Goznaka Paper Factory

Categories / Economy/Industry
GOZNAKA PAPER FACTORY (144a Fontanka River Embankment) is a leading company of high-quality paper production by order of the Central Bank of Russian Federation mostly for printing banknotes and securities. It was founded by Ministry of Finance according to the project and under the guidance of engineer A.A. Bethencourt as the Enterprise of State Papers (ESP) for publication of a new type of assignations. The factory was expanded in the following year, and by the 1860s turned into a complex of industrial, residential and other buildings. Bonds, stocks, mortgages, trade licence blanks, patents, passports, etc. were published along assignations. The first Russian letter stamps were published in 1856. Deluxe editions - albums, lavishly illustrated books, engravings based on drawings of artists P.S. Petrovsky, I.Y. Bilibin, et al. were published as well. ESP held the leading position among all printing plants of Russia. A special department manufactured high quality paper, including paper with water marks. The products of polygraphic and paper departments received numerous awards at Russian and international exhibitions. The equipment was partly moved to Penza in 1918 and partly to Moscow in 1919 due to the danger of the German attack on the city. It was in Moscow that polygraphic production of Goznak (the name of ESP after 1919) concentrated later. The Paper Department remained in St. Petersburg and served as the only supplier of special sorts of paper for Goznak companies. Cartographic, phototype, laboratory, filter, photosensitive, drafting, writing, and other kinds of paper were also produced. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 a part of equipment was evacuated to Krasnokamsk, another part of it had been used for production of debenture and mustardproof paper and edible cellulose through November 1941. The company stopped working in December 1941, and was launched again in August 1943. New types of paper were produced by the factory in the post-war period (about 40 new types of paper in the 1960s). A watermark workshop was returned to the factory from Moscow. A part of works was reorganised in 1994-98. Today the factory produces high quality sorts of paper (offset, cartographic, enameled, chart, drafting, and transparent paper) mainly for the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and Goznak polygraphic companies.

Reference: Гознак за 150 лет. М., 1969.

V. S. Solomko. Bethencourt Avgustin Avgustinovich
Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich
Petrovsky Peter Stepanovich
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 144, litera л. А
Гознак за 150 лет. М., 1969 Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Finance
1818