The Manufacturing Process of Samovar Production in Tula

Abstract

For many centuries the city of Tula, located 200 km south of Moscow, was the centre of Russia’s metallurgical and armaments industry. Apart from weapons, Tula was and still is also the producer of world-famous water boilers known as samovars. A samovar (in Russian literally self-boiler) is a metal urn usually made of brass or copper which is used to heat and boil water for making tea. This study will initially provide a historical background to samovar production in Tula noting that manufacturers incorporated peasant domestic handicraft workers into industrial production. It will then proceed to a detailed examination of the manufacturing process of samovar production as undertaken at the Lenin Samovar factory of the Commercial Industrial Trust of Tula in the early 1920s, highlighting the continued use of artisanal labour in the manufacturing process, despite increased centralization and mechanization of the industry.