Factory Settlements of State-Owned Enterprises in Ural in the 20-50s of the XVIII Century.

Kopyrina Sardana Nikolaevna Assistant, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin 620000, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, Turgenev str., 4, office 471 sandaleyk@mail.ru

In the first half of the XVIII century . Russia, thanks mainly to the Urals, came out on top in Europe in metal production. 24 state-owned factories played an important role in this.

The study of the history of factories and factory settlements was carried out by such researchers as R.M. Lotareva, who in her work identified typological and regional features of factory towns, conducted a retrospective analysis of the development of this type of settlements ^[1]. In the works of S.V. Golikova, characteristics, definitions of the typology and nature of factory settlements are given ^{[2, pp. 66-87]}. One of the modern scientific publications devoted to the history of factory cities is the work of M.S. Solovyova, who traced a parallel between Yekaterinburg and Izhevsk. The author identified the features of construction, planning, and city life ^{[3, pp. 12-97]}. The problems of the genesis of mining centers of the Urals in the XVIII century were investigated by A.S. Cherkasova. The author analyzed the composition, social status, stages of formation of the mining population of the Urals ^[4]. Anthropologically oriented research on the issues of everyday life of a provincial city in the imperial period of Russia is represented by the works of N.A. Minenko ^[5]. The interaction and conflicts of mining centers and the agrarian environment in the economic, social, estate and cultural spheres of the pre-industrial development of the Urals can be traced in the collective monograph of S.V. Golikova, N.A. Minenko and I.V. Berezhnikov ^[6].

The population of factory settlements mainly consisted of artisans and workmen. It was formed as enterprises were built from sets of specialists from surrounding villages and villages. This category was supplemented by recruits. On the basis of the decrees of the Senate, they had the opportunity to be distributed to factories instead of military service, to go through the path of apprenticeship, to become an employee in a factory. Recruits, both those who arrived married and those who started families in villages, were allowed to build houses. Another part of the recruits joined the ranks of guard companies, was distributed to all factories for service, numerous courier trips. They also had the above-mentioned housing benefit.

A small stratum of residents were bobyli. Those who came to the Urals mostly with their wives back in the XVII century from the territories of European Russia, they, having lost their land allotment for some reason, "nailed" to the factories. Performed auxiliary work, engaged in the transportation of products on the pier.

An important category consisted of mining officers, office employees, priests and clergymen, merchants of various property status.

A special category was represented by exiles. They first appeared in the Urals in the late 20s, numbering about 200 people. By 1743, this figure had increased to 500 ^{[7, l. 1-208, 8, l. 89-93, 9, 22-36, 475-480, 10, L. 124-135]}. All of them were distributed to the mines, lived, depending on the severity of the crimes, either in prisons or in barracks. So in His "fettered and unfettered kolodnikov" in 1734, there were 75, of them condemned "to eternal work" 20, "for fixed years" for various sins 55.

Kolodniks were given "without deduction" from the salary from the treasury a dress, shoes, mittens, soldiers' bread provisions. For working days they received 3 kopecks each ^{[11, l. 66-67, 12, l. 7-8]} If wives came with the exiles, they were allowed to settle in factory settlements. After serving their sentence, and since the 40s and under the decrees on amnesties, E.I.V. Kolodniki had the right to settle. And they used it – according to the laws, they had a two-year vacation from work for the construction of housing and establishment of farms ^{[13, L. 266; 14, L. 47]}.

In the documents of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region there are voluminous house paintings of Kamensky, Alapaevsky, Polevsky, V-Isetsky, Yekaterinburg, and almost all factories for different years ^{[15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]}. There are general summary statements of employees of the mining department for 1744 ^{[21, 22, 23]}. Informative are the summary statements of the number of clerks, artisans and workmen living in factory settlements for 1753-1754 - the eve of the beginning of the sale of state-owned factories into private hands. Let 's imagine the dynamics of the development of settlements by decades:

Table 1

The number of employees, artisans, workmen at state-owned factories in the 30-50s of the XVIII century. ^{[24, l. 77 – 216, 246 – 252, 256 – 285, 290 – 313, 351 – 398, 403 – 406, 419 – 448, 460 – 494, 500 – 515, 562 – 609, 623 – 690, 623 – 690; 25, L. 12, 19, 37, 47, 51 – 55, 71, 81, 110 – 150, 160 – 178. 193 – 196, 229 – 264, 269 – 348; 26, l. 217-225; 27, l. 539-543]}. (The table does not take into account other categories of residents of settlements. A dash in 1734 means that the factory was built later).

The table shows that the population of almost all factories grew slowly. This is natural - in the first half of the XVIII century, factories objectively did not have the opportunity to significantly increase - increase production. Small rivers blocked by dams formed ponds that could provide only a limited, in all years to some extent stable volume of water for the production capacities of blast furnaces, copper smelting furnaces, molotov and other factories. Therefore, the authorities did not have a constant need to replenish new personnel. As a result, the number of the population of factory settlements increased only at the expense of natural profits, or even “frozen”, was at the same level.

In total, at all factories in 1754 there were: clerks - 177, artisans and workmen with children - 3452, retired with children - 91 ^{[28, l. 224]}. To this number it is necessary to add about 60 chief officers who worked both in Yekaterinburg and at all listed enterprises. For comparison, we note that there were more than 45 thousand peasants assigned to factories at that time ^{[29, pp. 418-423]}. That is, less than 10% of the total population of the state mining empire of the Urals lived in factory settlements.

Almost all the residents of the factories managed to build their own housing during the study period. Some senior officers lived in government command houses. According to the convenience and size of the house, they differed strictly “according to the rank” of the positions held: officers - managerial - clerical servants - artisans and workmen - soldiers. And, no less important, it was necessary to pay from 6 to 25 kopecks per month for each “light” in the state house.

According to V.I. Gennin's drawing from 1732, a vegetable garden was fixed at the houses. However, its size is not indicated, so it is difficult to judge the magnitude. The vegetable garden was quite large, at least 10 - 15 beds ^{[30, l. 295-296]}. It can be argued that the inhabitants of the factory settlements were, in addition to field products, on food self-sufficiency. It was the most important aid to the monetary salary.

The opinion of the widely recognized specialist L.V. Milov and information from archival documents on gardening unambiguously lead to the conclusion - in the first half of the XVIII century, the Ural artisan and work people, for the most part recruited from the peasant environment (who, by the way, previously had extensive experience in creating “small domnits, furnaces, forges” for melting and processing metal for their needs), took all the necessary management experience to factory settlements ^{[31, pp. 522-525]}.

In the 20s of the XVIII century. the positions were formed and the salary system for the chief officer corps was formed. With the final implementation and approval of the factory staff, the system finally stabilized. In the 30-50s of the XVIII century. there was the following command staff and a certain salary for him (without money, which was equal to 11 rubles. 2 ? kopecks.):

Table 2

Annual salary of chief and non-commissioned officers ^{[32, 51-64, 35, l. 1078]}

In 1754, there were 54 chief officers and 47 non-commissioned officers under the command of the Chancellery ^{[32, l. 51-64]}. They managed all the factory and mining operations.

In general, a monthly salary of 7 rubles, an annual salary of 84 rubles, can be considered solid. But also to take into account - the chief officers had other life demands and needs, the nobles lived far from the estates, many did not have them. And in fact, constant changes of duty station – frequent business trips - did not affect their well-being for the better. Non-commissioned officers did their best to get at least the rank of chief: their status and well-being immediately increased.

Stable, relatively decent salaries were received by office employees. Starting with the states drawn up by V.I. Gennin in 1734 before leaving the Urals, they have practically not changed.

Table 3

Annual salary of clerks of offices ^{[33, pp. 40-44]}

And, finally, the remuneration of the bulk of employees. It is advisable to consider it by production. The managers noted - “it is more difficult to blast furnace against leaky works and the work is done day and night, and the dress and shoes hold and burn more.” Three shifts of workers worked here for 12 hours. According to the staff determined by V.I. Gennin, actually repeated in 1737 and valid until the end of the study period, all employees had an annual salary.

The annual salary of the employees of the blast furnace shop was as follows: master – 36, apprentice – 24, apprentice – 16, workers filling coal, ore, fluxes – 16-18 rubles ^{[34, L. 36-39]}.

The brigade (master-apprentice-apprentice-worker) in the Molotov, also “fire” production, in the 20s of the XVIII century. received salaries. This form of payment did not justify itself, “hard-earned” (piecework) wages began to be used. There was no sharp enough fluctuation in the amounts, the payment increased, but there were a lot of defects in the manufacture of products, penalties followed. As a result, employees received about the same amount as with a salary. With the establishment of stability in the quality of production from the mid-30s of the XVIII century. a molotov master could receive up to 48 rubles a year, an apprentice - 32 rubles, workers - 22-26 rubles, only students had a salary of 14-16 rubles ^{[937, l. 780-781]}.

Copper smelting was the most complex both in the extraction and primary processing of various grades of ores, and in their smelting. The wages here were as follows:

Table 6

Annual salary of copper smelting workers ^{[36, l. 1078-1086]}

In mining, in addition to a large contingent of exiles, workers in the main positions received: The annual salary of mining workers was as follows: a steiger – 48 rubles, a bergaur – 24-30 rubles, a miner – 18 rubles, a miner – 12-15 rubles, a miner – 18-24 rubles, an apprentice during operations - 15 rubles ^{[36, L. 1078-1086]}

In addition to the mentioned categories of workers, there were other specialists at the factories. The remuneration of the main categories can be represented by the following table:

Table 8

Annual salary of various categories of employees ^{[36, l. 1078-1086]}

The above material on remuneration allows us to conclude that the majority of employees received 18-24 rubles. It is necessary to note an important point – in addition to individual requests for an increase in salary, the facts of any mass discontent are not recorded in the archive files.

Researchers of this period determine a stable annual subsistence minimum of employees, artisans and working people at 24 rubles, that is, 2 rubles per month ^{[37, pp. 502-522]}. The documents also allow us to assert that with this salary it was possible to have a relatively comfortable existence, build your own house, start a solid household. But we can also say that the workers who received 1.5 rubles a month were minimally, but well-off people.

Based on the above, we will trace the level of the subsistence minimum and the cost of the consumer basket of artisans and working people of factory settlements. They cannot be defined generically. Prices for food, clothing, shoes in Yekaterinburg cannot be taken as a basis for determining the subsistence level. Trading life has been established here since the 30s of the XVIII century. It is necessary to take into account the following circumstance: the factories were located in different parts of the region, at different distances from its center. Namely - Sysertsky - 38 versts, Polevskoy - 50, Kamensky - 90, Susansky - 102, Sylvinsky - 116, Alapaevsky 132, Sinyachikhinsky - 142, Egoshikhinsky - 318, Motovilikhinsky - 321, Lyalinsky - 336, Yugovsky - 348, Visimsky - 389, Pyskorsky - 485 versts. The subsistence minimum of factory workers depended on the level of agricultural development in the regions. A striking example is that in a particularly difficult situation, although closer to Yekaterinburg, there were factories of the Gorobrazdatsky district - but they were in an empty, cold, sparsely populated area that actually had no agriculture ^{[38, l. 605]}.

It is necessary to take into account another important point - the states of 1726, 1730, 1734 of V.I. Gennin differ in wages upward. And then in time - the states of 1737 - were no longer improved, they were “frozen". Their imperfection is clearly traced. Workers - everyone from chief officers to ore haulers, working in different economic conditions and situations, received equal pay. For example, the shikhtmeister, in Yekaterinburg, in Kushva - 84 rubles. And the living conditions are different, hence the different cost of living.

Here is the denunciation of I. Yudin, the manager of the Polevsky plant, who had 120 rubles. annual salary. In 1731, clearly exaggerating that “he had come into poverty and great debts,” he noticed the most important point: here “tavern supplies, as well as other expenses for the maintenance of the house against other places" are more expensive. If in Yekaterinburg, “for example, the price is five kopecks, and it is at the Polevsky plant at six and seven kopecks, and then in the tavern and other matters there is a big transfer in purchases.” This is at a factory located only 50 versts from Yekaterinburg. And there were quite respectable villages and villages near it, from where you can bring “grub” ^{[39, L. 337-338]}.

Let's imagine food prices for individual years:

Table 11

Food prices in the 20 - 50s of the XVIII century. ^{[40, l.186; 41, l.147; 42, l. 199; 43, l. 1270, 44, l. 757-758; 45, l.76-89; 46, l. 435-500, 47, l. 938-940]}

The main food was rye flour. It was never given out for free, but the forms of its purchases were different. It needs to be covered in more detail, since researchers do not have a single opinion. The management of state-owned factories already in the 1720s was clearly defined: a single worker was supposed to have 2 poods of flour for a month, a married man - 3 poods, plus 1 pood for two minor children. These norms were in effect throughout the entire study period. Therefore, it is easy to count, having prices, how much bread was “taken away" from wages. If flour and cereals on average cost 15-20 kopecks. pood., the family spent about a third of the salary. Another third went to buy clothes and shoes (but the expenses were not monthly), 10 – 20 kopecks were postponed to pay the poll tax. The remaining small amount could be spent on meat, fish, and other products. They were also relatively cheap. In the end, some pennies could remain with employees and "for a rainy day."

In addition to grub, residents of factory settlements needed clothes and shoes. On June 20, 1742, a fire broke out in Yekaterinburg “from the great thunder and lightning". Three (out of four) rows of retail shops in Gostiny Dvor burned down. The fire was “great” - it was necessary to report about such even to the Senate. Therefore, the mining authorities have compiled a detailed inventory of burnt goods. According to this source, it is possible to present a list of goods that were in use by the population. For example, many varieties of different fabrics, needles, threads were burned. Probably, women sewed all the necessary clothes and shoes for the family at home ^{[48, L. 264-290]}.

It can be argued that everyone was in a “German dress” at the workplace, i.e. the decree of Peter I was being carried out. This is evidenced by the scandal at the Lyala plant, where the manager was blamed for the fact that the workers were dressed “out of shape", and not shaved. The latter replied that the population has no money for a uniform dress, and it burns at the furnaces much faster than ordinary, Russian clothes. And they do not shave for another reason - there are no razors at the factory and it is impossible to buy them ^{[49, L. 241-309]}. Note - “form", razors cost money. Their purchase must certainly be included in the amount of the “subsistence minimum”.

The most important component in ensuring and maintaining the living standards of the inhabitants of the settlements, after wages and the purchase of basic foodstuffs for it, was household farming, related breeding, the maintenance of large and small livestock, the purchase of hay mowing. Since the appearance of the first three state-owned factories at the beginning of the XVIII century, the problem of harvesting hay by workers has been solved individually by commissars appointed by the provincial government. Note that extortion and bribes flourished here. This was clearly revealed in the petitions of 1723-1724 ^{[50, l. 6-28]} With the transition of the plants to the mining department, the situation changed. And with the registration of the large Yekaterinburg, as well as the neighboring Verkh-Isetsky and Uktussky settlements, the commissioning of new factories, the problem of allotment and demarcation of hay mowing necessary for the maintenance of livestock and horses became acute.

On July 27, 1731, a definition appeared: to delimit all hay mowing and put edges. To carry out this work, Lieutenant S. Sikorsky and mechanic N. Bakhorev were allocated. In August 1732, they presented the first drawings and a “notebook” to the Siberian Oberbergamt. And on August 27, 1735, “so that there would be no further disputes and strangers would not be mowed down,” the Office decided to conduct a new surveying. It is noteworthy - by rank: the best meadows are for state needs, then for the main commanders and officers, secretaries and members of the main board, factory managers and supervisors, clerks and masters by rank; foremen and workmen. Bobylya and exiles were not given places.

In 1735, V.N. Tatishchev, seeing that many residents of Yekaterinburg did not give cattle for grazing (they had to pay for it) and he “loitered around the streets”, ordered to rewrite all the owners-holders of livestock, as well as the number of horses, cattle, sheep, sheep, goats, pigs. This source can be considered unique: all surnames, positions, professions, residents of the commercial and church sides of the plant inside the fortress, as well as the population living along the upper and lower reaches of the Iset are represented. 489 yards (106 on the commercial side, 170 on the church side, 98 along the pond and up the river, 95 in the lower reaches) accounted for: “any cattle” 1253 units, of which horses - 549, cattle - 575, sheep, sheep, goats - 75, pigs - 54. It is noteworthy that almost all categories of the population kept livestock. Among them were officers, craftsmen, employees - from the recorder to copyists, foreigners, craftsmen, raznochintsy, bobyli, soldiers, even exiles ^{[51, L. 249-282]}.

We should especially note that the mining authorities were extremely interested in breeding cattle. “By necessity” – only beef fat was suitable for the manufacture of candles, which were required in the factory and mining industries a huge variety. It was impossible to live and work without candles. Annual calculations showed that, on average, tallow candles burned for 8 hours, up to 200 pieces were made from a puddle of melted fat. That is, beef meat was in the village farms and in the markets. And it cost relatively cheap – up to 25 kopecks. pood. Losses for overused candles were collected from plant managers. As for example happened with V. Titov in Sysert. He was fined 10.5 rubles. ^{[52, L. 974-980]}.

The surveyor I. Shishkov was appointed as the head of the survey of haymaking plots, I. Banner and M. Tromberg were appointed as assistants. They did not complete the work and by the end of 1737, but V.N. Tatishchev left the Urals, the work stopped, and petitions were added, disputes became permanent. In June 1740, the work on surveying was resumed. An excellent specialist and cartographer M. Kutuzov was identified at the head. He did a brilliant job. He described, drew up “black and white drawings” for 359 haymaking plots, handed over all the documents to the Office. But on June 19, 1741, he received a similar task - many “new petitions” accumulated, he did not have time to complete the work, he died. The case was handed over to N. Bakhorev and F. To Sannikov, in July 1743 they presented a picture of the best, average and bad meadows. In the 40s of the XVIII century. surveying was carried out regularly, among the leaders were I. Susorov, A. Kichigin and others. And the residents who were not listed in the books were looking for vacant plots, or they bought hay from the peasants of the surrounding villages ^{[53, l. 226-227]}.

The vast majority of the main industries, except for the blast furnace, worked on weekdays. For a long time, V.I. Gennin and the Ural leaders, perhaps out of ignorance, violated paragraph 26 of the 10th chapter of the Saturday Day Ordinance - to let go “from any work” three hours before the evening. And people worked as in ordinary days.

Only on October 25, 1734, the masters wrote to the new commander - “we work until the specified seventh and eighth hours, and vespers are always in the afternoon at the fifth and sixth hours,” therefore, “for praying and listening to the holy singing, we cannot go to vespers for not taking leave from our work and for that we never come.” They asked to be released earlier in order to prepare for coming to church “and to correct the necessary household needs” ^{[54, L. 684-685]}. Following the legislation, V.N. Tatishchev was forced to satisfy the request ^{[55, l. 900-905]}.

The order on non–working days - festive and solemn, "in which there should be no work at the factories" was recorded in the mining industry in the Instructions to the factory commissioner dated October 16, 1723, it extended to all factories. There were a total of about 90 days. On December 31, 1734, V.N. Tatishchev "with comrades", noting that over the past 10 years "some were canceled" and in order "not to be confused", adopted a new order ^{[56, L. 489-489 vol.]}, according to which, in addition to 52 Sundays, there were 34 festive and solemn days, that is, almost three the months of the year were not working. The definition of V.N. Tatishchev has not changed for 10 years. Only in 1746, the weekend was supplemented with four more days, and the celebration “in whose name the church was built” was reduced from two to one day ^{[57, L. 228, 239]}.

In the summer, workers were also released from factory work for haymaking. But these days cannot be considered weekends. This time is a strada, that is, a time of hard, though not factory work.

Already in the early years, the mining administration tried to establish a strict “routine” of life in all settlements. On October 17, 1726, a decree of the mining authorities followed - “after breaking the evening dawn, no one went anywhere and “did not get drunk in the company of those gathered.” If someone violates – "take under guard and, according to the invention of guilt, depending on the person, fine in order to stop the shameful life and turn it into a good one, because from drunkenness, thinness is born in the skills." The decree was sent to the managers of all factories, duplicated on January 11, 1727 ^{[58, 109-110]}

According to Peter's decree of February 17, 1718 ^{[59, pp. 538-539]}, all people on Lord's holidays, Sundays had to go to church for Vespers and matins, and priests chosen by the "best people" from the population of the settlements had to supervise this. However, V.I. Gennin angrily noted that not only at many factories, but also in Yekaterinburg, “this decree, as it can be seen, has been forgotten, because here artisans, and some clerks, forgetting the fear of God, have deviated to immeasurable cursed drunkenness that converts a person into nothing, and not only to church to they go to vespers and matins, but they don't go to the liturgy either, and they practice more in those very church services and prayers in drunkenness.” Moreover, V.I. Gennin himself saw that not only artisans were drunk for three days, “but also the local protopop,” who “had to look at all his spiritual children like a father and distract them from that, and he himself was drunk.” The general wrote to the bishop in Tobolsk about the priest's misdeeds.

About the situation in the city during church holidays V.I. Gennin noted: “artisans and clerks on these days also treated in immeasurable drunkenness and it was so stramno in the city that it was strange to hear the shouting and songs and fights from what was happening, and to listen to what was being repaired more from shinkov.” It was noted that there were no pubs in Yekaterinburg, but this did not change the situation with alcohol - “for although there are no pubs, but everyone is drunk from nothing other than wine, from which there is a stop in work.”

To solve the problem, V.I. Gennin ordered the factory managers to gather their subordinates and bring them to church by the time of the service, “regardless of any excuses, and they would be watched tightly so that no one was drunk both before the service and by the time of it, and those who are drunk should be punished by the head of the bergamt ... so that it would be all the more convenient to refute the cursed and God-abominable drunkenness” ^{[60, l. 221-221 vol.]}.

But in the 50s of the XVIII century, requests were repeatedly sent from the Yekaterinburg Ecclesiastical Board to the Office for help in forcing residents of villages to go to church, "not to arrange fist fights, horse races and dances during the procession," stand still during the service, not to talk, teach the laity "Our Father" by heart, up to to the point that to investigate - whether heresy has been started on any.

The available materials on the living conditions of the inhabitants of the mining Urals allow us to conclude that the population of factory settlements was heterogeneous in social structure. The population of factory settlements mainly had their own housing, which varied by category of positions held. The remuneration of most of the factory workers varied from 18 to 30 rubles. The household economy of the population of factory settlements was also under the control of the Chancellery, which monitored the pasture lands, cattle of the population.

The time of rest and work was controlled by regulations not only of the central government, but also by the decrees of the Chancellery, which was responsible for organizing the work of the servants of the factories.

Assessing the prices of products in general, it can be revealed that they depended on the remoteness of factory settlements from the center. Violations of legislative acts by the population were suppressed not only by the managers of the factories, but by the church authorities, who took care of the daily life of the factory population.