Parizhskaia Kommuna Moscow Footwear Factory

Parizhskaia Kommuna Moscow Footwear Factory 

one of the largest enterprises of the footwear industry of the USSR (since 1962, the head enterprise of the Zaria Moscow Association of Footwear Enterprises). The factory produces about 10 million pairs of footwear per year, including children’s shoes with leather soles, women’s and children’s synthetic leather boots, and women’s suede and patent-leather shoes. It was founded in 1922 on the basis of several semihandi-craft footwear shops in Moscow that had been brought into one building. The factory was officially opened on March 18 of that year, on the anniversary of the Paris Commune, in honor of which it was named. Very simple belt conveyors were introduced at the factory in 1926, and the first chain conveyor, in 1934.

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) the equipment of the enterprise was evacuated; the factory resumed production in December 1941. The factory is famous for the labor initiatives of its advanced workers—for example, the stamp operator S. I. Iashin, who organized the first Stakhanovite school in 1935; the cutter V. I. Matrosov, who provided help for lagging workers beginning in 1947; and the team leader L. G. Korabel’nikova, who took steps to economize on raw and processed materials beginning in 1950. From 1922 to 1973 the Parizhskaia Kommuna Factory produced about 350 million pairs of footwear. It was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1966.

V. A. ABRAMOV