What is "elektrit"

Elektrit Radiotechnical Society was the largest privately owned company in Wilno, Second Republic of Poland (1925–39).

With over 1100 workers, the society produced approximately 50 thousand radio receivers annually. A large percentage of the production was exported abroad, mostly to Sweden, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The annual turnover exceeded 1 million US dollars. Elektrit proved to be a very successful company and soon became the leading Radio Company in Poland.

Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Wilno was occupied by the Soviet Union and the company was nationalized. In 1940 the factory was hastily dismantled and transported to Minsk, where the "Vyacheslav Molotov" Radio Factory was set up. After the war the plant was renamed Minsk Radio and Television Association "Horizont" (Horizon). It produced "Minsk" radio receivers, being a copy of the Polish pre-war model but with Soviet tube set. The former buildings in Vilnius were used by a secret Soviet radio technics factory of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, known as PO Box 555.