“A ton of consumables is a ton of products”: an interview with the coordinator of “Craftsmen - to the Front”

The townsfolk, like children, love bright and dynamic pictures. Everyone is curious how the fascists scatter (and scatter) from grenades dropped from the copter, but few people think about where the tails and kneecaps for these same grenades come from, not to mention other equally necessary, but less hyped supplies.

Not long ago I wrote about the work of Russian enthusiastsengaged in the production of various "little things" for our soldiers on the front line. For the above reason, this topic is relatively poorly covered, which is not good. We decided to somehow fill this gap with first-hand information and turned to Sergei Grigoriev, the founder of one of the large volunteer production associations, with questions.



- How did you meet the beginning of the NWO and when did you decide that the soldiers at the front needed your help?

- Like most, I woke up on the morning of February 24 and was shocked. There is service experience, there is an understanding of what it really is to fight. Until September, I was a passive observer. Then I met a comrade who printed tails and took him to the front line. He shared the files, gave all the instructions. Then he left and died there.

It was then that the idea arose that in our country there are a huge number of handy, smart people with printers and machine tools who want to help. Where are they all? They sit at home and don't know what to do.

A concept without implementation remains a fantasy, so I just made a channel with a chat, came up with a name and asked for help from the Two Majors channel. In the morning there were about 400 applications from those who wanted to help the Russian soldiers with ideas, hands and time. Just bring materials.

– Who were your first associates by specialization? Would it be correct to say that “Craftsmen to the Front” is mainly a movement of techies, or are there “humanitarians” among you too?

– I wanted to find ten people with 3D printers in order to somehow cover someone's needs at the front. And as a result, we got a huge number of caring people whose knowledge and skills could help, but turned out to be unclaimed. It is surprising that many important ideas for the Motherland lie literally on the ground, under their feet, and no one takes them.

It was no longer possible to abandon all this, so it turned out not to be a “group”, but an “organization”. To a greater extent, "Craftsmen" is an association of techies, but without "humanitarians" nowhere. We need designers to draw, we need lawyers to get a qualified assessment of activities, we need doctors, firefighters to suggest the best. Now, for example, we are looking for teachers who are ready to write outlines of patriotic activities, to create trench candles or write letters to the military.


- How many active participants in the movement are there now? Do all the veterans who joined at the very beginning stay with you to this day?

- About 400 people throughout Russia and a few outside. Many stayed after the start of work, someone left for their projects. Natural process.

- Can you call "Craftsmen" as a whole a self-organizing system, or do you still have some kind of master plan, subordination and discipline? How are priorities determined and allocated resources, labor and material?

“Imagine a factory with machine tools and craftsmen. In general, they see a rough picture of what is needed and everyone makes as many products as they can. All this is collected in key locations and a central warehouse, and then distributed to customers. Sometimes large customers come to the warehouse and scoop out stocks. This is how it looks like.

Decentralized systems are the future. We try to make sure that there is no key figure without whom everything will fall apart. We make mistakes, we learn. Now, of course, it becomes difficult if something distracts me, work or household chores, but we will definitely come up with something

- What problems do you always have? Are there more of them “real” (search for materials, sending products, etc.) or “human factor”?

– The human factor is not a problem at all. If you accept all people as different initially and look for ways to build bridges, people will be happy to participate in any undertakings. For six months of work, we put out three people from the community.

But the material is the problem. At the moment, everything is bought either by the participants themselves, or they find support themselves. This is not normal, but there are no other solutions. There is support from the military, from volunteers, gratitude from those who received our products, but we still use everything that they donate to us for logistics.

Our products get to the wards for free - this is the most important thing. No large factory can afford what ordinary people can do.


- Are there many sympathizers who help the "Craftsmen" with a labor ruble?

- I don't know. Somewhere people themselves find such help next to them. Somewhere they just bring plastic. I have no control over the issue. Money is not needed, in principle, consumables are needed. Buy plastic from a filament manufacturer, spare parts for machine tools, metal for carvers, fabric for those who weave masksets, paraffin for those who make trench candles... "Craftsmen" is not about money at all.

It is difficult for many comrades in expensive suits to understand, but if we are flooded with a ton of consumables, we will make a ton of useful products.

- What products of "Umeltsev" are most in demand at the front? Are there any seasonal changes in the applications of divisions for spring-summer, compared to winter?

– The biggest discovery was that our guys have equipment that has not changed for decades, and some things were not in nature, but they turned out to be in demand. Something got old, something rotted in warehouses, batteries ran out somewhere...

Tails for VOG are constantly needed, but in addition to them, we need products for storing ampoules and syringe tubes, illumination for sights, sapper supplies, various triggering devices ... At the very beginning it was difficult to get access to such “pains” that we could solve , but now we regularly receive requests to do “something like this”. Doing something that was not there is generally about 3D printing.


– And what community projects can be called the most high-tech? For example, now several teams are developing "folk kamikaze" to supplement the "Lancets" - are the "Craftsmen" doing something similar?

- We have a high-tech project. We have found use for a huge number of home 3D printers, performing tasks that, in theory, should and can be performed on the same equipment in institutions like Skolkovo. There are the same printers.

And as for drones, drone strikers and other so-called “hi-tech”, there is a position that so many people are doing this. There is a lot of money there that will not be used to replace the outdated KPM-1 demolition machine. Although they say on TV that the sappers have everything.

– Is there any cooperation between your and any other volunteer organizations?

- Of course, our main motto is: "Together we will win." We cooperate very closely with the SAM! project, most of whose products are manufactured at our facilities. We communicate with groups such as NVP73, Flock, Rokot, and closely cooperate with the channels Two Majors and Propagandist's Notebook. A huge number of volunteer movements, basic military training courses, groups of other craftsmen from different cities are in touch.

- These are all also associations of “small people” - but did “big people” somehow help your movement, if not materially, then at least informationally?

- I don’t remember that “big people” were interested in something “small”. We turned to Andrei Medvedev and Anastasia Kashevarova, to Mr. Solovyov, who expressed good ideas, but we failed to reach the level of interaction. Large Z-channels want money for reposting even on such a topic. We talked with representatives of the Center for Support of Defense Initiatives under the State Duma, but they are also not interested. This is time consuming and counterproductive.

One municipal deputy once listened to us very carefully, promised to help, took a beautiful photo for himself in public and wrote some kind of mess. We can say that our information support is Two Majors and Readovka.

- "PMC Wagner Center" is positioned as an alternative "start-up platform" for volunteer projects, free from bureaucracy and other costs of the state machine. Have you tried to contact him?

- They wrote a letter, called, at the stage of the very beginning, when there was only an idea. They didn’t even pass some kind of “first stage”. The door did not open, went to another door.

– And how do you see adequate interaction between the state and volunteers, in the “minimum” and “maximum” options?

- Don't know. To do this, we have an army of officials who have specialized education. Let them solve this problem. We have our own tasks and there is simply no time to think outside the profile.

Do what you must and be what will be. This is our motto.

– Is the opposition of the enemy strong? How often do "Craftsmen" encounter attempts to sabotage the work of the project?

- In general, there were no direct troubles from the Ukronazis, so, sluggish attacks on the [Telegram] bot.

- It turns out that they caused less damage than "their Soviet" huckster-speculators who use your models to produce products for sale?

- So the "hucksters" do not harm us, we do not lose anything. They harm volunteers who could use the money to buy medicine or equipment for the fighters. Naturally, they harm those who sit in the trenches instead of them.

- There is an opinion that after the defeat of the Ukrainian fascists, some other former brothers in the socialist camp (Poles, for example) will be released from the chain on Russia, and this will not happen immediately, but in a few years. Have you thought about preserving and transferring the experience of the "Craftsmen" to new volunteers who will come to the aid of our army in possible future wars?

– Preservation and transfer of experience is the transfer of our knowledge to our children. If now we give them the opportunity to participate in volunteer work, offer them to do something useful with their own hands, write the same letters or make the same “candles”, perhaps they will remember this not only in the form of lines of text from a textbook. My children help me and know why we do it and why. God forbid, of course, they will have to apply some of this, but no one can guarantee that peace and prosperity await us ahead.


Thanks to Sergey for the answers. If one of the readers wants to somehow participate in the project, you can contact him through official telegram channel "Umeltsev".