Agreement between GlavESProm and the RCA, 1935
30 Rockefeller Plaza.
New York 1933
On September 30, 1935, in the RCA meeting room in Rockefeller Center, a historically important agreement was signed between the Glavesprom of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR and RCA, the implementation of which further reorganized the entire radio industry of the Soviet Union and allowed in the shortest time to raise the level of communication products throughout the country.
Leaders of the negotiation teams drafting the agreement between USSR and RCA
At the head of the table is Jemes G. Harbord - Chairman of the RCA Board of Directors (1866-1947); further left to right:
Nikolai Sinyavsky - Deputy People's Commissar of Communications of the USSR (1891-1937);
Leonid Lyutov - chairman of Glavesprom (1900-1937)
Ivan Boev - Chairman of Amtorg (1892-1938)
David Sarnov - president of RCA (1991-1971).
Photograph from one of David Sarnoff's albums of the signing of the 1935 GlavEsprom and RCA Agreement at Rockefeller Center. New York.
Photo courtesy of MCI Communications Corporation records 1849-1999 to E.A. Levitin Memorial Site. Original is from Hagley Museum & Library, Accession 2225, Series XV, Box 20, folder Russia: Correspondence and Agreements 1928-1935.
The teams involved in drafting the 1935 agreement between USSR and RCA
Of those standing are: Otto Schailer, RCA's vice president for patents and licensing, between James G. Harbord and N. Sinyavsky; Lewis MacConnach, RCA secretary, above N. Sinyavsky; A.F. Shorin, creator of the shorinophone, far right.
See the caption to the previous photo for identification of the leaders of the agreement, seated at the table.
The group is photographed in front of a portrait of Lieutenant General James Guthrie Harbord, who was a senior U.S. Army officer, president and chairman of the RCA board, sitting here in the room at the head of the table.
Photo courtesy of MCI Communications Cororation records 1849-1999 to the E. A. Levitin Memorial Site, Original located at Hagley Museum & Library, Accession 2225, Series XV, Box 20, folder Russia: Correspondence and Agreements 1928-1935.
Collaboration with RCA (1935-1940)
My father was on a business trip to Camden, USA in 1936-1937 at the RCA Victor factory, and he participated in the cooperation agreement between our countries. This is why have long been interested in this treaty, or rather this 1935 Agreement.
On September 30, 1935, at RCA conference hall in Rockefeller Center, a historically important agreement was signed between the Main Directorate of Electrical-Labor Industry of the USSR People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (Glavesprom) and Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the implementation of which provided further reorganization of almost all radio industry of the Soviet Union and allowed to raise in the shortest time the level of communication equipment production throughout the country. Many people knew that such an agreement existed. But almost no one has seen the text of the agreement.
Vladimir Shapkin 08 Aug. 2019 wrote: "This agreement and its subsequent major treaty additions for the whole of 1936 have so far been classified more than the well-known Protocol to the Treaty of the USSR with Germany on August 23, 1939. And it is unlikely that this primary Treaty and subsequent ones with details will be published in full."
Indeed, attempts to find the text of the Agreement were unsuccessful. But just as with the above-mentioned protocol, the other party, the signatory of this agreement, helped out. The search was successful. The original of this Agreement is in the David Sarnoff Collection 1871-1977, Hagley Museum and Library. Props: ""MCI* Communications Corporation Records 1849-1999, Hagley Museum and Library, access 2225, series XV, box 20, folder "Russia: correspondence and agreements 1928-1935" (1 of 2 folders)."
*MCI bought RCA Globcom from General Electric Company in 1988 and therefore acquired all surviving RCA Communications records relating to Marconi's time.
The agreement is published on the pages of this memorial site for the first time after years of neglect in the archives and can be copied or viewed at this link:
Message from Well " October 24, 2011:
At the end of 1935 an agreement was signed between the Soviet side and the American firm RCA (Radio Corporation of America), which in our documents of those years was called "Radio Corporation". The most important areas of cooperation with Americans were not the production of home radios, but above all the production of radio tubes, where our lag in 1935 became apparent and flagrant. As a result, in 1937 with the help of RCA in Leningrad and Fryazino near Moscow we launched the lines for production of metal and glass radio tubes with octal (8-pin) base, which immediately began to be used in the development of military radio equipment (so-called "third system of radio equipment of the RKKA communication troops").
The second most important area of cooperation with RCA was television. In Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev we put into operation television transmitters that worked in the RCA standard, which in the U.S. itself as a result was not accepted by the NTSC committee, and remained a monument to the efforts of Sarnov and Zvorykin. There were other areas of our cooperation with RCA, primarily in the production of radio components, high-frequency ceramics, etc. And household radios were just one of the episodes of this cooperation.
Now about the 6H-1 receiver. This is the result of an honest collaboration between our and American radio engineers in Camden, New Jersey, at the Victor factory of RCA. This is the "6-Lamp Receiver" that they were supposed to develop. Here is a good time to make it clear that no stupid copying when adapting American receivers for the Soviet reality takes place. The problem is in the line voltage (for Americans it is 110V and 60Hz, for us it is you know what). But the main thing is probably the absence of long wave range in American receivers. If you do not know, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) divided the world into 3 regions more than 100 years ago and decided which frequencies should be used, where and for what purpose. So, in the 1st region, which includes Europe, Africa and all of Russia, long waves were set aside for broadcasting, and in the 2nd region, which includes both America, Greenland and some islands in the Pacific, broadcasting on long waves was not allowed. The band there has always been used for government communications and air navigation.
Thus, it was impossible to do without significant modifications to any American receiver that our engineers wanted to choose as a prototype. As an illustration, here are the scales of the RCA 6T2, which was the prototype of our 6H-1, and the scale of the 6H-1 itself.
Soviet radio specialists study American production at RCA
As mentioned above, the Soviet specialists in the field of radio engineering in 1936-1938 in several groups were in the USA at the Victor factory in Camden, New Jersey based on the 1935 Agreement between the USSR (GlavEsprom) and the USA (RCA). Some of the Soviet engineers spent time "interning" at RCA's electron tube factory in Harrison, New Jersey (originally Thomas Edison's factory for producing light bulbs), and the NBC radio/TV studios in Rockefeller Center.
Efim Alekseyevich Levitin was in one of them as a head of the radio-lamp group, in particular he supervised the creation at RCA of "Russian Americans" ( 6N-1 and 9N-4) radio receiver samples for their production in the USSR.
In the archives of David Sarnoff - President of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in the collection of Loren Jonsen, who was mentioned above, there are three photos, kindly provided to the memorial site of E.A. Levitin by D. Sarnoff's archive.
RCA banquet on the occasion of the arrival of the second group of Soviet radio specialists Glavesprom.1936 Camden NJ Whithman Hotel.
Identified:
Lewis Clement, RCA Vice President of Engineering.
Loren Jones - RCA engineer, in 1937 he was installing a TV system in Moscow (Shukhova str.)
Efim Levitin - head of the Receiver Department of the Central Laboratory in Leningrad (CRL), during a business trip to RCA
led the team to develop the corporation's samples of household receivers for the USSR.
Alexei Frolov, head of the laboratory of radio receivers at the Voronezh Radio Plant Elektosignal, was responsible for the development of the 6H-1 radio receiver in the team of E.A.Levitin during his trip to RCA.
Photo courtesy to E.A.Levitin memorial site. The original is housed in the Loren Jones Collection, David Sarnoff Library.
RCA banquet on the occasion of the arrival of the first group of Soviet radio specialists of GlavEsprom. 1936 Camden NJ Whithman Hotel.
Identified at the far end side of the table are:
Lewis Clement - RCA vice president for development
Vladimir Zvorykin.
Photo courtesy to the E.A. Levitin Memorial Site. The original is in the Loren Jones Collection, David Sarnoff Library.
RCA banquet to mark the end of the stay at the RCA of a group of Soviet radio specialists Glavesprom.1938. Camden NJ Whithman Hotel.
Vladimir Zvorykin (RCA) is at the far end side of the table.
Photo courtesy to the E.A. Levitin memorial site. The original is in the Loren Jones Collection, David Sarnoff Library.
Radio receivers developed at RCA under the 1935 Agreement
"Russian Americans" - radios receivers was manufactured in mass circulation in the USSR since 1938 under license from RCA based on samples developed at the RCA VICTOR factory.
To the left of each "Russian American" is the RCA radio receiver taken as the basis for creating this sample.
Radio corporations of America in the 30s of the last century and its role in the industrialization of the radio industry of the USSR. Video HD720
About collaboration with RCA in the 1930s
Agreements with RCA 1928 and 1929
Messages from RCA Message from ragazzo 25 Oct 2010:
Well wrote: This is not a post or a thread. It's an epic.
"That's right. It takes a dozen people to dig passionately over the years. Some throw in to keep the discussion going:
- The contract with RCA wasn't signed in 1936, (or it wasn't the first one), but in ... 1928. And it was big enough to be included in the statistics (Another agreement, signed between the Radio Corporation of America and the Soviet State Electrotechnical Trust, provides for exchange of patents and information on radio apparatus and for technical assistance from the Radio Corporation
- Another agreement signed between the Radio Corporation of America and the Soviet State Electrotechnical Trust provides for exchange of patents and information on radio apparatus and for technical assistance from the Radio Corporation) - in 1937 RCA specialists worked simultaneously in Moscow, Leningrad and Voronezh. The notes that I came across on this were about the launch of a television project. And for broadcasting from a tower and an airplane."
In his post, Leonid Solovyov refers to two agreements that preceded the 1935 Agreement. In July 2021 I was able to obtain copies of these documents, which are published on this site for the first time after years of neglect in the archives:
You can read and copy both agreements for yourself by following the links above.
The originals are in the MCI Communications Corporation Collection, Hagley Library Call Number 2225, Box 21, folder "RCA-Electro Technical Trust July 19, 1928 - 1935", Hagley Library, Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Commentary on the publication of agreements with RCA
From Vladimir Shapkin " 04 Feb 2021, 08:10 Topic Yefim Alexeyevich Levitin
To Alexander Yefimovich Levitin.
I and National Radio Museum would like to express to you our deep appreciation for your archive research of the first (key) moments of Soviet-American Radio cooperation. The photographic materials and the text of the agreement are simply unique. Without your materials, it would be impossible to build a complete history of such a relationship.
Loren Jones' mission to the USSR in accordance with agreements with RCA
In June 1937, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) engineer Loren Jones arrived in Moscow to fulfill a contract signed 23 months earlier. Jones and five other engineers spent nearly a year installing an electronic television system in the Soviet Union's capital city and transferring electronics manufacturing technology to factories in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and Voronezh Six months later the Soviet Union had its fifth electronic television station in the world. One winter night, Jones went to a cottage 30 kilometers from the broadcasting studio to watch a telecast of a Russian film that was "excellent" in reception. By April 1938, ten Soviet-made televisions were already broadcasting many programs.
RCA's relationship with the Soviet Union began in 1929 with a contract to connect the USSR with the rest of RCA's global radio telegraph network.
In January 1931, the 25-year-old Jones made his first visit to the Soviet Union. Alexander Mints, director of the Radio Research Laboratory of the Ministry of Communications, accompanied him to lectures for radio engineers in Moscow and Leningrad. By 1932, the agreement fell apart, as the Soviet Union was unable to pay for the equipment ordered
In June 1933, however, Zvorykin presented his electronic television camera tube, the Iconoscope. That summer he toured Europe and the Soviet Union to facilitate this breakthrough; and that fall two Soviet laboratory directors visited the RCA Victor factory in Camden, New Jersey. There they watched live 243-line flicker-free video on a bright and focused Kinescope electron-beam tube (CRT).
In 1934, Zvorykin returned to the Soviet Union, where the head of the Communications Trust proposed that RCA install a television transmitter and some receivers, which Zvorykin gave to Sarnov. Nine months of negotiations led to the signing of a contract in the boardroom of the RCA building at Rockefeller Center in July 1935. The Soviets paid RCA $2.9 million for their services and patents, as well as the cost of building and transporting 180 tons of 343-line television equipment for the RCA Victor factory. It concerned radio and television as well as phonographs and records, electronic tubes, sound equipment for motion pictures, remote controls and production equipment. The contract also provided for payment for an airplane for aerial television research in New Jersey. The expenses of fifty engineers to be sent by GlavEsprom, the directorate of the Low Current Electric Works, to RCA facilities, and the expenses of five RCA engineers overseeing installations in the USSR, were not included.
On December 3, the U.S. Department of Commerce, State and War Department finalized the deal. Neither branch of the military had the funds to guarantee RCA's radar or television work, and they guaranteed that some radar-related patents would not be included in the deal. A few days later, Sarnow discussed this with Roosevelt.
Lauren Jones and RCA staff testing a powerful WGY radio transmitter for the General Electric Company broadcasting station
Lauren Jones in a Metropol Hotel Room. Moscow 1938
Moscow Impressions
In 1938 Jones published a pamphlet, privately published, containing four letters he had written while in the Soviet Union. In 1982 he produced another booklet based on these letters and other sources. Both booklets are reproduced with the kind permission of the late Mrs. Lauren Jones and Dr. Dayton Jones.
"The dissemination of any derogatory statements contained in this booklet may jeopardize the possibility of my ever returning to the USSR. In addition, my company has promised the Soviet authorities to avoid all publicity. Therefore, this booklet is purely private and its circulation is limited. Its contents should be treated as confidential. Lauren F. Jones, 1938."
The full text of the booklet in English is available here: http://www.davidsarnoff.org/jones-editorialnote.html
- page.1 http://www.davidsarnoff.org/jones-letter01.html
- page.2 http://www.davidsarnoff.org/jones-letter02.html
- page.3 http://www.davidsarnoff.org/jones-letter03.html
- page.4 http://www.davidsarnoff.org/jones-letter04.html
Lauren Jones on early experimental television shows in the 1930s, who could see them, and TV programs.
In his two-hour interview with The Archive, Loren Jones (1905-1999) talks about being one of the last surviving engineers who worked with Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnow at RCA Laboratories to invent and develop electronic television. He talks about the technical aspects of television and the outrageous experiments they conducted to broadcast a signal farther than the line of sight. He discusses helping the Soviet Union develop television in the 1930s, as well as his involvement in the development of the "television bomb." Jones talks about the invention of color television and the battles over it.
Jeff Kisseloff conducted the April 18, 1997 interview at the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ.
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/loren-jones?clip=93179#interview-clips
Sources:
YOUR ENGINEERING HERITAGE: WHY WAS SARNOFF ALLOWED TO SELL STALIN TELEVISION? by Alexander B. Magoun 19 Jan 2016 Original
Adding Sight to Sound in Stalin's Russia: RCA and the Transfer of Television Technology to the Soviet Union Alexander B. Magoun David Sarnoff Library Princeton, New Jersey.
Россия и США: Экономические отношения. 1917-1933
Collection of documents. Compiled by: A.Yu. Bakhturina (responsible compiler), N.E. Glushchenko, E.V. Khandurina.(Moscow: Nauka Publisher, 1997). Provided format: Vadim Melnik, 2009.
http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/B/BAHTURINA_Aleksandra_Yur'evna/_Bahturina_A.Yu..html
Publisher's Abstract: This book brings together unique documents that have been unknown to the public and inaccessible to researchers for more than half a century. They expand and change ideas about the nature of economic and trade contacts between the two countries during the years of non-recognition. The book reveals the mechanism of decision-making by the Soviet government regarding Russian-American relations, shows active participation of Soviet leaders: Stalin, Rykov, Krasin, Mikoyan, Rosengolts, Chicherin and Litvinov, and traces their divergent approaches to certain problems.
For historians, scholars, businessmen, and all those interested in the history of U.S.-Russian relations.
Russia and the United States: Economic Relations. 1933-1941
Collection of documents. Compiled by: A.Yu. Bakhturina (responsible compiler), N.E. Glushchenko, T.I. Skripnikova.(Moscow: Nauka Publisher, 2001)Scan, processing, format: ???, 2009
http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/B/BAHTURINA_Aleksandra_Yur'evna/_Bahturina_A.Yu..html
http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/B/BAHTURINA_Aleksandra_Yur'evna/Rossiya_i_SShA._Ekonomic_otnosheniya._1933-1941.(2001).[doc-ocr].zip
http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/B/BAHTURINA_Aleksandra_Yur'evna/Rossiya_i_SShA._Ekonomic_otnosheniya._1933-1941.(2001).[pdf].zip
Publisher's abstract: The collection includes documents revealed in the fonds of the Russian State Archive of Economics, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History. They broaden our understanding of the difficulties, nature and main directions of economic relations between the two countries on the eve and during the first period of the World War II - from the establishment of diplomatic relations to July 1941. This period is marked by major international political events, revision of Versailles-Washington system, maturing crisis of the world system and the beginning of the global war with all its consequences.
For historians, economists and a wide range of readers.
Russia and USA 1891-1892
Painting "Food Distribution" by I. Aivazovsky
Painting by Ivan Aivazovsky "Ship of Relief
Steamship "Missouri" with humanitarian cargo on its way to Russia
In 1891-1892, a terrible famine broke out in the central provinces of the Russian Empire due to crop failure. There was not enough grain in the granaries of the homeland to promptly overcome the food crisis. Upon learning of the famine in Russia, William Edgar of Minneapolis, editor of the American weekly "North Western Miller" not only reported the overseas disaster on the pages of the newspaper, but also developed a plan for assistance. Having received the approval of both the Russian Mission in Washington and the governor of the state, in December 1891 he announced a collection of donations.
According to historian Victoria Zhuravleva, the American National Hunger Relief Committee, headed by John Hoyt, began its work in mid-January 1892, becoming the focal point of the movement. "From the end of February until mid-July five steamships with relief supplies sailed to the shores of Russia. On board each of them was an average of 2,000 tons of food (mostly wheat and corn flour and grain)," she notes. As a sign of gratitude, Edgar, who arrived in Russia with the cargo, was awarded a reception by Tsesarevich, the future Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich.
Andrei Artizov, head of the Rosarkhiv Archive, says that the Russian State Historical Archive holds documents on the delivery of humanitarian cargo from America to Russian ports in 1892 on six steamships: the Indiana, Missouri, Borodina, Leo, Toledo and Connemaugh. "The RGIA also has a file of His Imperial Majesty's Cabinet on the release of the trading firm of Pavel Akimovich Ovchinnikov 2400 rubles for silver items purchased to grant the Americans for the delivery of bread for the provinces affected by the crop failure, the conveyance of silver enamel sets, intended, by the highest command, for gifts to captains of American steamships with humanitarian cargo," said Artizov.
Aivazovsky, who had long wanted to visit America, arrived in New York in October 1892. Earlier the Imperial Academy of Arts had sent to the United States 15 of the 20 works chosen by the master for display at the International Art Exhibition in Chicago, which opened in March 1893. In honor of the maestro Russian Consul General in New York gave a dinner, which brought together about half a thousand representatives of high society.
The first painting depicts the delivery of American provisions to the settlement, and the second depicts the arrival of an American ship with humanitarian cargo to St. Petersburg. Aivazovsky accompanied his gift with a brief letter: "In an effort to express the heartfelt gratitude of the people of my country for the generous and timely assistance rendered by the United States government in response to the recent famine in Russia, I personally wish to donate my two paintings to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the United States capital." The very next day the artist's words of gratitude were quoted by the Evening New Wachington newspaper in the capital.
RIA Novosti Crimea