Soviet Chainsaws

[moodnacreek]

I know a farmer/sawmiller that likes his Russian tractor a lot.

[thedoublejranch]

They have come a long way or stolen and reverse engineered western saw designs. ;D

They have a 52cc saw on ebay. Spendy shipping. :D
NEW TAIGA BP-3850 RUSSIAN CHAINSAW, 52CC | eBay

[RaulP]

One of the inventors of this saw was a writer and translater Boris Kabur from Estonia.
I translated the article with google translate:

Boris Kabur began to think of a chainsaw while in a prison camp in 1947.

The assembly of a working saw took place at the Special Design Office of the Ministry of Forestry of the Union - so called the camp, where scientists who got into disrepute were directed - for years. When the saw finally managed to go, Kabur called his handwork Taiga. However, the machine went under the name of Druzhba. "They were prisoners and a lot of them there," a man near Kabur sighs.

The chainsaw, which has made it much easier to cut trees, probably saved the lives of hundreds of men looking for forest work. "In later years, Kabur received many letters of thanks from the survivors."

As a rational person and a good headcaster, Kabur in the prison camp also looked at whether it was more useful to fill the entire day's work and get a full lot of bread or a half-hour of work and a half-bread. It turned out that less work and less bread provide a better chance of getting away from death.


The former prisoner used aliases

In 1954, Kabur returned to Estonia. It is not known whether and how much money he had received for the invention of the saw, but "he still had a small money copy as he said. But he sent it home, to a woman and to a son."

Like many men returning from prison, Kabur could no longer live with his family.

Thanks to the past, the job was not easy to find. As Kabur knew well the languages - including the Latin language he had acquired at the age of 15 when he worked at the histology laboratory and the autopsy protocols - he earned money as a translator, hiding behind his familiar names. "With the man in the camp, the publishers did not dare to sign contracts."

Over the years, Kabur also translated into Estonian the Armenian and Sumerian epics.

In the early 60s, the political climate was softening. Kabur published the book "ROPS", on the basis of which he directed a superb play. "Actually, it wasn't a children's performance; it was an anti-Soviet performance that told us that a person is not programmable. Alaska said to him, but I don't know if others understood it."

A few years later, Borka (as his friends Boris Kaburi called) wrote a science fiction "Water in the Beaches of Space". In 1973, he won the Grand Prize at a meeting of science fiction writers in socialist countries. "It was a good tone that Russians had to win in such places, but the Poles were embarrassed. Kabur was quite frightened and spent his prize money on getting out."
The Druzhba harvest was used further. "When we went to the market sometimes, the villagers stopped us and told us that there was a good saw. He was, of course, happy about it, but he was also surprised that he had stayed at that saw for so long.

Kabur had no inherited catches. Not needed. He liked to break the trees with an ax through the life of a man who had done his physical work.


Kabur's ancestor was a shaman

Boris Kabur was a versatile person. Depending on everything from the man himself, the field of work that had come to his literature on design and dietology would have been even wider. Namely, Kabur, as a young man, planned to acquire three higher education at the University of Tartu - the first in the Faculty of Mathematics, the Faculty of Medicine, and the third in the Faculty of Philosophy. Unfortunately, due to the World War, the studies were broken by half.

Its origin is also varied. Biographies still use the cliché "born in the working family" for Kabur, in fact his roots went to Mordovia, where his grandfather was famous for the shaman. However, Kabur's father, named after Baigunov, was a submarine who came to Estonia after the shipwreck during the First World War. Here he showed courage in the days of the War of Independence and finally received the Order of the Cross of Liberty from Johan Pitka. The name Kabur took Baigunov from his wife for the names of the times.

In the mid-1990s, Astrid Reinla, the wife of Kaburi, died, and after a while Borkat was struck by a stroke. Although at first the doctors of the Old City did not give hope, he recovered from the disease to a great extent. "He was very good. How many times did he start, he still came back," recalls the close one.

With no literary creation or translation, Kabur was no longer engaged. But he loved to watch and record TV programs on war history.

"We visited a lot of people in the village and when we promised health, we went to lectures and theater, but because of the strong imbalances we went to the wheelchair."

Life in recent years deteriorated health even more. The Cultural Endowment allocated 15,000 kroons to Kabur for medical treatment, but on January 28th Kabur left the weather.

Friend Ain Kaalep says that Boriss Kabur "was an optimistic person, very optimistic right now. There is no doubt he had a lot of plans for the future. He was a man who always had plans."

[HolmenTree]

Wonderful story RaulP,  thanks for posting and welcome to our forum!

[SwampDonkey]

My grandfather had that saw a long time ago when I was a little boy.  The main problem with this saw was that it started good when cold but once warmed up it was very hard to start. Our saw had the ignition coil from some car installed but it did not helped very much. I was too young back then and therefore I did not have a chance to saw with it but buy the look how much trouble my uncle had with it to only get it started it seemed very bad saw to me.

Well I think it can be taken with a grain of salt or anecdotal. I've seen non mechanical relatives have trouble with Partner and Sac Delmor to. ;D :D

[SwampDonkey]

I know a farmer/sawmiller that likes his Russian tractor a lot.

There is an old hermit on youtube with saws, axes and a Belarus tractor and now an older model Champion grader (Made in Canada) and wouldn't have any other tractor. Likes the grader to. Can fix the tractor yourself inexpensively from local parts store or from Wisconsin from a huge Belarus parts store. Born and raised in North Dakota. ;D

Would I buy another Belarus tractor? - YouTube

[petefrom bearswamp]

Nice read raul, I like the sometimes awkward translations but you can get the main theme of the story regardless

[joe_indi]

.......their capability of manipulating the internet and artificial intelligence ....that they are not crude at.

Quite true. They even have a site that has most of the music from around the world, in any language, from any country. Even music of the 40s onwards.

They have come a long way or stolen and reverse engineered western saw designs. ;D

They have a 52cc saw on ebay. Spendy shipping. :D
NEW TAIGA BP-3850 RUSSIAN CHAINSAW, 52CC | eBay

That is no Russian saw. It is the same Komatsu Zenoah clone that is available anywhere on the globe. If there was an entry for most manufactured saw, clone included, this saw would be in the Guinness Book of Records.
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[Greyman]

Yes, Russians are masters at copying things - why go to all the trouble of reinventing the wheel?  :D  I worked with Russian engineers who said they learned English by reading NASA documents when they were developing the Buran (space shuttle clone, with a few interesting changes).  They've cracked down a little on pirated music and software but you used to be able to buy anything (Office, CAD programs, Photoshop, etc.) for $1 per CD.  The Chinese are making them look like slackers these days though.  A lot of small western businesses get destroyed because Chinese clones take over their entire market, in many cases before the inventor even gets started because they watch the patent sites for new ideas.

[Allar]

That's a družba. Every single old tool in my country was russian made. Usually russian made tools are heavy duty and build to last.
We still own russian tractors, they are really cheap to repair and parts are still available.

My uncle used that saw, still have some parts laying around. I guess back in the day it was the only available chainsaw around Eastern-Europe.

You really had to be a 'man' to use that chainsaw.

[Air Lad]

Wondering if this machine doesn't convert to post hole auger at some point?