Author: by Lyudmila KLIMANOVA, press secretary of the City Mayor Back in the 1880s a producers' cooperative-the Association of Mechanical Producers-bought an area to the south of Moscow called Maslova Pustosh. The site was chosen for a factory to produce spares for looms and the project also included living quarters for the factory workers and auxiliary infrastructure. The project continued to grow over the years, and more than half a century later-on October 7, 1940-the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation formally elevated the industrial settlement to the administrative status of a town with the name of Klimovsk. Today Klimovsk has a population of over 57 thousand and most of its residents are skilled workers, engineers and researchers. The high scientific and intellectual potential of Klimovsk entitled it to membership of an organization called "Union for the Promotion of Science Cities of Russia" (the term "science city, or town" applies to members of this country's network of leading centers of basic and applied research). The present-day "complexion" of Klimovsk is determined by its three major R&D centers-the leaders in their respective fields. The staggering Russian acronym TsNIITOChMASh stands for the Central R&D Institute of Precision Mechanics. Founded back in 1944, it has a large staff including 3 Doctors of Sciences and 84 Candidates of Sciences (according to the roster of Russian scientific degrees). The Center boasts a testing facility, unparalleled anywhere else in the world, for advanced military hardware which can be tried out in some extreme conditions, including adverse biological environment. As experts point out, the complete "run-in" cycle takes only one year instead of a traditional period of 15 to 20 years. The problem of dealing with emergencies of various kinds has often been on the agenda of the authorities and experts in many countries over the past few years. For the conduct of rescue work and dealing ... Читать далее