The collection of the Livadia Palace houses the telephone set of Sergey Ivanovich Kavtaradze, Deputy People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.
Sergey Ivanovich Kavtaradze was born into a noble family in the village of Zovreti, Kutaisi governorate on August 15, 1885. Since 1941 he was employed at the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. From 1941 to 1943, he headed the Middle East Department of the Commissariat, and later was appointed Deputy People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR. It was in this capacity that Sergey Ivanovich participated in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
The telephone on display was manufactured on a special commission in London by the British General Post Office in the mid-20th century. The GPO produced the 332 series telephone between 1937 and 1959.
The 332 series was usually available in black. Much more rarely those telephones were ivory, red and even more rarely green. The casing of this telephone is made of ivory bakelite. The metal dial plate and push-button cradle are integrated into the set. The handset is attached to the device by a thick, twisted white and yellow cord, and there is another similar cord that ends with contact terminals for connecting the phone. The handset’s communication device is covered with an elaborate mouthpiece. In the lower part of the set, under the dial plate, there is a sliding mechanism for note-taking, consisting of a metal matte base with a plastic bar fixed to it with a small plastic handle, a hinged envelope of transparent plastic with a slit to the right, and an upper plate of mirror-polished metal. The metal bottom of the telephone is fixed to the body with four screws; the feet are made of black plastic and have metal screws.
This particular model of telephone was probably chosen for the built-in anti-tracking system needed for wartime communications and crucial political negotiations.
Sergey Ivanovich Kavtaradze was born into a noble family in the village of Zovreti, Kutaisi governorate on August 15, 1885. Since 1941 he was employed at the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. From 1941 to 1943, he headed the Middle East Department of the Commissariat, and later was appointed Deputy People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR. It was in this capacity that Sergey Ivanovich participated in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
The telephone on display was manufactured on a special commission in London by the British General Post Office in the mid-20th century. The GPO produced the 332 series telephone between 1937 and 1959.
The 332 series was usually available in black. Much more rarely those telephones were ivory, red and even more rarely green. The casing of this telephone is made of ivory bakelite. The metal dial plate and push-button cradle are integrated into the set. The handset is attached to the device by a thick, twisted white and yellow cord, and there is another similar cord that ends with contact terminals for connecting the phone. The handset’s communication device is covered with an elaborate mouthpiece. In the lower part of the set, under the dial plate, there is a sliding mechanism for note-taking, consisting of a metal matte base with a plastic bar fixed to it with a small plastic handle, a hinged envelope of transparent plastic with a slit to the right, and an upper plate of mirror-polished metal. The metal bottom of the telephone is fixed to the body with four screws; the feet are made of black plastic and have metal screws.
This particular model of telephone was probably chosen for the built-in anti-tracking system needed for wartime communications and crucial political negotiations.
