Vera Slutskaya Textile Mill

Founded as the Jacob Lutsch Printworks on the southern tip of Vasilyevsky Island in St Petersburg (1823). The textiles enjoyed great demand and were highly rated. Its fabrics won a gold medal at the St Petersburg Exhibition of Industry (1849). The mill was then acquired by a merchant called Rottermund (1868), although the new owner kept the previous name of Jacob Lutsch and the old official stamp. The mill’s produce won gold medals at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1876) and Brussels (1885). The mill was floated on the stock exchange as Voronin, Lutsch & Chesher (early 1890s). The merger permitted the introduction of modern production methods, helping the firm to keep afloat in the highly competitive market. The mill was producing up to 190,000 metres of cloth a day (1914). The mill was nationalised after the revolution and renamed the Vera Slutskaya Textile Mill (1922). The mill was overhauled and reequipped with new machinery for the serial decoration of fabrics. The mill technologists and scientists developed new dyes, helping to expand the range of produce. The Vera Slutskaya Textile Mill was privatised as the Northern Textile Mill (1993) and went into liquidation (1996).