When the Soviet Union still existed, a group of about 80,000 scientists, economists and others worked together on a Soviet version of Star Wars.
On Monday, a delegation of eight Russians from Vimpel Corp., which is what the group of 80,000 became after communism fell, was in Chicago to tie up loose ends on a business deal.
They`re forming a joint venture with an Illinois company to install cellular telephone systems in rural areas of Russia and other republics beginning this year.
The Illinois company, Plexsys International of Quincy, hopes to manufacture and put in place cellular systems in about 10 rural cities this year, with each system serving 2,000 to 5,000 users.
Plexsys is investing ”in the millions of dollars,” said Augie Fabela Jr., who runs the company, and the Russians will put up enough rubles to handle arrangements on their side.
Revenues will be taken in rubles, Fabela said. And the realization of profits will hinge on a move by the new Commonwealth of Independent States to make the ruble convertible to other currencies, which is not expected soon.
”We are counting on conversion of the ruble,” Fabela said.
The Russians said the joint venture is just one of a number of enterprises they hope will give them a livelihood as they try to make the switch from military to civilian work.
While several delegation members spoke fluent English, even Russian-only speakers seemed familiar with the American term ”spinoff,” meaning civilian applications from military research.
As one example, the Russians claimed they have developed a medical procedure to break up kidney stones that is less intrusive and cheaper than present methods, and that should be marketable in other countries, such as those in Latin America.
”We have vast human resources, we have know-how,” said Vasily P. Bakhar, a vice president of Vimpel Corp. and an economist.
Of the 80,000 employees, about 50,000 were engaged in research and development, Bakhar said. Such a huge proportion can be misleading when assessing a Soviet enterprise, because many workers are engaged in clerical and other jobs that don`t exist in highly industrialized countries, such as copying data by hand or building simple mechanical devices. But it is a huge number nonetheless.
Bakhar said Vimpel hopes to continue with space-based defense work and to develop a global system to prevent nuclear war.
”We are ready to join forces,” Bakhar said. ”We could build a system that could watch and see if someone like Saddam Hussein in Iraq was launching a missile and could destroy it. The data could be fed to a central source, such as the United Nations.”
Bakhar and the rest of the Russian delegation met Monday with representatives of state and city business groups who encouraged them to expand their ties to Chicago and Illinois as they gear up to make civilian products.
For the moment, though, Vimpel will be working with Plexsys to finish the joint-venture agreement, which Fabela said should be completed by the end of the week. Fabela said such matters as the name of the joint venture are all that is left to negotiate.
When the two companies signed a preliminary agreement in October in Moscow, the Soviet Union still existed. But both sides said they don`t expect the new political arrangements to hamper their cooperation. The government of Russia has given Vimpel a go-ahead, Bakhar said.
”Before, we didn`t really know where we were going,” Fabela said. ”But now that there`s a commonwealth, there`s an urgency for us.”
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Plexsys makes a cellular system tailored for smaller communities. Working on a smaller scale, Fabela said, the system can be put in for about $800 per subscriber. By contrast, it can cost $8,000 to $10,000 per subscriber to put in a fully wired system.
Plexsys International employs 45, a number Fabela said will be ”up significantly” once work on the new systems begins.