"The Minox is my life."

-- Walter Zapp

VEF - VALSTS ELEKTROTECHNISKA FABRIKA

Most commonly known as VEF, it is the Latvian state run corporation that manufactured and assembled the pre-World War II Minox cameras. It is located in the city of Riga.

Most of the significant changes between the UR-Minox and the Riga were designed and implemented after the association with VEF was agreed upon.

Due to timing and the fact the factory was state run, the events leading up to and as a result of WW2 exacted a heavy toll on the factories' production. This is evidenced by many of the variants seen in the Riga.

When production began Latvia was an independent state. This changed when the Russians annexed Latvia in June of 1940. The Germans then "liberated" Latvia in 1941, only to be expelled by the Russians again in 1944. This alternating of provincial citizenship wreaked havoc in the marking of the cameras, with various aspects being milled off and replaced at each shift in nationality.

Begun in 1919 to repair telephones, VEF rapidly expanded to include the manufacture of telephone exchanges. Over the next decades, its operations diversified from switching and instruments into radio equipment, printed circuit boards, tools and die production, agricultural machinery, transportation, building construction, and even aircraft plywood. It is not unusual to find radios and telephones from the early periods in collections or for sale.

At the company's peak in 1991 there were 20,000 employees. This rapidly declined with the fall of the USSR, its main source of revenue, to present day levels of around 3,500 employees on its vast 30 hectare facility. During this time the old company has been split into five distinct companies and privatized:

• VRF-KT - Manufacturer of telephone switching equipment (primarily for Eastern and Asian markets)
• VEF Transistor - Assembly (German components) and refurbishing of telephones.
• VEF Rec - Producing a range of agricultural, forestry and materials handling equipment, mainly for the Latvian market.
• VEF Tools - Manufacture of dies and molds for companies in Sweden, Finland, Israel, Poland, Germany and the USA.
• VEF PCBF - Manufacturer of high quality circuit boards for customers including Motorola, and German and Swedish medical instrument manufacturers.

REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Latvian Privatization Agency Newsletter #1
State Joint Stock Company VEF
Spycamera - The Minox Story: Moses, Wade, ISBN: 1874707286
VEF Telekom