The origin of the gunpowder factory dates back to 1715. To supply the Russian army in the war against Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea, by decree of Peter the Great, a gunpowder factory called the "Gunpowder Mill" was built on the Okhta River at the confluence with the Luppa River.
The construction was overseen by General Feldzeugmeister Yakov Bruce. Bruce was the commander of the Russian artillery, headed the Berg College, which supervised industry and mining.
The central structure of the Okhta gunpowder factory is the dam blocking the Okhta River. Before the advent of steam, gasoline, and electric engines, the driving force could only be either human power (e.g., draft animals) or the power of water and wind. In the early 18th century, the technology for producing gunpowder involved several stages of grinding and mixing sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal. Cottage production of gunpowder could be carried out on relatively small hand mills or mortars, but Peter I intended to establish large-scale production. After all, the Northern War, despite the successes of the Russian troops—the capture of the fortresses Noteburg and Nienshanz, control over the mouth of the Neva, and the founding of the fortress Saint Petersburg—continued until 1721. To supply the army with gunpowder, apparently in June 1715, Peter I gave an oral order to his close associate Yakov Bruce to begin construction of a wood-earth dam and water-powered mortars on the rapids of the Okhta River. Bruce’s selection as head of construction was no accident. Yakov Vilimovich was the commander of Russian artillery, which required large quantities of gunpowder. Moreover, Bruce headed the Berg College, effectively serving as the minister of mining industry. Under his leadership, in 1716, the first factory buildings were erected, and at a distance of "fire safety," huts were built to house 60 craftsmen with their families. Thus began the glorious history of the largest gunpowder factory in Russia.
Already in 1719, the first modernization of the factory began—the replacement of the old (barrel) method of grinding the gunpowder components with the modern "Dutch technology." Millstones powered by water were purchased abroad.
More than 100 years after the factory’s founding, under the guidance of the outstanding French engineer Pierre-Dominique Bazen, a stone dam was built on the site of the wood-earth dam from Peter’s time, the running mills were rebuilt, stone twisting mills and new water-powered factories were constructed. On the model of the Ilyinskaya Sloboda in the "Rzhevskaya" library, these can be seen just below the factory dam.
The dam was next extensively repaired after the Great Patriotic War, in 1965. It was then converted to concrete, absorbing the remnants of historical decoration, but fundamentally retained Bazen’s engineering solution—a lock system with bypass channels.
The dam was last reconstructed in 2015. At that time, all components of this hydraulic structure were restored, and historical grilles with artillery attributes were reinstated.
In 1715–1716, simultaneously with the construction of craftsmen’s houses and the dam, wooden huts were built to the left of the dam (facing downstream along the Okhta) to house the factory administration. On the site of these wooden buildings, on the aforementioned model, stands the administrative-warehouse building, constructed in the first half of the 19th century according to the design of the factory architect Zakhar Filippovich Krasnopevkov, which has survived (in a rebuilt form) to this day.
The history of the Okhta gunpowder factory is closely linked with the development of science and technology: as soon as a technical innovation appeared, it was immediately implemented here.
Just a quarter of a century after its founding, nearly 150 people worked at the factory, producing more than 5,000 poods of gunpowder annually. For the mid-18th century, this was a huge production!
By the end of the Patriotic War of 1812, the factory was producing about 52,000 poods per year and was the largest gunpowder enterprise in Europe. The factory staff at that time included a commandant, three staff officers, four military officials, a priest, a feldsher (paramedic), three barbers, 640 gunpowder makers, five saltpeter workers, and 14 dam workers. A total of 877 people!
During the Crimean War in 1855, gunpowder production reached a record 96,000 poods for that time. It was also then that gunpowder began to be made in winter, at night, with the production premises illuminated by fat lamps.
Having become the main supplier of gunpowder for the entire Russian army at the beginning of the 19th century, the Okhta gunpowder factory continued to lead other Russian gunpowder enterprises: new types of gunpowder were developed and tested in its laboratories, and new technologies were introduced. In the early 1860s, mass production of prismatic gunpowder was established at the factory. In 1876–1878, the factory was re-equipped for the manufacture of brown rifle, coarse-grained artillery, and high-density prismatic gunpowder. In 1882, production of brown (chocolate) prismatic gunpowder, well suited for large-caliber artillery, was established. In the early 1890s, the Okhta gunpowder factory began mass production of smokeless powder.
The technical equipment of the factory was continuously improved. After the most powerful and destructive explosion on June 16, 1864, the factory underwent another reconstruction under the leadership of Ivan Alekseevich Vyshnegradsky. Now the buildings where explosive substances were produced were located at a significant distance from each other (in accordance with modern safety requirements). In 1868, three water turbines were installed on the dam, with cable drives leading to separate factories, some of which were located far away. Thus, the Okhta gunpowder factory became one of the first enterprises where kinetic energy of water was transmitted over considerable distances.
In 1893, the main production facilities were converted to electric power: generators of three-phase current were connected to the water turbines. In 1895–1896, at the Okhta factory, electrical engineers Robert Eduardovich Klasson and Vladimir Nikolaevich Chikolev built the first high-voltage three-phase central power station in Russia.
Before the revolution, the factory was a huge flourishing enterprise. It occupied about 430 desyatinas of land (approximately 460 hectares), with more than 200 stone and over 300 wooden buildings.
Factory workers actively participated in revolutionary events: strikes, protests, and rallies. On May 1, 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin spoke at a rally of the Okhta gunpowder factory workers.
Following the decree of the Sovnarkom dated December 12, 1917, "On the transfer of military factories to economically useful work," the Okhta factory began producing new products for itself: soap, nitric acid, copper sulfate, and other chemicals.
In 1931, the Okhta chemical factory became known as a combine. In the post-war years, the Okhta chemical combine became an experimental base for the production of plastics. Currently, the former administrative-warehouse building of the Okhta gunpowder factory and the factory buildings above the dam belong to the "Plastpolymer" association.
From its foundation, the Okhta gunpowder factory belonged to the Military Department, specifically the Artillery Department. The factory was headed by a commandant of general rank, and the administration and engineering corps were staffed by officers.
After the Patriotic War of 1812, the expenses for maintaining the huge army amounted to almost half the state budget. The army was formed on the basis of conscription, with a service term of 25 years. Recruited peasants were torn from their village environment with its accustomed way of life and were practically deprived of the opportunity to start families. This was a very heavy burden for all of Russia. By order of Alexander I, General of Artillery Alexey Andreevich Arakcheev in the 1810s prepared a military reform project introducing a new system of troop organization—military settlements. In these settlements, military service was combined with agricultural (peasant) labor, which provided the army with necessary food supplies. This reform, according to its developers, was supposed to reduce military expenses and ease the harsh fate of recruits, who could now live with their families and manage their own farms.
In the 1810s, the residents of the Gunpowder Factory settlement were transferred to the status of military settlers. Uniforms and regulations were introduced. The enterprise’s activities were now based on military organization: workers were assigned to companies with a service term of 25 years. The administration, masters, and workers of the factory were all military personnel. Even the children of military settlers became cantonists, i.e., assigned to the Military Department, undergoing military and vocational training. Not all craftsmen, accustomed to free life, were satisfied with this situation: they were transformed from free artisans into people whose social status was only slightly higher than that of serfs.
In 1823, the main street of the settlement became the 3rd settled company. The companies consisted of military farmers and craftsmen. The word "settled" meant that the settlers had their own houses. Farmers received plots of arable land and hayfields, craftsmen received plots for gardens and subsidiary farming. The state did not provide provisions to craftsmen, so they worked at the factory four days a week by assignment and spent two days working on their gardens. One day a week (Sunday) was a day off.
Military settlements, which existed in Russia for almost four decades, did not meet expectations. Military organization did not make labor at the Okhta gunpowder factory more efficient either. In the early 1860s, the military settlement district of this enterprise was abolished. From then on, military settlers received the "right to discharge" and were released "from obligatory relations to the factory." Gradually, the factory switched to hired labor (which was fully introduced in 1872).
During its existence, the Okhta gunpowder factory was led by many outstanding people.
In 1729, Burkhard Christoph von Münnich became the head of Russian artillery (General Feldzeugmeister). He was well versed in engineering and cared about the factory’s transformation. By March 1735, construction of a new wooden dam on the Okhta was completed, and in 1738 the entire factory was rebuilt in a regular manner. Even the craftsmen’s settlements in the gunpowder town acquired proper layouts.
At the beginning of 1777, the factory was headed by artillery captain Karl Gaks. During his five years of command, the factory was again rebuilt. Upstream on the Okhta, in Toksovo, a dam was built to regulate the water level in the Okhta reservoir. Before this dam was built, the Okhta gunpowder factory often stood idle in summer due to lack of water. From then on, a constant water flow was ensured, and with it, continuous operation of the gunpowder mills. Captain Gaks proved himself a talented organizer and professional builder. From 1780, many small objects were built according to his designs: workshop buildings, sheds, stores, bridges, guard booths. Several archival documents indicate that Gaks also actively participated in the construction of the stone Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the 1780s.
At the beginning of 1813, Daniil Fyodorovich Kandyba took over the factory’s leadership. His appointment was related to plans to organize a military settlement at the enterprise. Kandyba’s period of command was marked by another major reconstruction of the factory. In the 1820s, engineer Pierre-Dominique Bazen carried out the reconstruction of the main dam, doing so in a way that the main structural solutions and elements of artistic decoration were preserved in the modern dam. Under Kandyba, factories and twisting mills were modernized, a vocational school, a hospital, public baths, and other facilities were organized, significantly improving workers’ living conditions.
The gunpowder produced at the factory was stored in powder cellars located along the river and hidden by earthen embankments. This storage method was intended to minimize the consequences of explosions, which occurred at the enterprise. Several such cellars can still be seen near the Alexandrovsky Gates, built on the right bank of the Okhta in 1805 or 1806.
From its foundation until 1890, more than 92 explosions of varying strength occurred at the Okhta gunpowder factory, the strongest in 1803, 1858, and 1864. These destructive explosions seriously damaged not only factory buildings but also structures located several kilometers away. The blast wave sometimes shattered windows even in the Smolny Monastery buildings, located on the left bank of the Neva!
At such a dangerous production site, precautionary measures were naturally taken. Moreover, they were constantly improved. The factory management sought to prevent explosions and fires. Peter I, when ordering the construction of gunpowder mills, instructed that workers’ huts be built at a distance of "fire safety." At the end of the 18th century, a special commission of the Academy of Sciences, headed by the famous mathematician and mechanic Leonard Euler, was even involved for consultation. After inspecting the powder cellars, they gave detailed recommendations on lightning rod installation. During each restoration, attempts were made to rationally rearrange the factory territory, including maximizing the distance between buildings. Nevertheless, explosions at the Okhta gunpowder factory occurred with sad frequency, claiming human lives and causing huge destruction. Therefore, the Alexandrovsky Gates, built after the 1803 explosion, and the monument to the fallen gunpowder workers at the Gunpowder Cemetery, opened in 1890, can be considered symbols of courage and resilience in taming the fiery element.
Sources:
https://www.citywalls.ru/house8529.html
http://krasnakarta.ru/spot/id/25/porhovzavod
