year, the management of the enterprise, despite a number of objective difficulties, managed to resolve the issues of renting the main production facilities of the enterprise for 49 years, approve the "roadmap" for integrating the enterprise into the USC, practically re-form the team and start fulfilling orders - repair and maintenance of the marine technology.
The history of the Sevastopol Marine Plant, which currently houses the Severodvinsk shipyard's branch Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center, which is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, is usually told from the forge built by the sailors of Fedot Klokachev's squadron on the shore of Akhtiarskaya Bay in 1783.
The fate of the plant to the smallest detail repeats the fate of the "worthy of worship" city. And not only repeats, but also supplements the chronicle of Sevastopol with more and more new pages. The plant worked, fought, retreated and advanced, experienced ups and downs, interspersed truly great achievements with bitter periods of timelessness and decline …
How it could happen that in a matter of years one of the oldest Russian shipyards, at the berths of which ships and vessels sometimes stood by two or three hulls, came to a state of almost complete stagnation, is still not very clear - even taking into account the well-known “objective difficulties” "That fell as a test to the current generation. But the fact remains - in just two decades that have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a result of which the Sevmorzavod became the property of Ukraine, after privatization and corporatization, the transition from one owner to another, only about two hundred employees - mostly security and managers. With the division of the Black Sea Fleet between Russia and Ukraine, the transformation of oceanic fishing associations into a "tulkin fleet", the widespread feverish pulling away and sale of maritime transport organizations, the Sevmorzavod was left practically without orders, and the workers were left without wages. And this predetermined the further fate of the enterprise - a quiet dying.
In Sevastopol, there is an opinion that the previous owners bankrupt the unique enterprise quite deliberately: in recent years, land in the very center of the hero city, on the shores of the Sevastopol and Yuzhnaya bays, well protected from the winds and never freezing, has become very expensive. Old workers now say that the former owners "simply did not have enough time" to demolish the factories and build in their place luxury properties overlooking potential yacht marinas.
About this partly surrealistic plan, however, has been written and said a lot lately. Director of the Representative Office of the United Shipbuilding Corporation in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol and the branch of the Zvezdochka Center in the city ofIn Sevastopol, Igor Drei is convinced that the main assets of the Sevastopol Marine Plant are mostly preserved only by the concerns of its labor collective and the council of veterans, numbering hundreds of active "bayonets".
“This plant was and remains the meaning of life for thousands of caring residents of Sevastopol, their family members, one of the symbols of Sevastopol,” says Igor Drei. “That is why no one dared to destroy the enterprise completely, that is why today there is every reason to talk about the forthcoming revival of the Sevastopol Marine Plant and a new stage in the history of the oldest Sevastopol enterprise”.
The "process", as they say, has already begun, and its dynamics are impressive. On March 30, 2015, the Government of Sevastopol, together with the Joint Stock Company United Shipbuilding Corporation, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the aim of restoring the marine plant. The next stage in the implementation of this plan was the interaction between the State Unitary Enterprise “Sevastopol Marine Plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze "and joint stock company" Ship repair center "Zvezdochka" - one of the most famous profile enterprises in the Russian shipbuilding. The Sevastopol branch of the Severodvinsk shipyard began counting down its activities in May last year with almost a blank slate. Over the past year, after signing the Memorandum and establishing cooperation with the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center, the management of the Sevmorzavod managed to form a team consisting of qualified and experienced Sevastopol shipbuilders, conduct a preliminary audit of the existing facilities, outline plans for the modernization of production. And the most important thing is to start working in the main specialization without "swinging".
Since the beginning of 2015, the Sevastopol Marine Plant, with the assistance of USC, has received orders and has already completed repair and restoration work on the Kostroma tanker, the Artekovets motor ship, the Alexander Tkachenko ferry, the Kalamit and Sevastopolets tugs. At the docks of the enterprise, the medium sea tanker "Iman" of the Black Sea Fleet and the sailing training vessel "Khersones" were being repaired. Active work is underway to obtain new orders in the field of ship repair. The team is growing. Tens of millions of rubles in taxes and fees have been transferred to the budgets of all levels.
A milestone in the restoration of the plant was the mooring of the newest diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk in October last year at its outfitting berth to carry out the finishing and painting of the submarine's hull after the inter-fleet passage. The plant has already organized a special design technical bureau of the Black Sea Fleet (SPTB Black Sea Fleet) "Admiralty Shipyards" with the aim of further servicing submarines, which should come to the Black Sea at once, and performing all types of repairs of warships, including emergency ones. This is a strategically important aspect, which is associated with the further revival of the competencies of the enterprise, which was once the main partner of the Black Sea Fleet in the field of ship repair. Now the fleet is being actively updated, and the availability of the coastal infrastructure necessary for servicing ships and submarines is critically important for it. Therefore, the main tasks assigned to the leadership of the Sevastopol branch of Zvezdochka by the President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexei Rakhmanov are primarily related to the implementation of the State Defense Order and the loading of the plant's production capacities with civil orders.
For effective work in this area, the young team, already numbering more than 400 people, of course, still has a lot of work to do. The Zvezdochka branch in Sevastopol lacks a lot today. Everyone is also aware of the energy blockade of Crimea, as a result of which the plant experienced certain difficulties (but did not stop work for a day). The available equipment is outdated both morally and physically. There is a lack of working capital, tools, materials, transport, computers. There is a need for qualified specialists who, during the period of timelessness, were forced to leave to work in other regions or even changed their occupation. Over the past years, the once exemplary social base - the stadium, the Palace of Culture, the polyclinic, the home, canteens, hostels, boarding houses and summer children's camps - have been irretrievably lost. All of the above and many other problems require a quick and comprehensive solution.
In this regard, the Sevastopol shipbuilders are inspired with confidence in the future by the precise execution of the schedule for the implementation of measures for the reconstruction and technical re-equipment of production facilities. The "road map" of integration processes is in the focus of attention. The federal target program provides for the allocation of about 7 billion rubles. for the development of the plant in the period 2016–2019. Already this year, it is planned to conclude contracts for the supply of modern equipment in the amount of 1.5 billion rubles. Both the main capacities of the ship repair complex and the shipbuilding industry, for which the Sevastopol enterprise was once famous, will receive a new life.
In mid-February of this year, at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russian President Vladimir Putin set the task of increasing the efficiency of the Crimean enterprises of the military-industrial complex. In particular, he noted that now in the Crimea and Sevastopol, appropriate organizational work is being actively carried out, regional structures have joined the all-Russian defense industry system, the production load is growing, and the number of people employed in this area is increasing.
“We need to look at the prospects for these enterprises, increase the efficiency of existing production facilities, bring the quality of products to a new level, and expand their range,” Vladimir Putin demanded. He stressed that this year, within the framework of the defense industry development program, financing of the modernization of Crimean enterprises will begin. “The funds will be used to upgrade technological lines, train new professional personnel and improve the qualifications of specialists employed in the Crimean defense industry,” said Vladimir Putin.
One of the first measures outlined by the new management of the enterprise was the restoration of the city landmark - the clock at the Sevmorzavod checkpoint. It took some time to purchase a new tower clock and make repairs. And in the summer of last year, the indication of the time of day, air temperature, humidity and pressure on the turret above the Orjo entrance, as in common parlance the Sevmorzavod in Sevastopol, was resumed. "Time has gone!" - the townspeople rejoiced in this regard on the forums and in social networks. Connecting, of course, with this small symbolic event all their hopes for a new life and a new stage in the life of the Sevastopol Marine Plant, the hero-city itself and the whole Crimea. Now it is part of its historical homeland - the Russian Federation.
