This year, the Saratov aircraft factory would have turned 81 year.
In 2011, if you believe your fellow journalists, there were still abandoned giant workshops and smaller dilapidated buildings from the aircraft factory. There was even something left to export: non-ferrous and ferrous metals, equipment. But in 2012, two workshops and a foundation pit for a future shopping center remained from the whole huge plant. Everything else is either empty space or a few residential new buildings. That's the whole landscape on many hectares. Already these hectares have been transferred from the category of industrial land to residential and public business land, the aircraft factory’s airfield has been bought, and now these are land for future development. Only one fragment of the once gigantic plant remained originally factory - the one where they intended to build an enterprise for the production of turbines for hydroelectric power plants. But this is not for long, because, as you know, in Saratov this plant will not be built exactly.
Realized it
It is interesting that when SAZ almost disappeared, officials began to fuss around the empty space. Alexei Kubrin, deputy plenipotentiary representative for the Volga Federal District, recalled the company, letting out a caustic remark addressed to the provincial authorities, and a number of high-ranking officials were saddened by the aircraft manufacturer that had disappeared forever. It so happened that the author of these lines from the end of 90-x to the final stage observed the agony of aviation from a fairly close distance. And what I could not see with my own eyes, I gathered it from eyewitnesses and historians.
So, in 1929, it was decided to create a plant for the production of agricultural machinery in Saratov. Based on this production, an aircraft factory was subsequently created. Officially, the year of birth of the Saratov combine plant, and then the Saratov Aviation Plant, is considered the 1931th. For 6 years, the enterprise team produced more than 39 thousand combines, and in 1937 it was reoriented to production aviation techniques.
During the tour in 2007, we happened to see models of winged cars in the SAZ museum. So, the first was the high-speed reconnaissance P-10, it took off from the airfield of the plant in 1938, the second in the 1939-m fighter I-28 took to the sky. In June, 1940 was assigned to the plant within three months to master the serial production of the Yak-1 fighter created by the young aircraft designer AS Yakovlev. In October, the 1940 first three aircraft flew into the air, and during the war it was the fighters that became the main products of the plant. They were even released in the open air, when, after the German bombing, 70% of production areas were destroyed. In total, during the war, the plant produced more than 13 thousands of Yak-1 and Yak-3 fighters, and after the war, the first training aircraft Yak-11 descended from the assembly lines of the SAZ.
In 1949, the plant tested the first jet fighter of La-15 design, in 1952-m began mass production of the Mi-4 helicopter, in 1967 and 1978-m began to produce its branded Yak-40 and Yak-42 aircraft. For the period 1967-1981. 1011 aircraft were released Yak-40, and the Yak-42 and Yak-42D in the period before the 2003 year - 172. A separate page in the life of the enterprise is the ship-based attack aircraft Yak-38, which, as has been read, far exceeded those of the United States, being planes of vertical take-off and landing. In the period from 1974 to 1989, the plant managed to produce more than 200 of such machines, some qualities of which, as has been heard, have not been surpassed today.
Some sources even argued that it was the competitors' desire to permanently stop the production of such sophisticated aircraft that caused the terrible ordeals that hit the factory as the market era began.
But, I think, in reality, SAZ became a victim not at all of the backstage of the world, but of the “Nashenian” Mazurians, famously putting on the wing, but not the planes, but all the factory goods. SAZ was so big that goodness was enough for two whole waves of effective management.
Trojan horse
The first one began with the perestroika director, Alexander Yermishin, who started as a mechanic at the plant, rose to the foreman, moved along the party line, and then returned to the plant. In the 1988 year, when industrial democracy developed in the country, factory workers, enchanted by the eloquent manager, chose him to be the director, although much more worthy people claimed for this post.
In 1991, on the initiative of Yermishin, SAZ was transformed into a collective enterprise, and the director made a little book about the personal interest of everyone. Then KP turned into a LLP, in 1994 year - into a company. Shares denominated in 38 kopecks, divided between employees. However, in 1994 it has become clear to everyone what capitalism in general and people's in particular is: there were no orders, no earnings, no prospects. And the people's director sculpted all the new books about production philosophy, and traded on the sly factory social programs. The team, which at the beginning of the Yermishin era numbered almost 18 thousand people, was rapidly melting. And the chances to get out of the peak at the plant were. In 1993, China wanted to buy 10 Yak-42 from SAZ, paying for each car for 12 million dollars at cost price - 7. But Alexander Yermishin for some reason did not sign the contract, and 120 million dollars "flew" past the plant. They say he was waiting for a gift from the Chinese side, but did not wait. In 95, the Chinese were planning to order 46 Yakov immediately. Yermishin artachilsya to the last, and when he nevertheless agreed, it was too late - the Chinese shifted to Boeing. It is not known whether he carried out a direct order of competitors, but, as the capital's mass media write, in the midst of factory troubles, the general director erected a two-story mansion in the very center of Saratov, built a house for his father, and bought a three-room apartment in Moscow for his son. The plant, meanwhile, was interrupted by rare Gazprom orders for assembling new aircraft and repairing old ones.
But forever this music could not play. Without developing the enterprise, discouraging from all the tons of tales about some investors who are about to come and invest millions of dollars, the storyteller Yermishin brought the plant to the brink. In 2006, the story-teller was not very lucky: he ran into honest auditors. As is known, each joint-stock company should hire independent auditors who can impartially evaluate the financial and other opportunities of the enterprise, give a development forecast. Often, auditors get off with little meaningful phrases; there is practically no benefit from federal control over their activities.
But the report of specialists of the company REAN-audit, who conscientiously penetrated into every detail of factory life, could be read like a detective novel. In a difficult situation, the plant sells the Yak-42D aircraft, which had an actual cost price of 142 million, for 43 million and suffers almost 100 million loss on this one deal! But in general it is difficult to find at least some cash at the plant: the enterprise is divided into a bunch of “daughters” and “granddaughters” who are driving around in a circle of bills. But at the same time, SAZ even takes a loan in the Saratov Bank at 38% per annum and ... buys securities with the same bank with this money! And this despite the fact that 2006-oh company ended up with a loss of 143 million!
The auditor Larisa Konnova concludes that even in this situation, the plant has a chance to restore solvency: it is necessary to allocate subsidiaries to independent companies and to sell non-core and unnecessary property. Conclusions Yermishin categorically do not like, and he does not pay for the work of the auditors, not motivating his decision.
Bankruptcy
But on the threshold it is worth the attack, which is not expelled beyond the threshold. Back in 2004, SAZ had to make an airplane by order of Gazkomplektimpeks Prigazprom's company, but the director spent a dedicated advance to lay the wrecks of three cars instead of one, and then began demanding from the customer to buy them all ... 300 million rubles, but only in 2007-m the creditor managed to enter bankruptcy, “freeze” both debts, and transactions with the property of the plant. The external manager, Felix Shepskis, demanded the authorities to seize the property of SAZ, so that Yermishin did not have time to sell everything, but the judges with the prosecutors showed strange indifference. Finally, Shepskis caught him selling factory land and suspended him from business finally.
Communication with this specialist gave hope that the seriously ill giant of the aviation industry still has a chance. But Shepskis suddenly resigned and, allegedly for health reasons, left the company. Meanwhile, the Gazprom company assigned the right to claim debt to a certain Monolith-S LLC, Shepskis’s place was taken by Igor Sklyar, external manager from the Penza SRO “League”, and the plant was headed by a completely unexpected man - a deputy from the Penza city Duma Oleg Fomin, who had never worked at strategic enterprises . At his place in Penza, Fomin owned shuttles, and here he undertook to restore the production of aircraft. About this his intention, he loudly told reporters at the same time in 2007. Even in the press, information was spread that the United Aircraft Building Corporation allegedly recommended it at SAZ.
The press showed Yermishin "plagues" at the plant - it turns out that the company, which had been without light, water and heat for several years, worked under special tents made of plastic film under the general director Yermishin. There was an oil lamp and a stove inside, but in winter the temperature did not rise above 5 degrees. In such conditions, the old factory workers worked, and it seemed that we had come to life of military newsreel footage. For contrast, they showed us a renovated building where a new, very honest administration was sitting. To pay off the debts that have accumulated under a billion rubles, Fomin assembled for a year and a half, he avowed to keep the aviaprofile, showed announcements of hiring and recruiting a group of students in an aviation technical.
And indeed, at first, the changes at SAZ were pleasing to the eye: the new team arranged a real logging, cutting down trees that had been growing 20 for years in an abandoned area, the salary debt was paid off to the staff, the plant was again connected to public goods. SAZ top managers, together with members of the regional government, began to search for factory orders for the plant.
Masks reset
Who knows, maybe the Fomin team really did have good intentions, but then a crisis struck and all hopes of remaining in aviation collapsed. Quietly, without any messages in the media, bankruptcy trustee Igor Sklyar takes out a bankrupt settlement at the end of 2008 for a settlement agreement. It would seem that we should rejoice. Here are just some details that confuse: during the procedure, Mr. Sklar did not even draw up an external management plan, and the settlement agreement itself was concluded while maintaining huge debts.
Thus, the plant payables amounted to 532,6 million rubles, and the share of Monolit-S LLC accounted for 522,5 million rubles. The second largest creditor was the tax authority (5 million rubles). Even more interesting is that in court the bankruptcy trustee presented a credit guarantee of a certain “MAST-Bank” in the amount of 1,4 billion rubles for the completion of three aircraft. But these guarantees are off-balance and do not oblige the bank to anything. And after the approval of the settlement agreement in the annual report of the company as a tax debt at the end of 2008, a completely different amount appeared - 140 million rubles. But for some reason, the tax authority does not protest 5 million specified in the settlement. And finally, judging by the text of the “Definition on approval of a settlement agreement” from 29.12.2008, during the period of the bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor’s main account received 193 million rubles, of which the current debts were repaid to 11,5 million. Others, according to the text, went “ on the bankruptcy procedure ”. Apparently, the procedure turned out to be very profitable ...
It is easy to understand that the main creditor, who had 99% of debts, could push any decision in court. As well as Mr. Sklar could not bother himself and did not defend the external management plan to creditors. After all, there are people around: Oleg Fomin was the chairman of the board of NP “League”, and the manager Sklyar was in his subordination, while at the plant they change places, because it was Sklyar who appointed Fomin as director. This is also a violation of the law, but the regional arbitration court did not at all disturb such trifles. Like the law enforcement agencies, they were not alarmed at all, having learned that SAZ had not one, but several accounts, on which for some reason it was impossible to find the money raised by the manager of Sklyar from selling the property.
Multiplication by zero
By the summer of 2009, the destruction of the plant enters the final stage. Even in peacetime, the general director Fomin talked about plans to locate an compact aircraft factory with modern equipment, and put the rest of the land under construction, selling off everything that is not needed for production. But this quite normal plan is being implemented in the logic of the Penza recovery.
For example, before the shareholders meeting in the summer of 2009, in 2007, the aircraft plant, judging by the official statements, sold products worth 990 million rubles, and in 2008 - by 524,6 million. And from 990 million of the last year, 550 was obtained based on the results of activities (repairs and maintenance of aircraft), and 439 million more earned on the basis of the sale of land, buildings and structures. In 2008, the plant earned only 54 million rubles on the sale of property, and production activities brought 470 million. I wonder why there were other amounts of revenue from the sale of property in the manager’s report Sklyar?
In the summer of 2009, there is a meeting of shareholders of CJSC, at which there is little understanding older stockholders vote for the reorganization of SAZ through the spin-off of two companies - Razvitie and Yuzhniy Aerodrome. By the way, according to the financial statements submitted to shareholders, as of March 2009, the plant’s payables are 1,5 billion rubles! Assets are valued at 1,6 billion rubles, so Penza wellness still had a place to roam.
According to the plan announced at the meeting, as part of the reorganization, part of the assets of the company was transferred to new joint-stock companies, which also assumed part of the debts of the parent company. According to this plan, JSC Aerodrome Yuzhny should deal with the reception and maintenance of Yak-42 aircraft, OAO Razvitie accumulates assets not directly related to production, and the head enterprise CJSC SAZ will fully concentrate on the production of components for the aircraft industry.
What it led to, everyone already knows. First, as if by magic, the famous gatehouse with the orders disappeared, then the monument to factory workers who died during the Great Patriotic War fell victim to the construction projects of capitalism. Of particular value in the eyes of the destroyers was a bronze slab with names, and so on, including a capsule for posterity, plunged into the foundation pit for the future of the IKEA shopping mall. Two boxes remained from the workshops, the land after stripping or sold, or transferred to a pre-sale state. It is even ridiculous to talk about a compact modern plant - since the year before last SAZ has not even accepted Yaki for technical and operational support. Wikipedia writes that this is the only case in the history of Soviet and Russian aviation.
Even the runway has disappeared from the territory of the Yuzhniy airfield, and the company itself has been in the final stage of bankruptcy since May of this year. The debts on it of millions on 70 - of course, hopeless. The fuselages of unfinished liners are cut and scrapped. And in the assembly shop, as Wikipedia writes, there is one canned Yak-38 plane, one Yak-42D (they will never take off), an EKIP unit. But this is outdated information. Our sources report that the Yak-42D was cut in early July, and the EKIP was sold a long time ago. Life on this waste ground has been preserved only in the workshops of Sphere-Avia, which manufactures defense products and successfully rivets consumer goods such as aluminum tanks.
So, under the ringing of pans, the ghost plant floats into its flightless future. Who are the heroes, who provided such an inglorious ending to the Saratov aviation aviation? With Yermishin, who completely disappeared after 2007, everything is clear. But Penza wellness doctors are an interesting company.
At one time, the federal weekly “Top Secret” published the materials (first, second) that the controlling stake in CJSC “SAZ” was “wrung out” from the owners by a retired FSB lieutenant colonel Sergey Naumov, who, according to “Top Secret”, managed a lot of things in this life to do.
The author of these lines contacted one of the heroes of the publication, the top manager of the Moscow-based Voskhod enterprise, Vladimir Egorov, who, again, according to Moscow journalists, was the victim of extortion and physical violence from a retired security officer.
Mr. Egorov said that 51% of the shares of CJSC "SAZ", in fact, was transferred by its former CEO Alexander Yermishin to the technical company "Trans-S", behind which stood the top managers of "Voskhod", and later "wrung out" Naumov. Further 51% of shares was in the interests of the company "Monolith-S" sold to a certain Anisimov. Officially, the transaction amount was 150 thousand rubles, unofficially on a bill of exchange scheme, the purchase price is about 500 million rubles. Mr. Egorov was convinced that Monolith-S LLC is a fictitious company created for turning out unseemly cases. The company is closely connected with CB "MAST-Bank", which can be a link in the system, working on the "release" of assets. According to Mr. Egorov, the bank was controlled by one of the deputies of the State Duma from the Penza region, the same deputy may have coordinated the activities of Monolith-S. Oleg Fomin, according to Vladimir Egorov, was also closely associated with Monolith-S, and besides, Yegorov is sure, he could not be recommended for the position of United Aircraft Building Corporation.
Of course, this is just the opinion of the person concerned. However, it was MAST-Bank that gave guarantees for SAZ when approving a settlement agreement. In addition, as soon as the newspaper Vremya began publishing a cycle of materials on the aircraft factory in 2009, a sudden hysterics happened to the well-known portal of the Editorial Board. In a section devoted to rumors, a note appeared that the State Duma deputy from the Penza region, Igor Rudensky, was very dissatisfied with this scribbling, and the publisher of the newspaper Vremya would soon receive a curse on the party line.
Here is a county detective. A drama like this has already been played out a lot over the market years. It’s just that in this story the shrill symbolism of a forever-gone era is very vividly interlaced with all the most base, thief, thieves that brought a new time to our lives.
Natalya Levenets
Help
Saratov Aviation Plant produced:
- the legendary fighters since the Great Patriotic Yak-1 and Yak-3;
- the first jet fighter designer Lavochkin La-15;
- The first in the USSR vertical take-off and landing aircraft Yak-38.
- One of the safest civilian aircraft Yak - 42.
The company has created a multifunctional non-aerodrome aircraft without wings “EKIP”, a “flying saucer” known to the whole world.
Help
Saratov Aviation Plant produced:
- the legendary fighters since the Great Patriotic Yak-1 and Yak-3;
- the first jet fighter designer Lavochkin La-15;
- The first in the USSR vertical take-off and landing aircraft Yak-38.
- One of the safest civilian aircraft Yak - 42.
The company has created a multifunctional non-aerodrome aircraft without wings “EKIP”, a “flying saucer” known to the whole world.
In August, 2012, JSC "SAZ" was deleted from the register of enterprises of the Russian Federation.
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