The Central Design Bureau "Lazurit" is a Nizhny Novgorod defense-industry enterprise specializing in the design of submersible vehicles and equipment for deep-sea exploration. The bureau has trained a number of world-class specialists in the field of submarine shipbuilding.
Activities
TsKB "Lazurit" was engaged in developing deep-sea vehicles, including rescue and research submersibles. Among the bureau's products is the deep-sea vehicle "Priz", designed for conducting underwater operations. The bureau's engineers personally took part in test and working dives on the vehicles they had created: in particular, Gennady Vasilyevich Bolonin (b. 1945), chief designer at TsKB "Lazurit", was aboard the "Priz" as part of a seven-member crew at the moment of an emergency — the vehicle became entangled in fishing nets at a depth of about 190 meters off the coast of Kamchatka, in Berezovaya Bay.
Ties to Nizhny Novgorod higher education
The bureau's core staff were graduates of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute — now the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University n.a. R.E. Alekseev (NGTU). In particular, Gennady Bolonin was trained at the shipbuilding faculty of this institute, after which he became one of the leading specialists in submersible vehicle design and headed the design division at TsKB "Lazurit". Another graduate and employee of the bureau, Boris Yuryevich Algunin, later moved into teaching: from 1969 he worked at NGTU, published around 150 scholarly works and 5 textbooks, and received 18 author's certificates and patents.