The province went to write

(Photo: Yuri Feklistov )

They also say that Muscovites on the streets of provincial cities are identified by their swift gait! Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t walk quickly around Voronezh: the sidewalks were covered with a thick, lumpy ice crust (this was in late February - early March). Janitors sitting without pay have equalized the speed of movement of local and capital residents. Ice was everywhere - in the center, on the outskirts, in prestigious cottage communities and even near the buildings of the city and regional administration. Democracy in this sense is complete. Every now and then we were amazed at the skill of the local drivers: if on the central city highways the asphalt is broken, but closer to the outskirts the roads consist entirely of ice potholes.

The lighting is also a problem. Even in the center, in the evenings, every third lamp is lit, but on the outskirts it is so dark that it is impossible to make out the name of the street you are walking along. They say they have accumulated large debts to energy companies. The city also suffers from a lack of water (this dates back to Soviet times) - in some areas it is supplied in the morning and evening, but is turned off during the day. So buckets, bottles and cans of water standing in hotels, apartments and offices are a common sight. Many people reacted to our questions about unclean streets, electricity and water with surprise: they could not remember if it had ever been different. People in the know said that municipal officials, busy with the struggle for power, have no time for public utilities, and the regional budget is constantly bickering with the city budget over who owes whom how much.

Poor or like everyone else?
The Voronezh region is considered a “red belt”: people here traditionally vote for the communists. On the eve of our arrival, Gennady Zyuganov visited Voronezh, who later spoke on TV throughout the country about how poor people are here.

Nevertheless, if, of course, you don’t look at your feet, the city does not give the impression of being so poor. The general population is dressed well. Full of advertising. The central street - Revolution Avenue - resembles Tverskaya in Moscow: many shops, cafes, restaurants. Drivers note that in recent years there has been a noticeable increase in cars. In a showroom decorated with a Skoda badge, a brand new Volkswagen Golf is on display for $16,000. Sellers say that everyone is interested, but no one is buying. Demand for foreign cars in the city fell after the 1998 crisis, and previously in another month they bought 15 Skodas.

The YuVenTa cafe on Revolution Avenue is reminiscent of McDonald's, Rostix and Russian Bistro at the same time. Here you can snack on hamburgers, fried chicken, salads, pies, ice cream and sweets. Prices are significantly lower than in Moscow. There are a lot of people, and the audience is varied: cheerful groups of youth, mothers with children, serious people in suits, looking through business papers while eating and answering cell phone calls. Manager Sergei says that on weekends and holidays their cafe is especially popular - all 300 seats are occupied.

Of course, in Voronezh, as throughout the country, it is especially difficult for public sector employees - teachers, doctors, whose already modest salaries are always being delayed, and employees of defense enterprises. Many quit and work wherever they can - as loaders, salesmen, or as private drivers.

Literature teacher Tatyana Romanovna earns 700 rubles at school and receives a pension. Her husband, a leading engineer at a defense plant, is paid 2,000 a month, and recently even regularly. 360 rubles are spent on rent, the rest of the money is enough for food and housekeeping, but you need to save up for a coat or boots. Fortunately, the adult children have settled down in Moscow and are helping.

From her graduating class, everyone entered universities (there are a dozen of them in Voronezh), and only a third find a decent job after graduation. “I’m not afraid for myself, but for the youth,” laments Tatyana Romanovna. “My former students with higher education sell in stalls.” She helps her fellow young teachers with food: “At least I have a regular pension, but my salary is delayed for two months, so people have nothing to feed their children.”
According to sociological surveys conducted by the Voronezh public opinion institute Qualitas, the number of poor people in Voronezh has not increased compared to the pre-crisis summer of 1998, but half as many people now consider their financial situation to be “good”, and no one rates their well-being as “excellent” (see table).

What is hidden behind the "red belt"
Oddly enough, neither the image of the “red” region, nor the story with Philips that caused a stir (in 1995, he bought the Voronezh picture tube plant VELT for 2 million dollars, invested another 60 million in it, and a year ago he was forced was sold to the regional administration for a symbolic fee of 1 ruble, since the enterprise could not be revived) did not worsen the investment climate in the region. Deputy Director of the Institute of Public Opinion "Qualitas" Alexander Romanovich, not without pleasure, reported that "Voronezh region took 24th place in last year's rating of Expert magazine and was among the regions with average potential and moderate risk." By the way, according to a study by the Central Black Earth branch of the Russian Marketing Association, during which managers of manufacturing enterprises in five regions (Belgorod, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Kursk, Tambov) were surveyed, Voronezh residents rated the investment attractiveness of their region at 5.3 points on a 10-point scale scale, leaving behind neighbors from Lipetsk, Kursk, Tambov and letting only Belgorod ahead.
This appears to have inspired local officials as well. “Foreign investors are not afraid of the Philips story,” Arkady Mozhaitov, head of the department for external relations and investments of the regional administration, is convinced. In any case, the total volume of investments in 1999, as in 1998, amounted to 20-25 million dollars. , and, as Mr. Mozhaitov emphasizes, these are direct investments in production, and not just the purchase of shares.According to him, the Voronezh region is of great interest to investors, especially agriculture - after all, the Black Earth Region.

Three quarters of Voronezh enterprises have been privatized. They say that almost all more or less decent enterprises in the region have been bought up by “Moscow capital”. But you can also hear the exact opposite: that the “red belt” is a convenient screen behind which both the authorities and local businessmen hide: by scaring off outside investors, you can quietly buy everything yourself on the cheap. At the same time, ordinary people (apparently through the efforts of interested parties) have the impression that strangers, like, for example, the same Philips, come to Voronezh soil solely for the sake of strangling local producers. By the way, they really treat strangers here with caution, and not only potential “stranglers.” Almost every company manager, before agreeing to communicate with Itogi, spent a long time asking about the purpose of our visit, and “why exactly to us?”

But Arkady Mozhaitov believes that since capital flows into the region, it means they are doing well here. “The factories are still on our land, and they won’t go anywhere,” he says. “But does it really matter who the owner is, the main thing is that they work well.”

Recently, local officials have started talking about the unprecedented growth of the Voronezh economy. The growth rate of production last year was, according to various estimates, from 8 to 10 percent (slightly more than the national average), and the industry as a whole has overcome the pre-crisis level. True, according to local sociologists, the majority of Voronezh residents do not observe economic revival ( see sub-survey) .

However, financiers have already felt it - several Moscow banks were planning to open their branches in Voronezh, which has not happened here since May 1998. “We focus on servicing medium and small businesses, entrepreneurs, wholesale and retail trade enterprises, and the service sector,” says Semyon Khariton, branch manager of Paveletsky Bank. In his opinion, in a city with a population of one million, where there are tens of thousands of enterprises, the supply of banking services is clearly insufficient. The Moscow Industrial Bank is also opening its branch in the city.

Several cellular communication companies already operate in Voronezh, and the total number of subscribers, according to independent estimates, is approximately 10-12 thousand people, that is, slightly more than a percent of the population. Of course, it cannot be compared with Moscow, where about 10 percent of residents have mobile phones, but for the province this is a lot.

Nevertheless, the Voronezh region remains among the regions receiving subsidies from the federal budget. Most large enterprises belong to the mechanical engineering and electronics industries, are focused on the military-industrial complex, and therefore suffer from a lack of demand for products and chronic lack of money due to federal budget debts on defense orders.
In search of signs of economic revival, Itogi decided to ask how Voronezh enterprises producing civilian products are doing. True, either because of suspicion, or because of the Russian habit of being poor, or perhaps because of the fear of jinxing or scaring away luck, the heads of the enterprises were clearly not eager to tell us about their successes.

Constructor for Gulliver
Among the city enterprises that survived difficult times and remained afloat is JSC Voronezhstalmost. The now privatized plant has been making steel spans for various bridges since 1948. To the uninitiated, the finished products (pieces of iron of various shapes and sizes) resemble parts of a children's construction set. Only Gulliver’s children can “play” with such a construction set (the parts here are made up to 30 meters long and weigh up to 30 tons each, and they are attached to each other with bolts almost as thick as an arm). At one time, metal structures were manufactured in Voronezh for the metro bridge across the Ob in Novosibirsk, bridges across the Daugava in Riga, Sheksna in Cherepovets, Belaya in Ufa, for the frames of the CMEA buildings, Paveletsky station in Moscow, and this is not the whole list. There are only two such factories in Russia - in Kurgan and Ulan-Ude.

The most difficult period was the mid-90s, when the plant worked two days a week at most. It’s not that they stopped building bridges in Russia all at once, but money became tight for the customers—regional “avtodors” (divisions of the Road Fund, now the Russian Road Agency). The number of employees decreased from 2,100 to 1,300 people, with the best, most qualified workers leaving first. To survive, they tried to make all sorts of things here: metal doors, garages, shovels, chain-link mesh, dumbbells. But what is the use of this kind of product for a plant whose capacity is designed for 45 thousand tons of metal structures per year?

They crawled out somehow, mostly at the expense of the Ministry of Railways, which, if not made new bridges, then at least repaired old ones. “We noticed that when a train approaches a bridge over a river or ravine, it slows down and barely crawls across it,” says plant director Vladimir Borovikov. “This means the bridge is old, the metal structures have already rusted.” So, in principle, railway workers will always order something. “The need for our products is not limited - if only there was money,” notes Mr. Borovikov.
Now up to 40 percent of the plant’s orders come from Moscow, where the construction of bridges and traffic intersections is proceeding at a particularly fast pace. Voronezhstalmost made metal structures for the Krasnoluzhsky and Andreevsky bridges, the pedestrian bridge in the City near Krasnopresnenskaya embankment, etc.

In general, the last two years have turned out to be quite good for the company (the director knocks on wood). Metal structures began to be produced at a rate of 30 thousand tons per year. Only these same tons, according to Mr. Borovikov, are now much more difficult. Previously, many bridges were made according to standard designs, but now every designer, like an architect, tries to stand out in some way, to perpetuate himself, and each bridge becomes a unique product of its kind. In addition, many are trying to make structures lighter in order to save money (50% of the price is due to the cost of metal). And for the plant this results in increased labor intensity. “Unfortunately, now the main thing for the consumer is the price, and then everything else,” states the director.

Moreover, you can’t go wrong with prices today: competitors are not asleep. “Many enterprises producing metal structures, and sometimes even auto repair shops, in order to survive, began to acquire licenses for the manufacture of bridge spans, and regional authorities are trying to give preference to their local factories,” explains Vladimir Borovikov.
Voronezhstalmost, like most Russian enterprises, faces a shortage of working capital. The reason is known: Russian customers do not always pay on time, and Russian metal suppliers, as a rule, require 100 percent advance payment. The plant has mastered methods of preparing metal for subsequent painting (descaling, priming), which is important for customers. To remove scale, the metal is “fired” with small (about 1 mm in diameter) metal shot from special shot blasting machines. Moreover, shot is purchased in France, and steelpaint primer is purchased in Germany (even taking into account delivery and customs clearance, this is cheaper than buying domestic): relations with foreign partners are different. “It’s good that foreigners trust us and let us go without prepayment. But what they did with imports is that in order to pay 100 dollars in advance, I still have to deposit the same amount in the bank,” says Mr. Borovikov. (Last year, the Central Bank, fighting “capital flight,” introduced mandatory deposit of ruble funds when prepaying import contracts.)

At the same time, workers here are paid a salary of 1,800 rubles, which is not bad by local standards, they purchase equipment, both new imported and used domestic (taken from non-operating enterprises), and they master new technologies. The director’s special pride is “radiant heating,” the latest German installation, which was purchased to heat the main building. The production facilities here are huge, and now you can save on heating. “You come on Monday morning, the temperature in the workshop is plus 4-5 degrees, you turn on the installation, and after 15 minutes it’s plus 18,” says Mr. Borovikov.

The plant has no debts to the state for taxes or obligatory payments. Even Putin sent a letter of gratitude for the New Year (such letters were sent to directors throughout the country: in the Voronezh region, the heads of three more enterprises received them). The company's shares are mainly owned by employees, about 4 percent are owned by the Moscow JSC Mostostroyindustry. Profits are mainly used to develop production and replenish working capital, but some part also goes to shareholders in the form of dividends. The company’s management prefers not to say which one, but the employees, according to Vladimir Borovikov, are happy with the dividends. When asked about the profit, which, of course, is considerable, the director narrows his eyes slyly: “Why do you need it? So you publish it, and then someone will take us and buy us up.”

"Working Girl"
How many of those who bought clothes from German firms Steilmann or Hucke could have imagined that they could be sewn in Voronezh, in a factory with the modest name “Rabotnitsa”? “It happens that someone comes from abroad and lets show off a new thing. And we look: bah, that’s what we did,” says factory director Vyacheslav Mironov. Mostly women's clothing is produced here: skirts, trousers, jackets, suits, jackets, raincoats and coats.
OJSC "Rabotnitsa" was lucky. When our light industry was centrally re-equipped at the end of the 80s, it received a full range of the most modern equipment at that time. However, in 1992, garment workers who had worked all their lives for the domestic market did not find a market: the population did not have enough food, not to mention clothes, and those who had money bought imported goods. And then we were lucky again: we traveled to Europe many times, convincing the local clothing manufacturers that we were able to fulfill any order, and finally found customers in Germany.

They provide sketches of the products that need to be sewn, and everything that is needed for this - fabrics, threads, buttons, etc. At the factory, a model is designed, a prototype is sewn, then it is finalized to put the product into production, a batch is sewn and sent to Europe . Those Russian light industry enterprises that managed to acquire decent equipment in the early 90s operate on the same principle - in fact, using raw materials from customers, selling only their own labor. Foreign customers pay our garment workers for their work and take away the finished products. Some things are sold in Europe, and some come to Russia, but as imports. This is a common practice: large clothing manufacturers try to move production to countries where labor is cheaper - Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia. Russia is also no exception.

They work here according to the principle “prepare the sleigh in the summer”: they re-adjust production twice a year. At the beginning of March, when we were at the factory, the sewing of spring-summer clothes had already finished and preparations were underway for the production of autumn-winter clothes, which would begin to go on sale in another six months.

The factory, including branches in the region, employs 1,500 people, with an average salary of just over 1,000. “For Moscow this is not enough, but for Voronezh it is quite normal, and they have never been detained,” says Mr. Mironov. “But we can’t increase it yet: we still need to update the equipment, and we don’t want to get into debt.” Last year we invested a lot in the development of production, and even this year 5 million German marks are required to update equipment. If a company is able to spend that kind of money on equipment, one can estimate that its product sales volume should be corresponding. The director indeed indicates the amount of several hundred thousand marks per month, but makes me promise not to mention it.

"Rabotnitsa" felt the consequences of the financial crisis of 1998 quite acutely. The world's attitude towards Russia in general and its producers in particular has changed. Firms that previously sold equipment against future payments suddenly began to require advance payment. And some customers began to offer lower prices for the production of products, as a result of which cooperation with them had to be interrupted. To make matters worse, prices for raw materials, especially electricity, have risen sharply, and production margins have dropped from 50 to 25 percent.

They don't complain about the lack of customers here. Today the factory continues to work on orders from foreign companies from Germany, the USA, Sweden, and Denmark. However, they believe that it is time to enter the domestic market, and it must be conquered by gradually displacing cheap Turkish-Chinese consumer goods. “We still sew better,” notes Vyacheslav Mironov.
Another thing is that an enterprise capable of producing clothes that meet European standards (the director says that they are even higher than the world average) does not actually have its own name or label known to the mass buyer. Voronezh residents know the products of their factory and quickly buy them up as soon as they arrive in local stores. They even complain that sometimes clothes from “Worker” cannot be found. The factory will soon open its own store, and the director promises that there will be plenty of everything there. However, the conquest of the domestic market cannot be limited to one city, and, as they believe, it will be difficult to break into stores in other cities. They are even looking at the wholesale market in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, saying that they will be able to offer obviously the best goods at low prices here.

The “worker” now sews clothes mainly from imported fabrics, buying them in Italy, Spain, and Germany. In the future, they still hope to switch to domestic textiles - according to Mr. Mironov, they are getting better.
In the lobby of the enterprise there are advertisements for the purchase of shares from employees. The factory administration does not prevent this - it knows who is buying the shares and for what purpose. Vyacheslav Mironov notes that “Rabotnitsa” is interested in attracting a foreign investor, but does not name him, it seems that he is afraid of jinxing it.

"Red Falcon"
A factory (or rather, now a group of factories) with this name was created by the brothers Vladimir (training pilot by profession) and Victor (graduated from graduate school at Moscow State University with a degree in political science) Sobkovsky. In the early 90s, when there was a shortage of everything, they started selling leather goods. We organized a company, negotiated with suppliers - Moscow factories "Galant", "Medvedkovo", St. Petersburg "Kozhtekimpeks" and others. Cheap goods sold with a bang. But when prices went up among Russian producers, they decided that it would be more profitable to engage in their own production rather than resale. We bought six sewing machines, found people who understood the sewing business, rented a room in which 12 people worked in two shifts, and began sewing shopping bags from domestic fabrics. The bags were in demand, and the range gradually expanded - inexpensive sports bags, leatherette folders, school pencil cases and backpacks, and cosmetic bags began to be made. We came up with the models ourselves, developed the design, and selected suitable materials. Own design developments are still given preference - they are constantly looking for talented fashion designers, and they have registered their trademark Sobkovski Line.

Then the Sobkovskys bought a stake in a construction organization that was slowly dying and set up their workshops on its territory, where garages and warehouses had previously been located. They renovated old premises and even built new ones. Production is constantly expanding, new products are being developed. Now they ship 50 thousand different products per month to wholesalers to different regions of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Domestic perfume factories (Svoboda, Linda) order transparent celluloid cosmetic bags with a zipper for packaging their products.

The materials used here are mainly domestic, but the fittings (metal locks, buttons, fasteners, etc.) are mostly imported, but we have mastered some of them ourselves. Accessories are a common problem for Russian leather goods production: domestic enterprises cannot organize the production of such small items in the required quantities - give them anything on an industrial scale.

Several hundred people are employed in production - designers, constructors, technologists, seamstresses. The latter have piecework wages. They work in two shifts. “Whoever tries can earn 1,000 rubles a month or more,” say factory employees.

Now at Red Falcon they intend to start producing children's clothing. They even showed us a sample - a nice blue and yellow jacket, insulated, with a hood. “You see, there are no side seams here,” said the girl technologist, not without pride. Such jackets should cost about 300 rubles. In the future they plan to develop women's clothing, again using their own designs.

Things didn't always go well for the company. “There was a time when it seemed: that’s it, tomorrow is the end,” recalls Vladimir. “There was no sales, then we couldn’t find raw materials, then competitors were pestering us, trying to either lure clients away or take away good employees.” I had to borrow from friends and take out loans from the bank against the security of industrial premises, but I was lucky: they always somehow got around it and got it back. “We try not to raise prices,” says Vladimir Sobkovsky. “Sometimes we deliberately incur losses so as not to lose consumers. The main thing is not to stand idle. And then we receive a large order, we can pay everyone.”

Local authorities, according to the Sobkowskis, treat their business with understanding and are happy that the enterprise is expanding and new jobs are being created. They really have more than enough opportunities to expand production. District administrations are contacting them and asking them to take small garment factories for free in order to somehow employ people. True, Sobkovsky enterprises don’t take it for nothing - they buy it, otherwise they are afraid that it will cost themselves more. So the company is gradually acquiring branches in Voronezh and neighboring - Lipetsk, Tambov, Belgorod - regions.

If things go better at other enterprises and it is possible to maintain the emerging economic growth, then Voronezh will be able to gradually get rid of the image of a “red” region. And then, you see, there will be money to clean the streets.