Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory

The Chernihiv musical instruments factory was a factory founded to make stringed instruments in Ukraine. It is named after Soviet politician Pavel Postyshev.

The Chernihiv musical instruments factory opened in 1933. Initially it made balalaikas, mandolins, guitars, and domras. There is evidence that Mykhailo Yerchenko made five banduras in the late 1930s. These instruments were probably diatonic Kharkiv style banduras. In time, more instruments Mykola Martynchuk made instruments at the factory.

In 1950, the factory began to manufacture pianos. Eventually it made banduras, based on construction plans by a Chernihiv bandura maker named Olexander Kornievsky. Ivan Hladlin—working with Oleksander Shulaikovsky, Mykola Martynuk, and Oleksiy Kilochytsky—continued this series until 1954.

In 1953 the factory began to manufacture 100 banduras a month. In 1954, they began to making banduras designed by Ivan Skliar. This serially made instrument had no mechanism, and the form was based on a design by Opanas Slastion.

Until then, a special bandura workshop existed in Kyiv—initially set up by Hryhory Paliyivetz—and after he was arrested, directed by Tuzychenko. After the war, Ivan Skliar became director and the factory primarily made instruments for the Kyiv Bandurist Capella and associated bandurist ensembles. To capitalize on the availability of experienced bandura makers and better conditions for drying and storing materials, they move to Chernihiv. They established a special workshop at the factory for these craftsmen. In 1955, they made their first concert banduras with mechanism. Initially, they made around 10 concert banduras a year, and customers had to have special written permission from the Ministry of Culture to buy one.

Skliar made a great contribution to Kyiv style bandura development at the Chernihiv factory, but other craftsmen contributed too. Oleksy Kilotsky developed a method of placing colored decoration around the side of the bandura. Bandurist Andry Omelchenko suggested the one-sided head in the early 1960s. D. Vasiliev designed the Taras Shevchenko bas-relief.

To earn hard currency, the factory began to manufacture instruments for export. In the late 1960s they received their first orders from North America. The Kyiv experimental workshop that moved to Chernihiv also made orchestral banduras and chromatic tsymbaly, also designed by Ivan Skliar with the help of Oleksander Nezovybat'ko. Instruments bore the signatures of the individual craftsmen who made them: Oleksander Shulkovsky, Oleksy Kilotsky, Iosif Mentej, Volodymir Mentej, Mykola Yeshchenko, and Sofia Zolotar. Oleksander Shlionchyk headed the experimental workshop.

In 1967 the factory began manufacturing a new Skliar design, the Kyiv-Kharkiv bandura. They made eight instruments without mechanisms. Due to Ivan Skliar's death in 1970, the manufacturing process for the instrument was not perfected and the factory dropped the Kyiv-Kharkiv bandura from further production.