The story of the collapse of the Krasny May plant is, in a sense, canonical. The enterprise survived the 1990s with dignity, headed by the “red director” L. Shapiro. At the beginning of the 2000s, new people were introduced to the board of directors of the plant, who quickly brought it to bankruptcy and privatized it. Mikhail Pruzhinin is still listed as the main founder of Krasny May Glassworks LLC, and Andrey Ustinovsky is the co-founder. Both have been on the wanted list for 5 years in a high-profile criminal case against the organized crime group Rostovskie. The investigation considers them to be the leaders of this criminal gang, the backbone of which, despite the name, was made up of residents of St. Petersburg. The rest of the "Rostov" received real terms in 2011 on charges of extortion, fraud and abuse of power.
main artist
factory "Red May"
from 1986 to 2002
In the 90s, when Leonid Dmitrievich Shapiro was the director, the plant survived. We walked even decently enough compared to others. Then Shapiro retired, there was some kind of leapfrog with the management, but we were still working, finally, in 2002, a new director, Shafts, came in, his St. Petersburg comrades appointed him along with the then mayor of the city Khasainov. To begin with, they decided to privatize the plant. In order to buy it for pennies, they bankrupted it. They went bankrupt, extinguished all furnaces and dispersed all employees. It was 2002. They received the plant, but it did not work back. Something similar was experienced then by all the large glass factories. Both Gus-Khrustalny and Dyatkovo, they moved from one bankruptcy to another, a third, but remained afloat. So, at the very least, but they moved. But ours in general went to the bottom.
In general, our factory was the third largest glass factory in the country. Gus-Khrustalny, Dyatkovo and Red May. The best period of his activity - it was more than three thousand employees and a very wide range of dishes and lighting fixtures. In general, one of the best factories was. And the first colored glass factory is probably the best in the country. We brewed glass such as sulfide, ruby and so on. It is no coincidence that we received the order for the Kremlin stars. It was the pride of the country.
These strange people who appeared on the board of directors did not listen to me, did not listen to other specialists and were only engaged in withdrawing money from the enterprise
Now there is nothing left but a museum. First, they sold everything that was iron for scrap metal, and ended up dismantling all the brick partitions that were in the shops, selling bricks and renting out the shops. Although we persuaded them before the final closing, they turned on the stove, and this stove made a profit of a million rubles every month. At that time, it was very decent money. I told them, as the main artist: “Turn on the oven, we will make an assortment and earn a certain amount of money, we will build two more ovens, then we will buy a new line and so on. This is not to say that no one bought the products. We also had such things as colored sheet glass. We were monopolists. No one else in the country made this colored patterned glass, glass with a pattern, it is also reinforced. Indian, which was exported, was several orders of magnitude more expensive. Construction and furniture companies were happy to buy this glass. But these strange people who appeared on the board of directors did not listen to me, did not listen to other specialists and were only engaged in withdrawing money from the enterprise. Incompetence is what buried our factory.
Museum, of course, sorry. It also belongs to these comrades. There is a building that is not heated at all. And there is one girl who comes only if the tour is booked. And the exhibits there are of great cultural and material value. The plant is more than 150 years old, there are many pre-revolutionary products, when it was still the plant of the merchant Bolotin, the supplier of His Imperial Majesty, by the way.
Incompetence is what buried our factory.
My wife and I survived normally, we are artists, we have a workshop, we are engaged in cold processing. We got orders, we make exhibitions, we lead quite an active creative life. But for many workers, stopping the plant was tantamount to death.
Since the enterprise was a city-forming enterprise, almost everyone in the village worked on it. After closing, someone went to work as a security guard, someone went to Moscow, someone went to other factories, someone drank himself, someone died, someone even committed suicide. Creepy. It's just impossible to talk about it without tears. You see, many craftsmen possessed a narrow specialty with very high qualifications, they treated their work with pride and respect, and suddenly they found themselves with a broken trough. Other factories then also breathed their last, there was no work in their specialty, and when such a master goes to get a job as a security guard, this, of course, is a tragedy.
When the plant was closed, the adult men and grandfathers who worked there, they just cried all the time. They stopped the furnaces with glass, full of furnaces. Usually, when the furnace is stopped, it is all scooped out, it is completely worked out in order to then light it. And here the furnaces were simply turned off, and that's it. The men roared. This also meant that everything, the end, the song was sung, there would be no continuation. I said it was just a series of suicides. A factory is not equipment, it is people. They've been here for generations. I knew the blower in the seventh generation! Imagine, his great-great-grandfathers worked here from the middle of the 19th century. For people like him, just the incentive to live is gone.
According to the general opinion, the "Rostov" acted in close conjunction with the city administration. Pruzhinin ("Springs") and Ustinovsky were officially assistants to the mayor, they had offices in the administration building. Mayor Khasainov was in power for almost 15 years, during which time he gained control over many enterprises in the city. In 2009, in Vyshny Volochek, the New City movement, which was opposed to the mayor and his team, was organized. Power managed to change, but not for long. Before Khasainov left, he pushed through the local assembly a law limiting the term of office of the head of the city to two years. In 2011, Aleksey Pantyushkin, a friend of Khasainov, became mayor. The term of office was again extended to four years, but the tragic incident did not allow them to be fulfilled to the end. In the early morning of July 19 of this year, Alexei Pantyushkin died of a heart attack in a suite in a five-star hotel in Turkey. His death was reported by a girl who happened to be with him at that early time in the same room. However, almost no mention of it has leaked into the Russian press. Together with the mayor, 12 other city officials of different levels and gender rested in a five-star hotel - all without families. What money the trip was organized with remained unknown. Pantyushkin was buried on the city Walk of Fame. Vyshny Volochek is waiting for new elections.
local historian, former deputy of the Vyshnevolotsk City Duma,
one of the founders of the movement
"New town"
In our country, almost 70 percent of the city's enterprises were closed or destroyed with the help of Khasainov. He acted in line with the same policy that was in Tver and in Moscow, he just differed in size. The road was now being built as a circuit for the federal highway - so it turned out that almost half of the land through which it passed belongs to Khasainov. But he didn't invent anything. Former governor Zelenin bought up all the best land in the Tver region on the cheap.
Vyshny Volochek was an industrial center - the second most important city in the Tver region. All these famous factories of ours went under the knife. Not only Red May. For example, the plant of tanning extracts - there are less than a dozen of them in all of Russia - produced unique, irreplaceable products. Today, even the ruins of it are gone - and we buy the same products, however, of worse quality and much more expensive, abroad. The famous Zelenogorsk plant of enzyme preparations is a unique plant, unique developments. Bankrupt.
They built a wonderful brick factory - they built it with state money, they immediately bankrupted it, and the same company that built it bought it 10 times cheaper, you understand? That is, the scheme for transferring budget money to a private pocket has been worked out clearly.
We have nothing left now. Well, the only thing is that - the forest ... - the timber processing plant is alive, the timber industry is alive. The directors there are normal men. Most of the forest enterprises in the country today only know what to cut down and immediately sell round timber. Our timber industry and timber processing plant do not sell round timber at all - all raw materials are processed. And most just carry round timber.
Until now, half of Vyshny Volochek, almost the entire infrastructure of the city, all the life support systems of the city are in private hands, that is, they are controlled by Khasainov and his accomplices. Water, gas, light, heat, everything. Even if there is no money, people will still pay for it. And the rates for these services are growing rapidly. It's not even rabid capitalism, it's something else. For example, earlier it was possible to distinguish - this is a bandit, this is an official. Today, these two concepts have merged so much that they have become one. A single system, rigid from top to bottom, vertical, powerful, strong, good. How to destroy it, I, for example, will not put my mind to it.
Khasainov has been out of power for six years, but if a person owns half of the city, how can the city authorities not contact him? Naturally, they reckon with him. Vyshny Volochek is not something unique, this is how the system works throughout Russia.
What it came to - they built a plant with state money, immediately bankrupted it, and the same company that built it bought it 10 times cheaper, you understand?
Khasainov ruled for almost 15 years. I was one of those who dropped it. At first, we gathered 70% of our Duma, where there were no lackeys of him, and then we threw him off. But, as they say, what they fought for, they ran into. Babushkin led the fight against Khasainov, he later expressed himself somehow that the operation to overthrow Khasainov was his best business project. In general, it happened. A relative of Babushkin became the mayor, they quickly agreed with the Khasainov team and divided the spheres of influence. In general, they threw us all - the whole team that was able to remove Khasainov from the mayors, and by and large, and the whole city - all its inhabitants, 80% of whom voted for a change of power. I left "politics" - again I am engaged in my favorite local history, I am finishing the book "Vyshnevolotsk Pushkiniana" - almost two dozen friends and acquaintances of Pushkin lived in our area, can you imagine?!
On the way back we stopped at this strange place. They didn’t want to let us in here for a long time, but the guide somehow chatted to someone we needed. This is the village of Krasnomaisky and the museum of the now former glass factory.
The administration building is of Soviet construction, but the plant itself has existed since 1859. True, it began as a chemical plant. The first owner, the Moscow titular adviser Samarin, did not find funds for development and sold the entire production to the Vyshnevolotsk merchants Bolotins. In 1873 the first glass melting furnace was built. Colored glass became the hallmark of the plant even then. And this is a fragment of the factory fence. 
The plant was nationalized in the 1920s and has been successfully developing up to our time. There is no need to explain what happened next. The area is now deserted and in ruins. 
In Soviet times, the factory museum was opened in a separate building on the territory. It exists even now, in a preserved and frozen state. There is no heating and a strange feeling of time stopping. Such an exclusion zone, as in Chernobyl. It's like everything stopped at once. 
And by the way, there is a huge collection. Even the museum in Gus Khrustalny is not so impressive. These are all industrial designs, but there are also author's works. 
Also mass production. Familiar plafonds, no? 
And further. But the author’s grille, I don’t remember whether it was an exhibition or a graduation work. 
The plant was one of the largest enterprises in the country and produced almost 80% of all glassware sold at that time. 
Few people know this, but even the ruby glass of the Kremlin stars was welded here at the Krasny May factory! And these are the very first samples of products, from the time of the merchants Bolotins. 
And this too. 
The plant already then specialized in the creation of shades for lamps. 
That's what I never understood was the creation of such compositions. Either a vase or a lamp. 
And this is a work of art. The plant was especially famous for its sulfide glass, which was called the "Russian miracle". This glass changes color depending on the temperature and processing time. 
And now about the stopped time. Explanations for the exhibits are printed on a typewriter.
The museum occupies the entire second floor of the building. The entire exhibition is also from those times. 
Pieces of the same glass. 
And it's all original work! That is, not just a typical vase, but a whole composition, where all the objects are in one single copy. 
Unfortunately, I did not write down the names of the artists. 
But this is the same creativity. It's just that no one sees him. 
Specialization in plafonds and lamps did not go away even in Soviet times. 
I just don’t remember what they gave to the party congress 
And what about dear Leonid Ilyich)) But some of these lamps are still standing in the Kremlin. It looks like these are the ones. 
A lot of vases. All non-standard and in themselves are good. 
But I found the author of this work. "Spring" Sergei Konoplev 1974. It was a massive series, you can probably even find copies. 
More vases. I think they look best together. 
I wonder what that distant composition is called?) 
I like these snowy greens. 
Another interesting thing is glass flowers. Here are white. 
Here are the green ones. 
Vases-giraffes. 
Since it turned out so much, I will do the second part.
(This is my first post, so please don't judge too harshly.)
This summer, in July, I was on vacation with my family in the village. Krasnomaisky, Vyshnevolotsky district, Tver region. This is not the first time I have been there, and I know about a glass factory that has not been working for a long time. I knew from my wife that there was a museum of historical exhibits of the plant and modern works of glass art at the plant. I was sure that the museum no longer exists, because. the plant has been bankrupt for many years, on its territory there is a hasty sawing of the remnants of equipment for scrap metal. And now, from one friend I heard that someone visited the museum quite recently. I decided to try my luck too, and went to the factory entrance to find out information about opening hours.
Arriving there, I learned that the museum can be accessed from 9 am to 2 pm on any day except Saturday and Sunday. Since it was already late, he postponed the trip to another day.
In the morning I stood like a bayonet at 9 am at the checkpoint. The woman who runs the museum was not there yet, so I looked around the hall. There were placed some slot machines, a whole warehouse, some scooters, ATVs, and a bunch of other things. My attention was drawn to the front door handle. Apparently the front door of thick glass has been preserved in its original form.
Soon the head of the museum came. In my opinion, her name is Svetlana (I don’t know her patronymic). A benevolent woman of about thirty-five (this is in my opinion). She immediately took me through the territory of the factory to the museum building. By the way, the path to the museum was all overgrown with grass, which Svetlana later complained to me about.
Opening the lock on the door, we climbed to the second floor of a separate building. Showcases and shelves full of exhibits appeared before my eyes. I have not seen such a collection of glass objects for a long time!!! Having secured permission, I began to photograph, passing further into the hall.
Previously, this plant was very famous, I had heard from my wife that the Kremlin stars were made at this plant, I found confirmation of this information in the records of the museum. Even on one pedestal there are exactly the same glasses as exhibits, here they are two triangles below:
I found out that the plant has existed since 1859. It was founded by the merchant of the II guild Andrey Vasilyevich Bolotin. A bit of history:
The glass factory "RED MAY" is located on the bank of the river Shlina. One of the largest in the country, it was founded in 1859 as a chemical factory by the Moscow titular adviser Samarin. But Samarin did not have enough funds for the further development of production and the plant was bought by the Vyshnevolotsk merchant of the 2nd guild Andrey Vasilyevich Bolotin. In 1873, the owners of the plant - the merchants of Bolotin - built the first oven, which produced glassware: dining room, confectionery, plafonds. In the same year, an experienced glassmaker came to the plant - the owner of the secret of preparing the mixture for melting colored glass - Vasily Alekseevich Vekshin. And for the first time in Russia at the Bolotinsky plant they began to cook colored glass with a variety of colors. Already in 1882 and 1886, the new products of the plant, "absolutely remarkable in their diversity and unexpected elegance" (as the well-known professor of the time - "glass scientist" A.K. Krupsky estimated), were awarded two gold and two silver medals of the All-Russian -industrial exhibitions in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod for a rich color scheme and for the thoroughness of processing. In 1920, the plant was nationalized and it became the property of the state. On May 1, 1923, a meeting of workers and employees of the plant was held, at which a decision was made to rename the plant to the plant "RED MAY". Since that time, the plant began to expand, they began to build new glass melting furnaces. During the Patriotic War (1942-1945), the plant produced technical glass in large quantities for the needs of the Navy and aviation, semaphore and traffic light lenses, lamp glass, and storage vessels were manufactured. In the 1940s, a very important period in the history of the plant, when the first government order for the production of ruby glass for the Kremlin stars was honorably completed. In 1946, the task was completed successfully. In the 1950s and 1960s, glass products were cut with gold, enamel, chandelier, and silicate paints at the plant. Products from two-three-layer glass were also produced. But the Krasnomay people were especially famous for their sulfide glass, which is not in vain called the “Russian miracle” for its inexhaustible richness of color. And it is also called so for its exceptional ability to change color depending on the temperature and duration of processing, which gives the mass product a unique originality. This material was mastered by the plant in 1959, "RED MAY" was, in fact, the only enterprise not only in our country, but throughout the world, where sulphide glass was fixed as an indispensable glass of the factory assortment.
It turns out these can be kerosene lamps:
In general, I was struck by the variety of shapes and colors, and all this glass is in the skillful hands of craftsmen. Here are some more interesting exhibits:
Funny shoe:
Abstract vase:
Olympic bear on the decanter)))
Interesting abstract idea of the artist:
Green glass bouquet:
Jug:
Unusual pumpkins)))
What a fertile material - glass in the hands of a master. Flowers are very similar to real, very elegant petals:
This exhibit interested me, because. I was born in 1981
Petition to the Tver Governor for the construction of a plant:
Unfortunately, the photographs were without signatures ... like all the exhibits in the museum.
Here are the old documents and photographs in this form (glued to the stand, and the stand is removed behind the exhibits to the wall):
Model of the furnace for melting sand into glass:
In fact, there are a lot of photos, and whoever is interested can go to my page Yandex photos.
Having taken plenty of pictures, I decided not to detain Svetlana any longer. Together we went to the entrance, where she said that she was in such a hurry that she forgot to take the entrance fee. At first I was wary, but when I was told the amount of 30 rubles, I relaxed, because taking a bunch of interesting photos is definitely more expensive. This concludes my trip to the museum. I lament that I forgot to photograph the very inscription on the building "Museum of the Plant".
A visit to the museum left a double impression. On the one hand - admiration for the work, on the other - the depressing state of the plant itself, and the futility of this museum. Already on arrival home, I found out that the plant was put up for sale for 152 million rubles (or $ 5.72 million). As follows from the text accompanying the announcement: buildings and equipment are of no value and interest, and are subject to demolition. Infrastructure is of interest: ease of access, own railway line, power of electricity and gas. That is, it is interesting to those who decide to build a plant on this territory from scratch.
And here is what we managed to find out about the prospects of the museum: The new St. Petersburg owners of the plant tried to take the collection to St. Petersburg. And apparently they wanted to "push" the exhibits from the auction, but so far the indignant people and the local press prevented. Details in
Tver region Vyshny Volochek Red May, Glass Factory - where the Kremlin stars were made.
The coming year could be marked by two dates - albeit not jubilee, but significant in their own way: the 157th anniversary of the founding of a chemical plant near Vyshny Volochok and the 87th anniversary of the day this plant received its last name, under which it all know - "Red May". They knew. Today, instead of a unique enterprise, once famous for its crystal, there are only ruins. However, there is also a round date - exactly 70 years ago, stars made of glass made at Krasny May shone over the Moscow Kremlin. Once the plant was famous throughout the USSR. Still would! “Kremlin stars made by the hands of Krasnomai masters shine over the whole country,” I read a 1988 guide. Of course, not entirely: the ruby tops of the spiers of the towers are a complex engineering structure, which was created by dozens of enterprises and research institutes. But the laminated glass made at Krasny May is far from the last part of this structure. Therefore, the words of almost thirty years ago, despite the pathos, are close to the truth. What's left of that pride? Destroyed workshops, which are unlikely to be rebuilt when. Yes, a museum that survives on one word of honor. A few kilometers from Vyshny Volochok towards St. Petersburg is the village of Krasnomaisky. True, the locals do not call it that, this toponym exists only in official documents. “I will go to Red May”, “I live on Red May”, - saying this, people mean exactly the village, not the factory. In the middle of the 19th century, there was the village of Klyuchino, where in 1859 the future flagship of the glass industry arose. First, as a chemical Its first owner, the titular adviser Samarin, did not have enough funds for the further development of production, and three years later the plant was bought out by the merchant of the second guild Andrei Bolotin, who soon built a glass factory in its place. Later, he founded another plant on the territory of the current Vyshnevolotsk district - Borisovsky (now - OJSC Medsteklo Borisovskoye). The first glass-making furnace at the Klyuchinsky plant was launched by the merchant and founder of the Bolotin dynasty of glassmakers in 1873. Also, at the expense of the owners of the plant, a working settlement, quite comfortable by the standards of that time, was built.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Klyuchinsky plant produced glass pharmaceutics, tableware and confectionery utensils, kerosene lamps, ceiling lamps, fulfilling orders from almost all parts of the empire. Soon the October Revolution broke out, the plant was nationalized and in 1929 was named "Red May". A settlement for 5 thousand inhabitants grew up around the enterprise with a hospital, a school, a music school, a vocational school that trained, in addition to glass-working specialists, tractor drivers and car mechanics. A lot was written about "Red May" in the regional and central press. Let's remember what the newspapers and magazines were talking about then and compare all this with the current remnants of the former greatness. Moreover, the inseparability of two symbols is natural in our minds - the heart of the Motherland and the five-pointed star ”(“ Pravda ”, 1985). It just so happened that we say "Red May", and we mean five ruby finials. And vice versa. Therefore, I want to start my story from this page. Moreover, the Vyshnevolotsk stars, which now adorn the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first. For the first time, five-pointed stars replaced the symbol of autocratic Russia - double-headed eagles - in the fall of 1935. They were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper, with a gilded hammer and sickle in the center of each star. However, the first stars did not decorate the Kremlin towers for long. Firstly, they quickly faded under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, and secondly, in the overall composition of the Kremlin they looked rather ridiculous and disrupted the architectural ensemble. Therefore, it was decided to install ruby luminous stars.
New finials appeared on November 2, 1937. Each of them could rotate like a weather vane and had a frame in the form of a multifaceted pyramid. The order for the production of ruby glass was received by the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka in the Donbass. It had to pass red rays of a certain wavelength, be mechanically strong, resistant to sudden changes in temperature, not discolor and not be destroyed by solar radiation. The glazing of the stars was double: the inner layer consisted of milky (opaque, deaf white) glass 2 mm thick, due to which the light from the lamp was scattered evenly over the entire surface, and the outer layer was made of ruby 6-7 mm. The weight of each star was about a ton, the surface area was from 8 to 9 square meters.
During the Great Patriotic War, the stars were extinguished and sheathed. When they were reopened after the Victory, numerous cracks and traces of shell fragments were found on the ruby surface. Restoration was needed. This time, the Vyshnevolotsk factory "Red May" was entrusted with making glass. The local craftsmen made it four layers: transparent crystal at the bottom, then frosted glass, again crystal and, finally, ruby. This is necessary so that the star, both during the day in sunlight and at night, illuminated from the inside, is the same color. “The ruby stars made at the Konstantinovsky plant did not fulfill the task set by the designers. The double layer of glass - milky and ruby - made it impossible to preserve the bright color of the stars. Dust accumulated between the layers. And by that time, laminated glass was being produced, in my opinion, only at Krasny May (Kalininskaya Pravda, 1987). “I think that readers will be interested to know how prototypes of star glass were made. It took 32 tons of high-quality Lyubertsy sand, 3 tons of zinc muffle white, 1.5 tons of boric acid, 16 tons of soda ash, 3 tons of potash, 1.5 tons of potassium nitrate to make a multilayer ruby for only one star ”(“ Yunost ”, 1981). New stars shone in 1946. And they still shine, despite the calls of some public figures to replace them with eagles again. The next reconstruction of the ruby "luminaries" was in 1974, and again Krasnomai masters took part in it. Despite the existing experience, the brewing technology had to be created, as they say, from scratch: archival documents that could be used to restore the "recipe" have not been preserved.
I must say that in 2010, a lot was written about the 75th anniversary of the first Kremlin stars in the central media, but the contribution of Red May was never mentioned anywhere. Not in 1996, when the plant was still, at the very least, working, despite the fact that wages there were already being paid out in vases and wine glasses. Not in 2006 - at least in pursuit of the departed train ...
“Yesterday, a batch of colorless and milky glass parts for lighting fixtures of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory was sent from the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May plant. It was not easy for glassmakers to repeat the bizarre forms of ancient chandeliers and sconces that have been illuminating the halls of this musical educational institution for more than a hundred years” (Kalininskaya Pravda, 1983). “Several years ago, at the request of Bulgarian friends, the masters of the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May glass factory made ruby glass for the friendship memorial built on the famous Shipka. And here is a new order from Bulgaria - to make four-layer glass for a star that will crown the Party House in Sofia. The teams of craftsmen N. Ermakov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Nasonov and A. Bobovnikov were entrusted with fulfilling the export order” (“Pravda”, 1986). “A beautiful garden village with paved roads, well-maintained cottages, a club, a school and other public buildings, with a garden plant in the center, from where products of almost two thousand items diverge around the world” (“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1959) . “Yesterday, a joyful message came from Moscow to GPTU-24 of the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May plant. By the decree of the Main Exhibition Committee of VDNKh of the USSR for the development and participation in the manufacture of the Jubilee and Cup vases presented at the All-Union Review of Artistic Works of Vocational Schools, masters of industrial training T. Orlova and T. Shamrina were awarded bronze medals. And the students Irina Yarosh and Eduard Vedernikov were awarded the medal "Young Participant of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements" ("Kalininskaya Pravda", 1983). For comparison. The village-garden is an ordinary outlying village, of which there are thousands. It seems not abandoned, but there is also no hint of grooming. Cottage houses are, apparently, wooden two-story barracks still with cesspools. Plant-garden now - pipes towering over the ruins of workshops, a rusty honor board, like a ghost from the past. On the territory itself there is some kind of small business: auto repair, warehouses. In the former factory premises, even the old furniture was gone, only heaps of construction debris. The railway line, with the exception of a few sections, has been almost completely dismantled. GPTU also keeps pace with the times. Back in the middle of the 2000s, the specialty of a tractor driver-machinist, once the most popular among teenagers, was closed there. Yes, and in life is not the most unpromising. Is there really no need for tractor drivers anymore? Of course, there are no blowers and grinders of glass products either. “A seemingly simple product is a glass, but its manufacture requires great skill. Glass makers of the Vyshnevolotsk plant "Krasny May" master this skill to perfection. Two types of glasses produced here in millions of "circulations" were awarded the State Quality Mark. A vase for berries, a rosette for jam, and an ashtray made of zinc sulphide glass were awarded the same high marks” (“Soviet Russia”, 1975). In the workshops of the plant, by the way, the third largest after those in Gus-Khrustalny and Dyatkovo, not only crystal products and ruby stars were produced.
Remembering our childhood .. We did not live richly, and I had only trousers, a pair of shirts - one canvas for every day, the other flannel - a day off, and a fur coat with faux fur. The times were like that .. and when I entered school, I decided to earn extra money, then it was not easy to find a job for a schoolboy. And only with the help of my mother, who was then working at the Kalinin cotton mill as a printer, I was employed there for the summer holidays as a packer of rags. The work was not difficult, it was necessary to sort the out-of-spec fabric into bales, which was subsequently sent to various enterprises, workers, to wipe their hands. I still remember this smell of fabric at the plant, which many years later I did not even hope to inhale again. And one of these days I was destined to visit the Vyshnevolotsk cotton mill, where terry products are now produced. Oh yes, it was the same smell from the past, from the past childhood. Our Kalininsky KhBK has not been working for a long time, such a huge and old monster, built under the tsar, could not withstand market competition. In the last years of his work, he consumed more than electricity alone than he made a profit. Well, I would like to wish good luck and prosperity to the Vyshnevolotsk cotton mill, which by the way now ranks second in Russia in terms of production of terry products!
On July 13, Acting Governor of the Tver Region Igor Rudenya visited Vyshny Volochek on a working trip. A special place in the program is assigned to the industry of the territory.
The head of the region visited the enterprise, which ranks second in Russia in terms of production of terry products - the Vyshnevolotsk cotton mill.
The company is celebrating its 160th anniversary next year. They have maintained a closed production cycle, produce 1,100 tons of products per year, increase labor productivity by several times and make plans to increase capacity: the potential of the plant is to produce up to 1,700 tons of products per year. From 2007 to 2016, about 2.5 billion rubles were invested in production. The enterprise sends about 50 million rubles of taxes to the consolidated budget of the region, provides more than 230 jobs for residents of the region.
The head of the region talked with the employees of the plant, among them representatives of labor dynasties. Warping equipment operator Svetlana Yefimova told the story of her family – just like her parents, she devoted many years to working at the enterprise.
As Igor Rudenya noted, the Vyshnevolotsk plant is a vivid example of how large light industry enterprises successfully operate in market conditions.
The Tver region has been one of the centers of the cotton industry in Russia since the middle of the 19th century. Unfortunately, after the 90s of the last century, this industry has ceased to be the leading one in the economy of our region, - the head of the region emphasized. - Now we have started the development of the Strategy for the economic development of the region. It will pay special attention to supporting traditional industries.
Also on this day, as part of a working trip to the city of Vyshny Volochek, Tver Region, Acting Governor Igor Rudenya visited the Vyshnevolotsk nursing home for the elderly and disabled.
The institution opened in 1974. At the moment, 489 people live here, in total the nursing home is designed for 501 places. Among the residents there are invalids, participants of the Great Patriotic War, home front workers, prisoners of labor camps, labor veterans. In order to personally verify the quality of services provided to the elderly, Igor Rudenya examined the medical unit of the institution, where qualified doctors work, physiotherapy, physiotherapy, dentistry, and procedural rooms are open.
Then, the Acting Governor of the Tver Region, Igor Rudenya, met with Yulia Kulikova, Director of Shop No. 11 LLC in Vyshny Volochek
At the end of May, the head of the shopping facility sent a video message to the head of the region as part of the Tver Forum of Entrepreneurs, which was held for the first time in the region, the regional Government reported.
Yulia Kulikova asked for assistance in resolving the issue of buying out leased premises within the framework of the allowance for small and medium-sized businesses. Igor Rudenya instructed the head of the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of the region, Yevgeny Zelensky, and the Minister of the Tver Region for Control Functions, Viktor Shaforost, to go to the site, understand the situation and take the necessary measures. The audit showed that the tenant was illegally deprived of the right to privatize the premises at a market price. The regional authorities got involved in resolving the issue, and as a result, the entrepreneur's rights were restored.
For more than 1.5 years we have been suing the city administration, we no longer believed in success. Thanks to Igor Mikhailovich - such a prompt response. Thanks to the head of the region, the situation was quickly resolved, - shared Yulia Kulikova, who noted the openness of the head of the region to the problems of entrepreneurship.
For Yulia Kulikova, the way out of this situation has become a symbolic birthday present. The entrepreneur is celebrating his birthday today. The acting Governor congratulated the birthday girl.
This is normal work when the government hears the business, - Igor Rudenya noted.
In the development of small and medium-sized businesses, the regional authorities see the main vector of economic growth in the region. To strengthen it, high-quality state administration and the creation of favorable conditions are necessary - such tasks were set by Igor Rudenya at the forum of entrepreneurs. An important factor in this work is the absence of administrative barriers.
also -
On July 13, the Acting Governor of the Tver Region, Igor Rudenya, visited one of the region's woodworking enterprises, the Vyshnevolotsk timber industry enterprise, where in 2001 the production of glued products was launched.
The enterprise is an example of how the task of the President of Russia on deep processing of timber is being implemented in the region. Such an installation was made by the head of the region during a meeting with timber merchants.
The region can not only procure wood, but also bring to the market a finished product with the maximum added value, - Igor Rudenya noted during his visit to the timber industry. - These are taxes, jobs, development of our enterprises.
The Vyshnevolotsk timber industry enterprise fulfills orders for the manufacture of wooden houses. According to the head of the region, the region produces a product that can compete with well-known foreign brands. The regional government will make every effort to promote Tver enterprises on the market, - Igor Rudenya emphasized.
The head of the region inspected the boiler house of the enterprise, which works on woodworking waste. As Igor Rudenya pointed out, the production confirms the effective role of small-scale energy, which is focused on the use of pellets, sawdust, peat. Along with active gasification, which should receive a new impetus in the region, the Government of the region is aimed at promoting the use of alternative fuels.
On the same day, "RIM" also visited the obstetric department of the Vyshnevolotsk Central District Hospital.
In the building, the issue of repairing the roof is urgent, the regional government reported.
The Vyshnevolotsk Central District Hospital is an inter-district center providing obstetric services to both the local population and residents of nearby territories - the Vyshnevolotsk, Bologovsky, Firovsky districts and ZATO Ozerny. Over the past year, more than 250 births were taken here, and this figure is growing every year. The department is designed for 28 round-the-clock beds and 4 more day stays.
The obstetric service is located in a separate two-story building. In 2013, under the healthcare modernization program, repair work was carried out here. However, the allocated funds were only enough for a cosmetic finish. Subsequently, the building had serious problems with the roof. By decision of the hospital management, the second floor was closed, and all beds were placed on the first floor.
The issue of overhaul of the roof and floors is on the agenda of the management of the institution and the Government of the region. As of today, all design and estimate documentation is ready. An amount of 7.7 million rubles has been allocated from the regional budget. Now there is a stage of competitive procedures. Repairs must be completed by November 1st. This term was designated by Igor Rudenya.
It is necessary to take the work as seriously as possible, to ensure a high level of control over the quality of their implementation, - said the head of the region. - The maternity ward should be modern and civilized.
In addition, Igor Rudenya set the task of putting the road leading to the maternity hospital in order and working out the issue of purchasing the necessary equipment.
And of course the traditional meeting with the people ..
Residents asked questions on improving the quality of healthcare, education, supporting agriculture and others
Improving the quality of healthcare, creating safe conditions for the education of children, supporting farmers, developing the potential of young people - these questions were asked by residents of Vyshny Volochek during the official visit of Acting Governor Igor Rudenya to the regional center.
During the conversation, the topic of creating opportunities in Vyshny Volochyok for local agricultural producers to sell their products without intermediaries was raised. As the head of the region indicated, an instruction will be given to organize an appropriate trading platform in the city.
Igor Rudenya drew attention to the areas that hinder the development of the region as a whole and this territory in particular: the quality of roads, the state of housing and communal services.
There are many problematic issues in Vyshny Volochek. All levels of government, as well as the residents themselves, should take part in the development of the city, - the head of the region emphasized.
Sergey Yakovlev, a representative of one of the city's management companies, thanked the head of the region for the municipal equipment that Vyshny Volochek receives under an agreement with the Moscow Government.
Among the decisions made were the provision of synchronization of gasification in the village of Derevkovo, the study of the possibility of financing the repair of a 13 km long road in the rural settlement of Luzhnikovskoye for the next year. Also in the field of view of the regional authorities is the object of the program for the resettlement of citizens from emergency housing stock: those living in the 34th house on Ryleeva Street are concerned about the quality of new housing.
A number of questions raised by residents related to the sphere of youth policy. So, the support of the head of the region was received by the KVN movement of the region. The head of the region also announced an agreement with Rosmolodezh to create a discussion platform for rural youth in the region. A separate topic is the restoration of sports facilities in Vyshny Volochek, the development of institutions in this area.
Residents of the city expressed their hope that the head of the region would continue to support the territory in the same way that the President of Russia supported Igor Rudenya. “The head of state supports the entire Tver region,” the Acting Governor replied.
This is such a big and eventful trip .. and there are sometimes several times a week ..
Part 2. Is it too late for us to stop?
Let's continue our walk through the area, which some fifteen years ago was the famous Red May glass factory. Famous, first of all, for the fact that four-layer glass was made in his workshops for the stars of the Moscow Kremlin, which today adorn five of its towers. Today we will look at the Museum of Artistic Glass. 
Getting from the regional center to the village of Krasnomaisky is easy: a regular bus goes there every 20 minutes. The third stop after turning off the M10 highway - and you are at the gate of the plant. The museum is open daily from 10:00 to 14:00 except weekends and public holidays. More precisely, it can be opened. To get there, you must first call by phone and book a tour. And at the agreed time, go to the entrance, where the caretaker will meet you and take you to the museum. 
All that's left of the entrance
In the museum
“And the kerosene lamps, painted with gold and paints, were also striking in their beauty. It was these lamps, crowned with thin light lampshades, that were awarded the gold medal at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow in 1882.(“Krasnomaisky glazier”, 1988). By 1990, when the 20th anniversary of the museum of the Krasny May plant was celebrated, it stored more than three hundred products of pre-revolutionary (Bolotinsky) craftsmen and about 4 thousand samples of the Soviet period already - both unique exhibits from colored, applied and sulfide-zinc glass, as well as and mass production. Many of these exhibits were brought by the inhabitants of the village. That is, like most museum expositions, this one was also created literally bit by bit. 
The current state of the museum is not much better than the enterprises. On the ground floor of the building, where there was once a dining room, the same devastation as in the workshops. Only upstairs, where the museum itself, order. Except, of course, the leaking roof and the lack of heating. Formally, the museum belongs to the owners of the former factory - it is clear that such a land cannot be a no-man's land. Who they are and what their names are, none of those with whom I managed to talk knows. In fact, it is more or less followed by entrepreneurs located on the territory of the "Red May". The region or the Vyshnevolotsky district can and would like to take the glass museum on their balance sheet, but they cannot: the law does not allow taking and taking away (or, more precisely, saving). Just as they cannot provide financial assistance: misappropriation of budgetary funds, a criminal article. Even if our history is at stake. It's a pity. The moment when it's too late to do anything usually comes unexpectedly. And the owners can't get through.
Although, if the authorities really wanted to, they probably did everything they needed to.
“Invaluable assistance in collecting materials about the history of the plant was provided by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Khokhryakov, Vasily Maksimovich Semyonov and other comrades. Builders led by Yuri Dmitrievich Popov, workers of the machine shop led by Leonid Petrovich Vasin, Viktor Vladimirovich Rakov, a fresco maker of the Bolotino time, and other comrades, made a great contribution to the design of the museum building. It is impossible not to note the great contribution to the creation of the museum of history on a voluntary basis by the worker of the Vyshnevolotsk Museum of Local Lore Galina Georgievna Monakhova, who even gave her vacation to this cause.(“Krasnomaisky glazier”, 1988). In the museum you can not only see samples of Krasnomai products, but also learn about the people who created them. Lyudmila Kuchinskaya, Viktor Shevchenko, Anatoly Silko, Sergey Konoplev, Svetlana Beskinskaya, spouses Elena Esikova and Konstantin Litvin. The last connoisseurs of art in Tver need no introduction. Esikova and Litvin still work as glass artists and participate in various exhibitions. 
"Red May" is the birthplace of zinc sulfide glass. About 30 years ago, the plant began to master this new Soviet glass. Interest in an unsolved technological novelty helped to reveal all the transformations of color. By the will of the artist and craftsman, golden glass turned out to be able to turn into opal, then icy-smoky, then suddenly flash with colored ornaments or marble stains.(“Krasnomaisky glazier”, 1988). Sulfide or sulfide-zinc glass, colored with sulfur compounds of iron and zinc, was created in 1958 by the technologist of the Leningrad Art Glass Plant (LZKhS) Evgenia Ivanova and the engineer of the same enterprise Alexander Kirienen. A year later, it was already mastered at the Vyshnevolotsk plant and soon became its hallmark. For a wide range of colors and the ability to change it depending on the temperature and duration of processing, sulfide glass is also called the "Russian miracle".
“Recently, experimental melting of glass was carried out at the Krasny May glass factory, the raw material for which was sand delivered from Georgia. Employees of one of the research institutes in Tbilisi set the task to check the suitability of local sand deposits containing a large percentage of iron for the production of building glass. They turned to the Reds for help. Workers of the chemical laboratory of the plant, together with the staff of the fourth workshop, successfully tested the sand - building glass of green, blue and light blue colors was obtained. The results of this experiment will serve as the basis for setting up the production of colored profiled glass for the construction needs of Georgia.”(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1980). The range of the plant's products, as I noted in the first part, was wide. However, not only a sulfide-zinc vase, but also an ordinary glass or the same building glass from Krasny May can be called Russian miracles. Such is the specificity of the plant: it was impossible to do bad and even mediocre work here. Or they couldn't.
(“Tverskaya Zhizn”, 2004). In fact, the sale of Krasny May products on the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway began much earlier. In 1992, they definitely stood with vases - men and women, groups and singles. "Points" were located for more than twenty kilometers from the turn to Leontievo and almost to Khotilovo. So the unique plant survived the dashing 90s. Survived. At the very least, but survived. Reports on the economic upsurge, which accompanied the first steps of the new President Vladimir Putin, should have been replenished with "Red May". But the trouble came from where it was not expected at all. 
All that's left of the brand store
“And now all this economy belongs to two St. Petersburg entities - ZAO Holding Company Ladoga (V.V. Grabar) and a certain citizen Pruzhinin Mikhail Romanovich ... Coincidentally, Mikhail Romanovich is one of the closest and most trusted acquaintances of the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Tver Region and former Vyshnevolotsk mayor Mark Zhanovich Khasainov"(“Tverskaya Gazeta”, 2004). Time is usually cited as the culprit of destroyed enterprises or collective farms. Confusion. Repartition. But behind every action, as a rule, there are specific people. "Red May" is one of the few examples where these people are called by their first names. According to the author of the article, in 2002, the new management of the plant requested a loan of 2.2 million dollars from an American company to create a line for the production of bottles (a unique enterprise suddenly switches to bottles?) under state guarantees. That is, in the event that Krasny May fails to fulfill its loan obligations, two million "greens" must go overseas. As a result, this is exactly what happened: the scheme has long been worked out and debugged. And no money, no bottles, no crystal.
* * *
“In 1987 alone, our museum was visited by 12.5 thousand people, including workers, artists, veterans of the party, war and labor, famous people in the country. The guests of the plant and the museum were the first commissioner of the cruiser "Aurora" A.V. Belyshev, Hero of the Soviet Union N.I. Biryukov, pilot-cosmonauts Yu.A. Gagarin, P.R. Popovich, N.N. Rukavishnikov, O.G. Makarov. Artists Maya Kristalinskaya, Olga Voronets, Boris Shtokolov, Kola Beldy, Vyacheslav Tikhonov and others left enthusiastic reviews in the Book of Honored Guests. The Red May plant and its museum are known not only in our country, but also far beyond its borders. Honored guests from many countries visited the museum»(“Krasnomaisky glazier”, 1988). And today the museum is empty and oblivious. And the exhibits there are clearly not 4 thousand, as it was a quarter of a century ago, but clearly less. Where are the others? Did they go to the St. Petersburg "owners" or somewhere else?
The glass museum of the Krasny May factory is located in the village of Krasnomaisky, not far from Vyshny Volochek, Tver region. The museum was founded in 1968. Here are the products of the late XIX - early XX century. All exhibits amaze with their richness of color and various ways of processing and decoration.
Particularly noteworthy are multi-colored kerosene lamps with light shades (Bolotin's lamp). The plant itself has existed since 1859. It was founded as a chemical plant by the Moscow titular adviser Samarin. But Samarin did not have enough funds for the further development of production and the plant was bought by the Vyshnevolotsk merchant of the 2nd guild Andrey Vasilyevich Bolotin. In 1873, the owners of the plant, the merchants of Bolotiny, built the first oven, which produced glassware: dining room, confectionery, ceiling lamps. In the same year, an experienced glassmaker came to the plant - the owner of the secret of preparing the mixture for melting colored glass - Vasily Alekseevich Vekshin. And for the first time in Russia at the Bolotinsky plant they began to cook colored glass with a variety of colors. In 1920, the plant was nationalized and it became the property of the state. On May 1, 1923, a meeting of workers and employees of the plant took place, at which a decision was made to rename the plant into the Red May plant. Since that time, the plant began to expand, they began to build new glass melting furnaces. During the Patriotic War (1942-1945), the plant produced technical glass in large quantities for the needs of the Navy and aviation, semaphore and traffic light lenses, lamp glass, and storage vessels were manufactured. In the 1950s and 1960s, glass products were cut with gold, enamel, chandelier, and silicate paints at the plant. Products from two-three-layer glass were also produced. But the Krasnomay people were especially famous for their sulfide glass, which is not in vain called the “Russian miracle” for its inexhaustible richness of color. And it is also called so for its exceptional ability to change color depending on the temperature and duration of processing, which gives the mass product a unique originality. This material was mastered by the plant in 1959, Krasny May was, in fact, the only enterprise not only in our country, but throughout the world, where sulphide glass was fixed as an indispensable glass of the factory assortment. The exposition of the museum is very rich - about 4000 exhibits. In addition to samples of mass products, the museum presents unique creative works made from rare and unusual types of materials. It is worth mentioning the ruby glass presented in the museum, from which the Kremlin stars are made. In addition, the plant manufactured a star installed in Buzludzha (Bulgaria). The museum is open to visitors on working days from 9 am to 2 pm, the entrance fee is 30 rubles. In 2002, glass melting furnaces were stopped at the plant. Even with a planned cold repair of the furnace, draining the glass and starting the furnace following the repair is a long and expensive process, and so, if you stop without hope for the future, there are almost no chances for the next start. But, apparently, no one was going to restore production. Furnaces with frozen glass were simply broken. Now the entire territory of the plant is partly ruined, partly slowly decaying.
