This part is easier for me to accomplish since I am myself a Ph.D. in Laser Physics, former Assoc. Prof. of  Applied Optics Department of Kupala University in Hrodna and was relatively heavily involved in the education of optical engineers for optical industry of Belarus.

Belarusian optical industry has a great tradition. This was proved by the latest revolution in optical manufacturing brought from Belarus - MagnetoRheological Finishing (MRF). The technology was developed in the 1980-ies at BelAMA. Several Belarusian engineers emmigrated to US and brought the knowledge of technology to the main US optical center - Rochester, USA. Only in US were they able to finally develop this idea in a tremendous MRF technology that is currently used for manufacturing all precision aspheric and other complex optical surfaces with outstanding accuracy. The technology core at main MRF machines manufacture - QED Technologies - is still run by Belarusian engineers. You go guys! 

Lets just list below the major Belarusian optical enterprises with my less formal comments

Lida Optical Plant "Optik"

This plant is the second largest optical plant in Europe after Carl Zeiss. In the former Soviet Union it was specifically designed as a mass manufacturer of optical elements. Only optical elements are manufactured here - lenses, prisms, flats etc. The idea was that the plant would concentrate on optics while further opto-mechanical enterprises would use its product to assemble objectives and other opto-mechanical devices. The plant is capable of mass production of millions and millions of optical elements. Lately they also started to pool optical fiber, do optical coatings, including photochromic coats. All major optical plants of former Soviet Union were the customers of this giant. Basically if you are looking for a cheap supplier of big quantities (millions) of high quality glass and quartz optical elements - Lida "Optik" could be the way to go. Not sure, how it is doing now. "Optik" doesn't seem to have a web page set up yet. But here are some contact phone #s that I have from 1992:

R&D Division (from USA) 011-35-015-61-256-04 : Mr. Mastiugin; Mr. Kul'kov; Mr. Amozov. Education: 011-35-015-61-282-27 : Mrs. Tatarchenko.

LEMT / BelOMA (BelOMO in Russian)
(Belarusian Optical-Mechanical Consortium)
23, Makayonok Minsk 220836 Belarus
Phone: 375 17 263 8556 Fax: 375 17 263 7557
market@belomo.minsk.by
http://www.belomo.by/
http://www.lemt.by/enindex.php
Established: 1957

BelOMO is a major opto-mechanical assembly plant of the former USSR and Belarus now. It is a designer and manufacturer of laser, optoelectronic and
optomechanical instruments. Products include topographic and multispectral
photographic equipment, photogrammetric devices, laser devices,
optoelectronic sighting devices, and medical equipment based on laser
systems.

It was set up as a manufacturer of high resolution satellite cameras and is still listed in various space war lists. So you can expect rather high standards of quality here. As far as peaceful applications it manufactures objectives, photo cameras etc. Some of the satellite photos of Russian Sovinformsputnik are done on BelOMOs TK-350 satellite topographic camera with 10 meter ground resolution and reference cross marks for photogrammetric processing (size of frame 200 x 300 km^2, specific cost 0.07-0.08 $/km2). It looks like LEMT/BelOMO are cooperating with Swedish Latronix. German Carl Zeiss has a joint venture with BelOMO too.

LEMT/BelOMO military optics

BelOMO in Japaniese from Cameraguild

Smarhon' Optical Machine Tool Plant

This plant was the SINGLE supplier of ALL optical plants of the former USSR with optical polishing and laping equipment. They have a web page, so that's easy. They also manufacture industrial vacuum measurement sensors/electronics for coating chambers.

BelAspher Co Ltd
PO Box 247, Minsk 220050, Belarus
Phone: 375 172 433 223
Fax: 375 172 433 223
dir@aspher.belpak.minsk.by

Established: 1993

It is a manufacturer of precise aspherical components from
metal and glass; aspherical molds for glass and plastic molding. Provider of
consulatation and software for manufacturing aspherics with the use of
standard sphere grinding/polishing equipment. Also manufactures aspheric
plastic optics.

Yukon Optics - is a distributor for Belarusian optical manufacturer in Lida.

KBTEM-OMO State Scientific and Production Enterprise
Subsidiary of Planar Concern
2 Partizansky Ave. Minsk 220763 Belarus
Phone: 375 172 26 12 05 Fax: 375 172 26 12 05
kb-omo@hmti.ac.by

Established: 1962

It is a designer and manufacturer of photolithography
equipment for the manufacture of megabit ICs including steppers, mask
aligners and pattern generators; control equipment for inspection of
photomasks, wafers and wafer patterns.

Optron Instrument Manufacturing Plant
38, Zhodinskaya St. Minsk 220141 Belarus
Phone: 375 17 264 02 05 Fax: 375 17 263 67 03

Established: 1984

Supplier of spectral, laser, medical and measuring
equipment. Produces solid-state and dye lasers, cooling units, and optical
components.

Minsk Laser Plant (Not sure if it sounds exactly like this)
Formerly known as OPP NTO AN SSSR (Not sure if it sounds exactly like this)
Formerly known as OPP NTO AN SSSR

This an experimental plant that is manufacturing YAG lasers, laser power supplies, solid state pumped dye lasers with harmonics generation tunable in near IR, Visible and near UV ranges (I've used one - LGI-501).Here are some phone #s that I have:

Optics/mechanics - 011-375-017-264-94-05 Mrs. Efimova;
Supplies - 011-375-017-263-71-94.

It seems like the OPP NTO AN SSSR has gave birth to the two daughter companies:

Solar Laser Systems - focuses on the development and manufacture of solid-state lasers and laser systems. The company supplies a wide range of optical components as well as laser and nonlinear crystals. More than ten years of experience in development and manufacture of laser equipment for research applications are also to the credit of the company. Today, SOLAR Laser Systems manufactures over 30 different products for scientific, optical, medical and industrial applications.

SOLAR TII, Ltd.
15/2, Skaryna Str. Minsk 220072 Belarus
Phone: 375 172 84 14 35 Fax: 375 172 84 06 38
laser@org.by

Established: 1994

Developer and manufacturer of solid-state tunable
Ti:sapphire, forsterite, LiF:F2 lasers, nonlinear converters, harmonic
generators, Raman shifters, spectrographs, spectrometers, monochromators,
monochromators/imaging spectrographs and IR visualizers.

AXICON- Experimental Design Unitary Enterprise associated with National Academy of Science of Belarus. Specializes in Lasers and laser technology equipment, Biomedical devices, Devices for environment research and monitoring, etc.

Solix Co., Ltd.
PO Box 261 Minsk 220095 Belarus
Phone: 375 17 245 5311 Fax: 375 17 245 5311
pb7028@belsonet.net

Established: 1991

Manufacturer of laser rods and laser crystals including
alexandrite, Ti:sapphire, forsterite and lanthanum beryllate.

Their products could be pretty cool. I remember that around 1988 former soviet
parametric oscillators and solid state lasers were some 5-10 years ahead
of any Western goods. So it is still worth attention.


Other Belarusian institutions and sites related to optics/lasers:

Institute of Applied Physical Problems , National Academy of Sciences, Belarus - specializes in laser physics, spectroscopy and laser applications. The author of the best textbook on molecular spectroscopy ever - M. El'iashevich - works in this institute.

Institute of Applied Optics, National Academy of Sciences, Belarus.

The National Academy of Sciences Division For Optical Problems of Information Technologies.

Belarusian research in diode pumped solid state DPSS lasers

Department of Applied Optics, Kupala University, Hrodna..
Chairman - Prof. Alexey Ivanov Ph.: 011-375-15-2-33-69-07. Address: Ozheshko 22, Kupala University, Hrodna 230023.

Department of Quantum Electronics, Kupala University, Hrodna..
Chairman - Prof.  Zejlikovich.

DiaCont (Diagnostics and Control) - privately owned company specializing in laser interferometers, schlieren devices for gas flow analysis. They manufacture and resale very high quality interferometers upto 1'4" in aperture diameter. They have access to the msot of the belarusian and FSU optical industry products. President - Prof. Nikolas Spornik (011-375-15-2-33-69-07 or 33-26-88). Address: DiaCont, Gorky str. 72, Hrodna 230009, Belarus.

"October" Glass Factory

Generally, Belarusian Laser and Spectroscopy school is pretty strong. Most of our universities have departments specialized in this. There were several departments related to lasers and spectroscopy in Kupala University. The world's most powerful dye laser generating 400 J pulses was built by the team of Prof. Barikhin in the Kupala University, Hrodna, Belarus.

See also our Precision Mechanics and Measurement Links

Minsk Watch Plant

"Vesopribor" - Babrujsk Plant of Scales and Measurement Instruments.

To add your organization to this list e-mail us.