Entrepreneurship and the main brands of the Russian Empire

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Russian Empire had a good business climate. Foreign entrepreneurs, Russian merchants, and even former serfs could open an enterprise here and make their own recognizable brand. The most famous brands of Russia at that time are presented to your attention.

1. Smirnov

“Smirnovka” is still one of the most recognizable vodka brands today, but in Tsarist Russia, Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov, who founded his distillery in 1862, was a real “vodka king”.

The consumers liked the table wine “N 21” and the tincture “Nezhinskaya rowan” most of all. These products helped the firm to acquire the right to depict the State Emblem and the title "Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich".

The tax that went to the treasury from Smirnov's enterprise was equal to half of the pre-war budget of the Russian army.

The cost of products manufactured for the year reached 17-20 million rubles.

2. Einem

All hipsters of the capital know exactly what "Einem" is, for the reason that "Einem" until 1922 was the name of the confectionery factory "Red October" on Barsenevskaya embankment.

The founder of the company, Theodor Ferdinand von Einem, opened a confectionery workshop on the Arbat in 1851. Only four people worked in it. The Crimean War helped Einem's "sweet business" rise. He supplied his products there. This helped Einem expand production and move the workshop to a factory on Myasnitskaya.

The enterprise produced about 20 types of products, and “sweet baskets” for brides were especially popular. In 1913, the company was awarded the title Supplier to His Imperial Majesty's Court.

3. Shustov

The "Cognac King" Nikolai Leontievich Shustov was an extraordinary person. He literally turned the mind of the 19th century Russian consumer market.

He hired students to popularize his product. They asked in taverns “only Shustov's vodka”. When she was not there, they made a brawl and ended up in the area, from where Shustov himself later bought them. Subsequently, students also received a percentage of the sales in the "spud" point.

Shustov was one of the first to figure out how to place advertisements on public transport.

By the end of the 19th century, the range of products began to differ in variety - bison, tangerine liqueur, Caucasian mountain herbalist, liqueurs of Russian steppe herbs and Crimean.

4. Russo-balt

Anyone who thinks that Russia has always had problems with the auto industry are mistaken. Before the revolution, everything was at the world level. Take, for example, the Russo-Balt car, first produced in 1909.

Russo-Balts were high-class cars. This is evidenced, for example, by the victories in the St. Petersburg - Monaco race in 1912 and 1913, as well as the fact that the Russo-Balt became the first car to conquer Vesuvius. In general, the car turned out to be one of the most reliable in the world.

5. Apricots and sons

It is enough to look at this one advertisement to understand that "Aprikosov and Sons" treated the marketing issue responsibly. In 1891 alone, 300 thousand rubles were spent on it. The pastry chef filled the whole city with his leaflets.

The history of the Abrikosovs began in 1804, when Stepan Nikolaev, nicknamed the Obrikosov, came to Moscow to work and opened a confectionery shop here.

By the beginning of the 20th century, 1,900 workers worked at the Abrikosov factory, they produced about 4,000 tons of caramel, sweets, chocolate and biscuits per year.

6. Bure

In pre-revolutionary Russia, the Bure watch was synonymous with quality and clarity. Therefore, the Russian emperor himself presented them to distinguished officials, honored people and foreign diplomats.

The Bure company produced both exclusive products and watches for the mass buyer. Prices for watches started at just 2 rubles and reached several thousand. Russia was one of the first countries where watches became a generally available commodity. After 1917 the firm continued to operate in Switzerland under the Paul Buhre brand.

7. Faberge

In total, 71 Faberge eggs are known, of which 52 are considered imperial. Faberge eggs are the luxury, splendor and prestige of the Russian Empire. These jewelry were premium gifts. Alexander III, who contributed to the popularity of the Faberge firm, presented his wife with an egg for Easter in 1887.

The fate of this gift is remarkable. In 1917, it was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, who sold it to the West.

In 1964, it was sold for a song ($ 2,450) at the Parke Bernet auction. Where it is now is unknown. Its cost is approximately 20 million pounds.

8. Brothers Diederichs

The Diederichs Brothers produced the best grand pianos and pianos in the Russian Empire of the 19th century. The history of the factory began in 1810. After a little over 10 years, the company put its products on display and announced its readiness to sell high-quality pianos that are not inferior to foreign ones at a price 3-8 times lower.

"Diederichs" developed rapidly, worked on the quality of products and expanded the line. At the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the instrument of the factory was awarded the Grand Prix, and A. F. Diederichs - awarded with the order.

By 1917, only 27 people worked at the factory, and due to the complete cessation of wholesale and retail trade, the cancellation of previously placed orders and the depletion of funds on April 6, 1918, the Diederichs Freres factory was closed.

9. Skorokhod

In pre-revolutionary Russia, everyone knew that the best footwear was Skorokhod.

The partnership of the St. Petersburg production of mechanical shoes appeared on September 11, 1882. Two years later, she began to produce the popular Reforma footwear - light summer shoes with low heels, embossed on the toe with a herringbone pattern. They were called "runners".

In 1896, at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, the Partnership received the right to image in the brand name of the State Emblem.

"Skorokhody", of course, tried to forge. They fought against handicraftsmen, including by judicial methods.

Shoes of the Partnership were repeatedly exhibited at international fairs - in Chicago (1893), Amsterdam (1894), Paris (1900). In the late 1890s, it was sold in Germany, competing with models from local manufacturers.

Only since 1910 did the word "Skorokhod" appear in the official name of the company, on the signs of the Partnership's brand stores, on the soles of the shoes it produces in the form of a brand.

10. Dux

Previously, cars drove around Russia not only on gasoline and electricity, but also on steam. The first plant to produce a ferry was "Dux". These cars enjoyed great confidence among the Russians, as they were considered the safest.

The racing model "Dux" developed a speed of up to 140 km / h.

In addition to ferry cars, which were also called “locomobiles,” the company produced bicycles, omnibuses, snowmobiles, and motorcycles.

In 1910 "Dux" entered the air market - it began to produce airplanes and airships. At the same time, the output of other products began to decline. In 1918 the plant was nationalized and renamed into "State Aviation Plant No. 1".

11. Polar

Not only the capital "Skorokhod" shod Russia before the revolution. There was also "Polar", which appeared in Kazan in 1916. Today this company is known as Spartak. So it was named in 1922.

The factory was opened by Kazan merchants and manufacturers Shabanov, Zobnin and Zhulin.

In Sukonnaya Sloboda on Armyanskaya Street (now Spartakovskaya Street), they bought a two-story stone warehouse. The equipment of the factory consisted of a steam engine and machines for sewing the tops of shoes, which were produced in 2 types. Leather processing was carried out in a tannery open next to the factory.

Cutting, fastening of soles and other operations were done manually.

12. Anatra

Aviation plant "Anatra" was founded in 1913 by Arthur Antonovich Anatra, a native of Odessa, a millionaire and just a talented entrepreneur.

Very quickly the plant became the third in the country in terms of production volume. Over the period from 1914 to 1917, more than a thousand cars were built on it.

During the First World War, the aircraft plant was located 12 versts from the city. For the delivery of workers for 1 million 300 thousand rubles, the Odessa - Anatra Airplane Plant was specially built, two steam locomotives and several passenger cars were purchased.

In 1917, more than 330 employees and about 2,100 workers were employed at the two factories of the “Anatra” company. The potential capacity of the plant as of the autumn of 1917 was 80 aircraft per month, of which 60 - at the Odessa plant and 20 - at the branch in Simferopol.

13. Forest

The Pereslavl weaving factory was founded by the merchant Phillip Ugrimov by the Decree of the Manufacturing Collegium in 1758. Then there were installed 100 weaving mills, which produced thin Dutch fabrics, teak, Flemish and sailing fabrics.

In 1816, the factory passed into the possession of the Moscow merchant Konstantin Alekseevich Kumanin, who significantly expanded the factory from 1816 to 1847: 403 mills were already in operation.

Production was constantly expanding, and the British invested money in the business. In the 1890s, they also worked as craftsmen at the enterprises of Zalesye.

14. Ivan Durdin

The story of Ivan Durdin is a dream story. At the age of 20, Ivan Alekseevich Durdin, a serf from the village of Shestikhino, Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl province, came to Moscow to earn money, three years later bought out and got a job in the store of the Moscow Society of Brewers, then was appointed a clerk at a brewery in the capital. In 1836, Durdin managed to buy out the plant where he worked.

Durdin began to open laboratories for the production of new types of beer, brand stores, new breweries. Durdinskoe beer was known all over Russia.

Emperor Alexander II himself highly appreciated the Durdin "Porter", and in 1857 Durdin received a special privilege - the right to bottle products with the image of the Russian two-headed eagle.

15. Havanera

Russian cigars - today it sounds a little strange, but before the revolution, such a combination was in the order of things.

The largest enterprise in the pre-revolutionary cigar segment was considered to be Havanera. Its full name at that time is the Cigar and Tobacco Factory of the Belgian Anonymous Society "Havanera".

The quality of the products of the Gavanera factory was excellent. In 1908 she received the Big Gold Medal at an exhibition in Rostov-on-Don.

In 1910, "Havanera" was celebrated at the World Exhibition in Brussels, having awarded her the highest award - an Honorary Diploma, and in 1911 - at an industrial fair in Turin, where she also received an Honorary Diploma.

After the revolution, cigar production at the factory stopped almost immediately. At the former Gavaner factory, and now the State Cigar Factory, the pipe tobaccos “Pipe of Peace” and “Flotskiy” began to be produced.

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