The Awangard 55 television receiver is a mains-powered superheterodyne with a built-in speaker, equipped with 19 vacuum tubes and a black-and-white CRT. The device was designed to receive television programmes (on one of the five channels) or radio stations. The Awangard was manufactured by the Nikolai Kozicki Factory – one of Russia’s oldest enterprises in the area of communications and telecommunications technologies. Founded in 1855 in Petersburg as the Siemens and Galske workshop, it was one of the first factories to launch production of telegraph equipment. The production profile was changed many times, depending on current demand. In the 20th century it included radio stations and receivers, communication equipment for the army and navy, and production of television receivers. The Awangard model was developed by the Leningrad Research Institute Number 380. Two models of the television set were manufactured: Awangard TL-1 and Awangard 55. The latter differs from the former in its housing, as the top cover, under which the speaker and control knobs were placed, was eliminated. The modernised version has a channel switch on the side wall. Both models had a built-in antenna, enabling reception of signals from a nearby television studio (between 3 and 5 km). Overall, more than 100,000 units of the Awangard TL-1 (1953) and Awangard 55 (1955 -1958) were manufactured. At the break of 1956 and 1957, production of a copy of the Awangard TL-1 television receiver began in Poland, at the Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne, under the name Wisła.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Filip Wróblewski