The Social and Cultural Infrastructure of the Industrial Villages of Vladimir and Kostroma Provinces

Abstract

This article examines the development of factory settlements in Vladimir and Kostroma provinces, which gradually transformed these settlements from patriarchal villages to towns. The settlements (Rodniki, Kohma, Bonyachki, Sereda, Yuzha) had larger populations than some cities in the region. The economic life of the settlements was concentrated around a textile factory. The owners of these enterprises were not only engaged in business activities; most of them understood their responsibility for the working and living conditions of their employees, and therefore they spent considerable resources on the development of social and cultural infrastructure in these settlements, including housing, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, and leisure facilities. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the former villages actually turned into proto-towns, which were given the status of towns soon after the revolution of 1917. The author proves that in the factory settlements during the period under study there were many institutions and services which were attributes of urban settlements. He also dwells on the motivations of entrepreneurs to engage in social and cultural activities and concludes that they were led by considerations of paternalism (i. e. the concern of the “older” about the “younger”) and reasonable selfishness (i. e. healthy, sober, competent and rested workers bring much more benefit to the owner of the factory than sick, tired and embittered ones).