MATCHES-BENCHES

NEWS FROM MAJOR COMPANIES

Through the noise and roar of the construction of capitalism, few people probably heard the information about the bankruptcy of the Kirov match factory "Red Star". And who cares, except for the parents who hid her products from their children? It could be ...

Through the noise and roar of the construction of capitalism, few people probably heard the information about the bankruptcy of the Kirov match factory "Red Star". And who cares, except for the parents who hid her products from their children?

One could express sympathy to the owners of the factory, but no one can find them, even the regional commission on wages and the elimination of wage arrears. There is no director at the factory, no chief accountant, no secretary of the party committee (the latter disappeared somewhere back in 1991). It seems to be the time to implement the old slogan “Factories for the workers!”, but the workers (there are only two hundred of them left) will not take over this factory in October either. The property of the enterprise today is such that it cannot be said in a fairy tale, nor can it be described for debts.

It remains to turn to the peasants. After all, match production in this region was founded 150 years ago by a businesslike Vyatka peasant Ivan Sapozhnikov. He began to make matches at home, and then drew the most sober peasants from the surrounding villages into this business, building his own factory in the swamp. What kind of technology did they have there? Well, they probably took a log and hewed it with an ax to the size of a match - how else?

One way or another, but Vyatka matches were recognized at an exhibition in St. Petersburg, and then abroad. In 1887, the enterprise acquired a sign: “The first steam match factory of I.I. Sapozhnikov with sons. The Sapozhnikovs became new Russians, gained authority and could well have entered the Public Chamber under the emperor, but by that time Russia was still disadvantaged in terms of democracy, it did not have such a chamber, and the dialogue between government and society was carried out mainly through anarchists with smoking bombs.

With the profit from matches, the Sapozhnikovs built schools, almshouses, orphanages, but at the same time, they apparently did not leave the thought of doubling their GDP, and in 1916 they built a second match factory, the name for which was soon thought up by other comrades. "Red Star" has entered its most prosperous period. Under socialism, the factory produced in huge quantities the cheapest products in the USSR.

Recall that a box of matches cost 1 kopeck. With his salary of one hundred rubles, an ordinary citizen could buy ten thousand boxes with meaningful labels (thanks to them, everyone could find out what worried him: both about the Komsomol congress and about the successes of the coal mining industry). It is clear: at such prices there could be no profit, but no one demanded it. Some ministry (I think the Ministry of Matches and Lighters of the USSR) supported the factory financially and rewarded it at every opportunity. Red banners, certificates of honor and flowers in the form of snowdrops were not translated here. Snowdrops at that time were called social activists and entertainers, decorated by masters of production.

Life was seething, and even ten years ago, when it all seemed to have collapsed, a dance circle worked in the factory club. What kind of dances can there be at a match factory? Of course, incendiary.

Like matches out of a box, the republics of the USSR crumbled. In the new states, a fire for shish kebab and pilaf was made for a long time with the help of stocked matches of the Red Star. But no one thought to pay the factory for the supplied products. With this, the period of unpaid wages began at the factory. In the 1990s, everything at Krasnaya Zvezda fell into disrepair, right down to the crude Soviet stand “They are a disgrace to their enterprise.” No drunkard or truant had time to disgrace the enterprise for those 70 days a year when it was not idle, but worked.

It is too early to talk about the last years of the factory's work in historical terms. Well, crises, scandals, courts, arbitration managers alternated ... Who doesn’t happen to? One should remember only such a milestone: in 2003, the bankrupt Krasnaya Zvezda was bought by the powerful Sputnik holding in 2003. For what? Now local observers are of the opinion that it was an “image pre-election project”, thanks to which one of the candidates in the local elections got the opportunity to look like a successful industrialist.

And what will happen to the famous match factory? Optimists are silent, only pessimists speak out. Some even believe that it is time to light a candle for the rest of the Red Star. If, of course, there is something to light it with ...