Mukhin Lev Nikolayevich (born October 23, 1941) is an instrument-engineering engineer and one of the production managers at the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant in Arzamas. He joined the plant in 1964 as a senior engineer, headed the special design bureau, and managed the second and first production divisions of the association; from 1988 he served as deputy director general for production, and in the early 1990s as production director [1]; from 1996 he was production director and first deputy director general of the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant OJSC. He is a recipient of the Order of the Badge of Honour.

Education

He graduated from the Gorky Polytechnic Institute (now the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R. E. Alekseyev) in 1966, specializing in gyroscopic instruments. He received his diploma while already working at the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant.

His specialization aligned with the plant's main focus at the time. In 1962, the enterprise began manufacturing instruments for the aviation industry, including gyroscopes, and in 1964 a dedicated gyroscopic production division was established there [2]. Under director P. I. Plandin, the plant acquired a special design bureau for gyroscopy and a branch in the workers' settlement of Shatki [3]. There was a shortage of specialists for gyroscopic production, and in 1969 Yu. P. Startsev, who had previously headed the design engineers at the Perm Electric Instrument Plant, became the plant's chief designer at Plandin's invitation [4].

Career

He began his working life in 1960 as an assembly fitter at enterprise P.O. Box No. 15 of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry. From 1964 he worked at the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant. The plant had been built on orders from the same ministry: in the spring of 1957, following the abolition of Arzamas Oblast and its merger with Gorky Oblast, part of the regional institutions' buildings were transferred to it [3]. In 1976 the plant was reorganized into the Arzamas Instrument-Making Production Association (APPA) named after the 50th Anniversary of the USSR; in 1991 it reverted to being called the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant; in 1993 it was privatized as AOJSC "APZ"; and in 1996 it became an open joint-stock company [2]. As a result, one and the same enterprise appears under different names throughout Mukhin's service record.

For almost the entire first half of his time at the plant, up to October 5, 1987, the enterprise was headed by P. I. Plandin. From October 29, 1987 to June 6, 2008, the director general was Yu. P. Startsev [4][5]. Mukhin's work as deputy director general for production, and later as production director, coincided with the late 1980s and 1990s — the period of conversion. One of his personnel decisions was long remembered by plant workers. In August 1991, at a morning operational briefing, he announced the appointment of V. B. Zakharov as head of assembly shop No. 42, and the order was signed on August 26. Zakharov was still running the shop 29 years later. According to a workshop veteran, during the years of collapse the shop survived thanks to "civilian" output: heat meters and ALKO systems [1]. In the autumn of 2008, under director general O. V. Lavrichev, the position of production director was already held by A. G. Sergeyev [6].

Career path of L. N. Mukhin
YearsPosition
1960–1964Fitter-assembler, Enterprise P/O Box No. 15, Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR
1964–1967Senior Engineer for Special Equipment, Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant, Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR
1967–1968Mechanic, APZ
1968–1969Deputy Head of the Electrical Assembly Shop, APZ
1969–1977Head of the Special Design Bureau, APPO
1977–1980Deputy Chief Designer; Chief Designer of Production Unit No. 2, APPO
1980–1987Deputy Chief Engineer; Head of Production Unit No. 2, APPO
1987Deputy Chief Engineer; Head of Production Unit No. 1, APPO
1987–1988Chief Engineer of Production Unit No. 1, APPO
1988–1992Deputy Director General for Production, APZ (Department of the Aviation and Space Industry, Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation); in 1991 — Production Director [1]
1992–1993Director for Production and Marketing, APZ (State Committee of the Russian Federation for Defense Industries)
1993–1996Production Director, AOOT, then OJSC "APZ"
from 1996Production Director, First Deputy Director General, OJSC "Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant"

And Lev Nikolayevich Mukhin, who was then the production director, announced that I would be the department head.

— Vladimir Zakharov, head of Shop No. 42 at APZ, on his appointment in August 1991; Sotsium-A, 2020 [1]

What the plant produced

Mukhin's forty-odd years at the plant span both the heyday of defense instrument manufacturing and the conversion period. The key milestones by decade [3][2]:

  • 1960s: instruments for aviation and gyroscopes; from 1964, a dedicated gyroscope production unit; in 1969, a printed-circuit-board shop and a components production line for the radio-electronics industry were established [2].
  • 1970s: in 1971, an automated production management system was introduced. In 1972, the Legenda-401 cassette tape recorder was put into production, and the first batch of Legendas went on sale; the MP-600 positional pressure gauge was awarded the USSR State Quality Mark. From 1977, the Legenda-404 was manufactured in mass quantities — up to 20,000 units per month. Production Unit No. 6 was created to manufacture a complex control system developed by Moscow's NIIP; its head was I. P. Sklyarov, who later became Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region. That same year, the plant developed a series of compact numerical control devices and created an inertial system [3][2].
  • 1980s: in 1982, the association received a diploma from the VTsSPS and the USSR State Standards Committee for producing goods bearing the Quality Mark; in 1985, a First-Degree Diploma from the USSR VDNKh for its complex of machining automation tools. From 1987, the plant produced medical devices (the Ekhotomoskop and Mioton) and dental equipment. In 1988, the plant participated in the cleanup of the aftermath of the explosion at Arzamas-I station. From 1989, it produced safety devices for tower and truck cranes — the ONK-MP-110 and ONK-MP-120 [3][2].
  • 1990s: in the space of a few months around the turn of the decade, the plant lost 40% of its output volume [3]. From 1992, following the loss of state orders, conversion began: gas meters for trunk pipelines and water meters. From 1994, the plant produced automotive components for GAZ, ZMZ, and KAMAZ; from 1995, a medical ozone generator. In 1997, APZ won an all-Russian tender for RST-M flow meters for distilleries and vodka plants; in 1998, together with Elster Handel GmbH, it founded the joint venture Elster — Gazelektronika; and in 2000, it received ISO 9001 certification [3][2].

Awards

  • Medal "For Labor Valor" (1974)
  • Order of the Badge of Honor (1982)

Interests

Beekeeping.

See also

Sources

  1. socium-a.ru — Sotsium-A (Arzamas) — interview with the head of shop No. 42 of the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant, V. B. Zakharov, August 28, 2020 — Vladimir Zakharov: I Am Part of an Excellent Team
  2. web.archive.org — OAO "APZ" — chronicle of the plant 1956–2008 (archived copy of the former website, 2016) — History 1956–2008 (archive)
  3. aoapz.ru — AO "Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant named after P. I. Plandin" — history of the plant (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — AO "APZ" — "Our General Directors": Yu. P. Startsev (archived copy, 2023) — Startsev Yuriy Pavlovich (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — AO "APZ" — "Our General Directors": P. I. Plandin (archived copy, 2023) — Plandin Pavel Ivanovich (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — OAO "APZ" — plant management, October 2008 (archived copy) — Management (archive)