Paper and glass production

The origin of glass production

The origin of glass production in Western Siberia should be attributed to the first half of the eighteenth century.

In 1723, Tobolsk nobles Peter and Yakov Metegorov built the first glass factory in Siberia 20 versts from Yalutorovskaya Sloboda on the Koktyul River. It was a concession institution that employed hired and forced labor. In the 1740s, in the factory village of Koktyulsky there were 2 yards of craftsmen, 8 yards of workhouses and 6 yards of serfs. The plant produced canteens and foundry dishes of green glass and sold them to local peasants and merchants who came from Tyumen, Tobolsk and Irbit.

The existence of the Matvey Postnikov glass factory in the Ishim district was short-lived. Opened in 1743, it was de-registered 20 years later and deprived of the patronage of the manufactory board. This was usually done with "fake" manufacturers, who, without dealing with factories, used peasants assigned to them in agricultural work and household management.

In 1751, the Tobolsk merchant Alexei Kornilyev’s glass factory, located 25 versts from Tobolsk on the Aremzyanka River, came into operation. The manufactory board allowed him to buy up to 200 serfs. The Kornilievs bought a serf village in the Tyumen District from the Tobolsk nobleman A. A. Karamyshev, lands and peasants from the landowner A. P. Nefediev in the Tobolsk district. In addition, exiled settlers were assigned to the plant. In 1776, there were 29 souls. At the factory, wage labor was also used in small numbers. The Kornilievs put the case on a grand scale. Soon on Aremzyanka river A large factory with two villages appeared. Along with green glass tableware, the factory produced white and colored glass and crystal. By the end of the century, its production volume reached 6,000 rubles per year.


Glass production in Tobolsk province in the XIX century

In the first half of the 19th century, Yalutorovsky district remained the center of glass production. A good half of Siberian glass factories were located here. This was due to the fact that breadgiving uyezd provided cheap raw materials in abundance — straw ashes, and distilleries located there were the main consumers of glass products.

In 1831, there were 12 glass and crystal factories in the Tobolsk province, 7 of them belonged to merchants; and 5 to peasants. The most significant was the factory of merchant Ivan Medvedev in Yalutorovsky district. A special potash shop worked with him. In 1831, Medvedev established the production of white earthenware tableware decorated with colored ornaments. Medvedev’s company produced semi-white and green window glass, plates, dishes, bowls and other faience products, mirrors, and many types of crystal tableware. 121 hired workers were employed in his workshops. Moreover, hundreds of local peasants were engaged in the manufacture and delivery of raw materials to the manufactory. St. Petersburg drew attention to the successes of the largest glass manufactory in Siberia: on the recommendation of Governor-General I. P. Medvedev, he was awarded a gold medal on the Annenskaya ribbon for the spread of the manufacturing industry in the Tobolsk province.

In 1842, the Aremzyansky glass factory produced products worth 10 582 rubles, but in June 1848 it burned down and has not been resumed since. In the late 1860s, the Metegorov glass factory in Yalutorovsky District was closed.

In the second half of the XIX century there were 5 workshops for the production of glass in the Tobolsk province, and at the end of the century this production became quite rare.

In the eighteenth century, paper production became an independent industry, and with the increase in the state bureaucratic apparatus, the need for writing paper increased dramatically. The first stationery factories appeared in Yaroslavl, Uglich, Moscow, Vologda and Simbirsk counties. The material for the preparation of writing paper was vegetable fibers, which should be based on pure fiber. In the old days, cotton and linen fabric were used as raw materials. Worn-out clothes collected by rag makers, as well as bags, ropes, and ropes were suitable for this.

At the beginning of the XVIII century, paper was imported to Siberia in large quantities, mainly from Vologda and Moscow, and was bought at the Irbit Fair. The cost of one stack of paper was equated to about the cost of 50 pounds of rye (for this price you could buy two cows). Therefore, the Siberian authorities were very interested in local paper production.

In 1744, the Tobolsk merchants Medvedev opened a paper mill on the left bank of the Tobol River, 15 versts from the city near the Tatar yurts of Suklemsky. The Medvedevs produced paper of fairly good quality. Among the 19 paper manufactories in Russia, their factory occupied the second place and produced about 2% of all products produced in the country.

In 1761, the merchant Osip Konovalov opened a paper mill in Turin County along with a saw mill. In 1775, the paper mill was sold to the breeder Pokhodyashin, who resold it to the prosecutor of Perm Panaev.

In 1778, Efim and Fedor Medvedev, after the death of their father, decided to sell half of the paper mill to the Tobolsk merchant Vasily Yakovlevich Kornilev.

Kornilyev expanded paper production, built a new dam, installed additional rollers and presses, but the number of employees did not exceed 30 people. For a wider realization of the paper produced by the factory, he got his own printing house, where he printed forms of various documents for the state services of the province. In the printing house of Vasily Yakovlevich Kornilyev, the first magazine in the history of Siberia, "Irtysh, turning into Hippocrene", began to be published. In total, 12,000 copies of books and magazines were produced in the Kornilyev printing house, which was very significant for that time. In 1796 Catherine II issued a decree on the closure of free printing houses, as a result of which the Kornilyev printing house ceases to exist.

After the death of Vasily Yakovlevich, the production of the paper mill began to gradually fade away. In 1802, the Tobolsk merchant Alexey Dyakov bought the factory. Dyakov conducted the business on a grand scale: he hired new workers, changed equipment, and increased the number of factory buildings. There were 13 production facilities and about 30 residential buildings. A real working village was formed around the paper mill. Women and teenagers from the surrounding villages worked there, receiving a fairly solid salary — from 21 to 42 rubles per year. In addition, the assigned and free peasants had their own farms.

At the beginning of the XIX century, the paper industry flourished, but it lasted no more than ten years. The involvement of serfs gives negative results. The Siberian paper manufactories used old primitive equipment, while in Central Russia more advanced equipment was purchased abroad, allowing them to produce paper of better quality and at lower costs.

By the middle of the 19th century, Siberian paper production gradually froze, replaced by more powerful competitors. Thus, it did not become the main production for Siberia, remaining subsidiary, accompanying among others.

The largest stationery factory in Siberia at the beginning of the twentieth century was located in the village of Uspenskoye in the Chervishevsky parish of the Tyumen district of the Tobolsk province (then the village of Zavodouspenskoye in the Tugulymsky district of the Sverdlovsk region). In 1884, merchant of the First Guild A.I. Shcherbakov bought a distillery in the village of Uspenskoye for 15 thousand rubles and converted it into a stationery factory. In 1886, the Siberian Factory and Trading Partnership of A. Shcherbakov and Co. was established on shares. In 1889, the factory produced its first products. However, it did not go well. Shcherbakov’s relations with merchants and the local administration became complicated. As a result, the meeting of the partnership decided to liquidate the stationery business, and A.I. Shcherbakov himself was declared bankrupt. He joined the 2nd guild. In order to pay off creditors, the factory had to be sold. In 1902, it was acquired by an English citizen, I. E. Yates. Under the first owners, the factory produced up to 30 varieties of different paper — writing, paperback, wrapping, cap, etc. The quality of the paper allowed the company to have the title of "Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty."

The story of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak "The Last Brands", where the writer lived for three days, is dedicated to visiting the Assumption Factory.

After 1922, the factory was looted and the equipment was removed. The restoration of the factory began after 1926. In Soviet times, the factory produced two grades of condenser paper: "kon-1" and "kon-2", which made it possible to abandon the import of extremely expensive similar products from Finland. In 1994, production was stopped.

The village of Aremzyanskoye (currently the village of Verkhniye Aremzany, Tobolsk district, Tyumen region) is known as the "small" homeland of the great scientist D.I. Mendeleev. Dmitry Ivanovich’s ancestors, merchants and industrialists Kornilievs had a glass factory in Aremzyansky back in the XVIII century. Attached peasants worked on it. In 1804, the Kornilyev family had 79 peasants working at the factory.

In the first half of the 19th century, Maria Dmitrievna, the mother of the great scientist D.I. Mendeleev, became the manager of the glass factory. She ran the factory to feed her family. Before that, the plant belonged to her brother Vasily Dmitrievich, who lived in the capital and was not interested in business in Siberia. It took Maria Dmitrievna a long time to set up production. The factory began to produce cans and bottles, which the peasants willingly bought.

Maria Dmitrievna’s business activity was admired. As soon as dawn breaks, a horse runs through the streets of Tobolsk, harnessed to a light carriage in winter, then in summer in a carriage. The man in the street, looking out the window, said: "Mother Maria Dmitrievna drove to Aremzyanka again…". At the factory run by his mother, the future chemist Mendeleev probably got his first experience — he saw how glass was boiled. 20 years were given to the factory. It was only in 1849 that Maria closed the production and took Dmitry’s youngest child to study in the capital. The plant went to the treasury. At the end of the nineteenth century, Tobolsk merchant A.A. Syromyatnikov acquired part of the lands previously owned by the glass factory.