Direkt-2T communication device

Direkt-2T

The multi-line director phone Direkt-2T manufactured in 1985 by Harju KEK in Keila, Harju region, Estonian SSR. This rare specimen of Estonian industrial design and original Soviet Estonian telecommunication device was saved in 2024 from the soon-to-be demolished administrative building of Baltijets factory in the city of Narva, Estonia.

Year of manufacture: 1985

Serial №: 147

Manufacturer:
	Harju KEK Keila, Estonian SSR, USSR

Did you know ...?
The KEK, "collective farm building company" (abbrevation from Estonian), was a semi-independent enterprise in the Soviet economy system. Originally, every rural district had its own KEK of which management was elected by the district's collective farms administrations. The main task of KEKs was to build any type of farm building for owners, i.e. collective farms. During the years, the governmental socialistic system being insufficient and unable to develop rural areas, KEKs grew and developed into multi-activity gigants. Their wide field of activities covered everything from construction work and manufacturing building materials to electronics and chemical industry (plastic molding, etc).

One of the most developed KEKs in the Estonian SSR was Harju KEK, located in the city of Keila near the capital of Tallinn. It was founded in 1956 by 26 collective farms from Harju district. The company developed rapidly, and in the 1980s it had over 2000 employees, covered 520 000 square meters (52 ha) of area in Keila, built its own headquarters in Keila (the building was elected for the best building of ESSR in 1985). The whole city grew with KEK — apartment houses, kindergartens, schools, and malls were erected.