The same capacity as one and a half irons
SMALL BUSINESS
Vladimir Izmailov, the head of the Polystrom company, managed to sum up the problems facing small business in Russia so clear as no one before, «It is easy to buy goods and sell them on when sales tax is 18 per cent and practically every flea market offers the chance to do under-the-counter deals. But when you are actually producing goods which sit there in your warehouse its hard to hide anything. As a result I paid 102.4% of my profit in taxes last year. The amazing thing is that no one even wondered where I managed to find the extra 2.4 per cent. It's truly laughable — it seems that our Russian legislators designed the Tax Code as an attempt to defy Lomonosov-Lavoisier universal law of matter and energy conservation, if you remember «If something disappears in one place it must appear in another place. The total amount of matter and energy available in the universe is fixed».
— It's serious, — I said looking at him like a prosecutor would,— Don't try to scare me with big names like Lavoisiers. He will be dealt with by tax police in France. Tell me how you are violating another universal principle — the law of thermodynamics.
— That has already been dealt with,— he said sadly and seeing my surprise added, --I mean Lavoisier. He has been beheaded by guillotine. Cause he failed to pay his taxes.»
I broke out laughing because this indeed was the case.
— Tell me about the sorry fate of Mikhail Lomonosov, like he was boycotted by the Germans at the Russian academy of sciences at the time, — I said, wiping away my tears of laughter.
— Exactly, smiled Vladimir Izmailov. I will not tell you about Lomonosov but I will tell you about myself. Do you remember how at the end of perestroika everyone started discussing the carcinogenic qualities of asbestos?
I cast my mind back. If you remember, the main highlights of perestroika were the Chernobyl disaster, nitrates in cabbage, polluted lake Baikal, the death of the Aral Sea and, finally, carcinogenic asbestos.
— So, — he continued, — in the Urals we extract asbestos in form of chrysolite fiber, whereas in Brazil and Switzerland there are deposits of lathlike asbestos, which is exactly the thing that damages the mucous membrane of the lungs and could can cancer. You know what I am talking about.
— You think it was black PR then?
— Well, we did not know words like that back then. But in essence this is true. Look at this — and Vladimir knocked on a smooth slab. This contains chrysolite fiber asbestos, cement and liquid glass. It is as durable as ceramics, and it moisture absorption is like that of steel, i.e. it practically does not soak. And it is a flexible slab. We take two asbestos and cement or cement and chip plates and put polyurethane in the middle. See how thick it is? But 80 mm of polyurethane are equivalent to 2.5 meters of brick in terms of heat insulation. Incidentally, have you recently heard anything about the asbestos mafia conducting genocidal experiments on the Russian population? The answer is no. They started using this technology in the West . Our factory has many visitors from German chemical concerns all the time. Its a pity we dont have the money to patent all our inventions at the international level. Even the name of our unique and absolutely pioneering construction material «teplon» («warmon») is still not protected as a trademark.
— Why is that? — I interrupted.
The response was rather unexpected.
— Cause we have a brick mentality. A house has to be built from bricks. If the worst comes to the worst a house can be made from wood. And construction takes at least two years. But our company assembles residential and office blocks like Lego in two or three days. Everyone is suspicious, they are looking for fraud and trying to find faults with us.
— Well, this is rather unusual since your houses have no central heating , nor do they have own boiler houses for heating purposes. The walls are very thin and the winters are sometimes exceptionally cold. Who wants to freeze in their own bed?
— This is exactly the logic that was used by state commission, which turned up at our factory last winter, laughed Vladimir and recounted what happened after he wrote a letter to President Shaimiyev.
Why exactly the letter was addressed to the President is a separate matter. In brief, the lower levels of power did not believe the founders of the Polystrom company and refused to look at the technology. After the crisis in August 98 Vladimir Izmailov wrote to Mintimir Shaimiyev about his houses, which do not require central heating. The businessman pointed out that he was not asking for money and the only thing he requested was a small plot somewhere on wasteland where the head of Polystrom could build a few houses for himself and his employees families from the slabs produced by Polystrom. He suggested that they move into these blocks together with their wives, parents and children and give their warm flats to the city. The letter specified that construction of the cottage village from sandwich slabs would be funded by a number of commercial banks from Tatarstan, which were prepared to extend respective loans. The letter was brief and businesslike.
The President issued a brief resolution «If the things are the way they are described in this letter, provide support. Keep me informed». What happened next was simply unbelievable — V.A.Shvetsov, the Vice premier of the government, I.B.Shaidullin, the Minister of construction at the time, K.Sh.Iskhakov, the Mayor of Kazan and T.M.Abdullin, general director of the non-budgetary fund for replacement of dilapidated housing facilities heading the board of the Ministry of construction arrived at Polystrom factory and visited the two-story building assembled from the very same sandwich blocks.
It was a cold winters day. In the office the girls were wearing light dresses and the managers of the company , Vladimir Izmailov and Rafael Khasanov, were in shirts.
Having seen the delegation they put their jackets on in a hurry. Meanwhile the members of commission were examining the rooms in silence , looking under the tables, touching the walls. A few people went out into the street and started looking under the house, which rested on a steel frame. Finally someone gave up and asked «Where are the radiators?» in the same prosecutors tone as I used in the beginning of my conversation with Vladimir Izmailov.
It would have been a pity to miss this moment to take revenge for all the lack of trust that their company had encountered. Rafael Khasanov, the head of Polystrom daughter company — Polystrom-Warm House had replied sarcastically: «We dismantled them just before you came. And we mended the walls and painted them with special spy paint which is meant to look old so you could never tell...»
«But it's so warm, — said surprised members of commission, — «Where is the heat coming from?»
«Did you see the DeLonghi fan over the front door? That's the source of heat»
«But this fan has low capacity!»
«What do you mean? It's the same capacity as one and a half irons!»
Then the creators of the strange houses without heating explained to the officials that there was no magic involved and they werent trying to challenge the second basic principle of thermodynamics which says that heat disperses without concentrating in one particular place. Its very simple — one should heat the person inside the house rater than the universe. Its common knowledge that in winter the temperatures in the big cities are a couple degrees higher than the temperatures in an open field.
Our brick blocks and radiators heat the Universe, and to stop this one needs to make brick walls that are three meters thick.
The land plot for construction of Polystrom cottages was allocated in some out of the way gorge, and still the company did not have the commissions full trust. The problem was not the red tape, but rather the difficulty of changing the traditional views of life. I have seen the houses, I was inside the houses but still I was puzzled by the lack of radiators.
— Why do you need it? You have started out from production of polyurethane. Its a gold mine!
Production of such polymers is really a gold mine. Or more precisely — a gold bucket — thats what the professionals call this process, since its sufficient to mix two relatively cheap reactants in one bucket and wait until they froth and harden. Then you turn the bucket upside down, take the mold out and sell it. The rate of revenue is extremely impressive. For example I noticed a surfing board near the entrance to Polystrom. Vladimir Izmailov pointed it out and said, «It costs about a thousand dollars on the world market. The cost of material is 500 rubles. The production cycle takes 15 minutes. You tell me now, what kind of price shall I set for it?»
— So why are you banging your head against the wall? The brick wall to be more precise? Don't you have enough money?
— We do have enough, you have seen the cars parked near the gate to the enterprise, and the workers do not use public transport. You may think I am a strange person but my dream is to see a simple Tatar, a simple Russian sell his 2-room flat in a Khrushchev-era slum and use the money to build a 100 square meter house.
— Would this also be possible in Siberia? — I asked without knowing that the question would hurt.
It turned out that last year Polystrom suggested building houses In Lensk after the flood... They were told to stay out of big politics.
On my way home, looking at big construction sites, cranes, excavated pits, utilities trenches and I thought that may be in Vladimir Izmailovs small business there is more politics that one might think at first.
Sergey PETUKHOV
In photos:
- THE SECOND BASIC RULE OF THERMODYNAMICS SAYS THAT HEAT DISPERSES RATHER THAN COLLECTING IN ONE PLACE. THEREFORE ONE NEEDS TO WARM UP THE PERSON INSIDE THE HOUSE RATHER THAN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE
- 80MM OF POLYURETHANE HAVE THE SAME INSULATING CAPACITY AS 2.5 METERS OF BRICK
- HOUSES AND OFFICES PRODUCED BY LIOLYSTROM COULD BE ASSEMBLED AS FAST AS LEGO
- IF ONE USES HIS MIND ONE COULD EASILY FIND REPLACEMENT FOR BRICKS
- THIS IS HOW THE «DREAMERS» FROM KAZAN IMAGINE THE COTTAGES
- VLADIMIR IZMAILOV, THE GENERAL DIRECTOR OF LIOLYSTROM
- Photo: Yuri FEKLISTOV