VORSMA THE CAPITAL OF CUTLERY IN RUSSIA.

VORSMA THE CAPITAL OF KNIVES IN RUSSIA.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY :

 - Morskaya topic of the RUSKINIFES Forum with multiple colleagues who have made a post on that topic since 2010.

 - Maslennikov Sergei who published an article on the Internet.

 - Andrzej another Russian collector who published in 2020 on bladeforum.ru.

 - At the White Weapons Spain Forum with colleagues who were publishing their SOVIET knives.

 - The clerk here who has been compiling said information in the last 10 years.

 

 Vorsma at the beginning of the 20th century.

 Vorsma - Во́рсма is a small city of 12,000 inhabitants in the Pavlovsky District of the Oblast - region of which Nizhny Novgorod, known from 1932 to 1990 as Gorky - Горький,  is the administrative center of that Region

 There are three clearly differentiated stages in the history of Knives in Vorsma:

 - CZARIST factories: production of many high quality Knives and Knives.  (Especially for Buyers of the Middle Class - High and Very High (landowners-aristocracy and bourgeoisie throughout the Russian Empire)

 With many artisans making cutlery for these factories.

the soviet period,

 from 1917 to 1993, low-cost mass consumption goods for all existing economies within the CCCP. Throwing knives and kitchen knives. (A company that produces a limited range of standard knives and razors. The craftsmen were working without much enthusiasm)

 - The current stage (post-perestroika) since 1993 are small private companies that constantly work to improve quality and develop new products.

 

 Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetiev

 The first time Vorsma was mentioned was in 1588 . In the 20s of the XVII century. Prince Cherkassky began to attract ruined peasants, artisans from the ancient city of Gorokhovets to Vorsma. The family of the Cherkassky princes owned Vorsma until his heiress Varvara Alekseevna married Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetyev. Until the abolition of serfdom, Vorsma was the patrimony of the Sheremetevs. The sandy, clayey and infertile soils of the Gorbatov district gave the lowest yields in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and agriculture could not feed the peasant. Therefore, the Vorsmens took the path of crafts, in which all the peasants were engaged in the metal business. Encouraged by the Sheremetyevs.

 

 Varvara Alekseevna Cherskasskaya

 The production of steel products was quite a significant phenomenon. Empress Catherine II, by her decree of September 7, 1761, released Vorsma and several towns from permanent service. Since then, local peasants have been allowed to trade throughout the Russian Empire without any special certificates, under a power of attorney from the landlord. In 1766, by order of Count P. B. Sheremetev, a locksmith factory was erected here, which produced pistols, knives, locks, tongs and other metal items.

 The Pankov brothers are considered the first razor owners in Vorsma.

 In 1780 in Vorsma the first knife factory in the Pavlovo-Vachsko-Sosnovsky district was founded by the buyer and usurer N.I. The plant pioneered the production of Knives in Russia, initially at the manufacturing level, when individual manufacturers became contract workers.

 

 

 In 1810, Count Sheremetev gave 1,200 cannons to the Russian Emperor Alexander I, and in 1813 he donated another 2,000 cannons and 1,500 sabers for the war against the French. At the beginning of the 19th century, a capitalist manufacturing based on the division of labor emerged. The most enterprising people come from artisans, and they began to set up their own "metallurgical business" by hiring workers.

 In 1818, Alexander I issued a decree allowing peasants to establish their own factories and plants. In 1820, one of his serfs, a skilled craftsman Ivan Gavrilovich Zavyalov, opened his own knife factory.

Alexey Ivanovich Zavyalov, son of the manufacturer (one of the owners of the factory after his father's death)

 He was the first in the district to apply the division of labor, tried to introduce the latest technologies, monitored the quality of products. Zavyalov's knives have received the highest awards of world exhibitions. In 1835, he presented some of his products to the emperor. At court, they were so admired that for this Zavyalov received a caftan with golden braids as a gift from the emperor. In addition, for his masterful work, he was awarded a sum of money.

 

 Zavyalova factory

 In 1841 Zavyalov became one of the official suppliers of the imperial court, by royal decree he was allowed to put the coat of arms of the Russian Empire on his products and posters. A very important distinction, which gave a lot of prestige to a firm...

 In POLAND another manufacturer of cutlery SAMUEL GERLACH was Awarded by Tsar Nicholas I, appreciating the quality of his products, he allowed the brand to be minted with a crown, which has remained in the logo of that brand to this day.

 

 

 This was a very widespread practice in England with for example Joseph Rodgers who in 1821 was appointed Knifemaker of the British Royal Family for the first time. Privilege he had with five successive sovereigns: George IV, William IV, Queen Victoria, Edward II and George V

 

 Other knife factories that operated in Vorsma (the Zalyavins, Ptitsyn, Bityurin, Korytsev, Afanasievs).

 

 Another stamp of the Tsarist era, the crown can be seen

 

 Zavya brand.

 But the Zavyalov factory remained the largest. After Zavyalov's death, the plant was inherited by his sons Alexei, Ivan and Fedor. Later, the production was taken over by his sisters Anfisa and Lyubov Zavyalov. The latter, not being able to manage the factory, transferred the management of the enterprise in 1891 to the "Society for the production of steel products of L. and A. Zavyalovs."

 

 Owners of Vorsma craft establishments

 In 1917, the Zavyalov factory was municipalized by the economic department of the Vorsma Soviet of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies. In 1919 other small factories were transferred to it. It became known as the "No. 1 Factory of Knives and Other Metal Products." In 1921, he was furloughed for accounting and equipment repairs. Since 1931, the plant (already bearing the name of V.I. Lenin) produced only medical products, because. at that time it was necessary for the country. The Medical Instrument Plant (MIZ named after Lenin) developed into one of the largest enterprises in the industry, a city-forming enterprise in Vorsma.

 

 MIZ named after the Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin.

 In 1966, the MIZ was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and was regularly awarded the title of winner of the All-Union Socialist Competition. The Shmakov factory, after nationalization, was transformed into factory No. 8, and then in 1935 into the FACTORY OF PEGABLE KNIVES (ZSN).

 

 On the basis of the Bityurin factory, the artel "Red October" was created. In the post-war period, the intensive reconstruction of the production facilities at ZSN began, the new workshops were equipped with high-performance equipment and semi-automatic lines.

 In 1949, in addition to folding knives, the plant began to produce manicure sets. In 1957, the Krasny Oktyabr artel (and later other artels: Korovinskaya, Grudtsynskaya) joined the ZSN. In 1975, the plant was transformed into the Oktyabr - OCTOBER production association.

 

They produced more than 90 - 95% of all Knives in the USSR until the dismemberment in the 90's of said Federation. (in the period from 1939 to the 1990s there were more than 400 production centers in the Soviet Union)

 The remaining 10 - 5% were produced in factories in Kharkov (Ukraine) and Misk (Belarus) and in other small regional factories/workshops....

 Misk Tractor Factory

 

 

 

 Metalist - Kharkov- Ukraine.

 

 FACTORY "OCTOBER"

 (the only photograph of this factory that I have been able to see after 12 years of searching)

 that in the knives it was represented by a Chicken generally in the Handles, I have never come to see any stamp on the blades since during the 60s the STAMPS PRINTED ON THE BLADES gradually disappeared to move to the handles.

 

 The plant was famous not only for its mass-produced razors, but also for its unique products.

 These are the works of the masters: Ananiev (43-piece "Rocket" razor, 33-piece "Tula Samovar" razor, 100-piece "Mumps" knife), Khonina (collected the coat of arms of the Soviet Union from 122 items ) ), Kulagina (made the order "Victory"), Vinogradov (a collection of interesting pocket knives).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Oktyabr Production Association produced gift knives for the leaders of the USSR, as well as special knives for the army.

 Private knife makers in the USSR were subject to pressure from the authorities, so the knives were made clandestinely, only "for them", at the risk of being behind bars.

 Perestroika played a cruel joke on Soviet companies. With the transition to a market economy, MIZ faced bankruptcy in 1997, after which arbitration management was introduced. The plant tried in every possible way to survive, but could not restructure its activities in accordance with modern requirements. In 2016, the OJSC Medical Instrument Plant bearing the name "Y EN Lenin" passed bankruptcy proceedings and was sold due to debts. On the territory of the plant, many small various trade companies have been opened.

 With the beginning of perestroika and the market economy, the Oktyabr PA - OCTOBER went bankrupt.

 Arbitration management only made the situation worse. The workers were laid off and the production workshops were sold. Currently, the facilities on the territory of the former ZSN are private companies (mainly manufacturing), both related and not related to the cutlery industry.

 In 1993, individual cutlery workshops began to open. The first businessman to make hunting knives in the post-Soviet period was a resident of the city of Pavlovo, V. V. Safronov.

 In Vorsma, Maslennikov V.S. opened the first production of knives at the beginning of 1993.

 This company is Russian Bulat LLC. which successfully develops and sells knives not only to Russia, but also to the US and Europe.

 In 1996, in Vorsma, SK Voropaev opened a knife company ZSN Saro LLC -CAPO which still makes knives for the RUSSIAN army.

 Today around 40 private knife companies are open in Vorsma, continuing the best traditions. of their ancestors. Thanks to this, the craft of cutlery in Vorsma has not only been revived, but has reached a qualitatively new level. Modern Vorsma knives (as in the past and the products of the Zavyalov factory) are highly appreciated at exhibitions in Russia and abroad. And, despite the bankruptcy of the main Soviet factories, Vorsma, as the cutlery center of Russia, lives and develops with dignity.

 Author: Sergei Maslennikov

 October 28, 2019.

 (with small explanatory paragraphs on my part, opening it later to the marine knives of the Soviet Union and Russia)

 

 

 Different Typologies of popular Soviet knives.

 

 RUSSIAN IMPERIAL NAVY.

 

 CCCP ARMY.

 

 RUSSIAN NAVY.

 The Navy of the Russian Federation was left with almost all the Soviet ships that could still Sail in acceptable conditions..

 

 ESTONIAN NAVY.

 

 LATVIAN NAVY.

 

 LITHUANIAN NAVY.

 

 GEORGIA Coast Guard.

 

 KAZAKHSTAN NAVY

 

 Uzbekistan Border Committee River Force.

 

 AZERBAIJAN NAVY.

 

 Turkmen Naval Forces

 

 UKRAINE NAVY

 ◇ PHOTOS AND KNIVES PROPERTY OF MANY RUSSIAN COMPANIONS and or OF THE SOVIET UNION.

 ALMOST ALL THE INFORMATION FROM THE RUSSIAN FORUM RUSKINIVES. Morskaya theme.