How workers were encouraged and punished in pre-revolutionary Russia
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 6:41 am
How to motivate employees to work better? This question is asked not only by modern managers - manufacturers and merchants at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries puzzled over it. They provided housing for workers, educated their children in vocational schools, and presented gold watches with their names for years of service. But the most thoughtful motivation system was that of one of the founders of the Russian dairy industry, Alexander Vasilyevich Chichkin.
We continue our series of articles about entrepreneurs of pre-revolutionary Russia. We have already told you about old Russian entrepreneurs and the dawn of women's business , about the first Russian startups , about the marketing of "chocolate" kings and the techniques of the capital's department stores. If you are interested in the origins of Russian business, be sure to read it! Today's article will be useful for those who work with personnel, deal with motivation issues and think about non-material ways to encourage employees.
At the peak of his career, Alexander Chichkin owned almost a hundred stores throughout the uganda whatsapp list Russian Empire and two factories, employing a total of three thousand people. As a far-sighted entrepreneur, he understood that it was most profitable to grow loyal employees in a team. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was very concerned with finding talent, and then retaining and developing it. He also thought about when and why they might burn out, calling this state a zone of numbness and immobility.
The result was a comprehensive motivation system with five life stages, covering the age period from 8 to 65 years. The entrepreneur himself went through some of these stages, so the poetic names and inspiring slogans conveyed the mood of the age well and found a response in people's hearts.
8–20 years. Birth of a dream and love for the profession
Alexander Chichkin's own professional path began at the age of 8 at the Koprino Dairy School in the Yaroslavl Province. The school, where peasant children were trained to work in cheese production, was supported by the major Russian cheesemaker entrepreneur Vladimir Blandov. Thus, the talented son of a Volga pilot found himself among its first students.
From the first years of study at the Koprinskaya school, children with a penchant for mathematics were noted. And when they turned 13-14, the best were sent to study in Moscow. Young people were provided with a hostel, a cultural program was organized for them. The main qualities that they sought to develop were efficiency, politeness and the desire to learn.
After finishing school, Alexander Chichkin began working in the shops of his patron Blandov. He studied in Paris with his money, and opened his first shop with his credit. But when he began to grow, he entered into competition with him. All of Moscow watched as one opened new shops on the same streets where the other was already trading. Chichkin won this race, being more famous and larger.
At this stage, the parting words for future employees of dairy enterprises were: “In Moscow, all five-altyn coins are the same, but you must shine!”
Many years later, Alexander Chichkin himself would select personnel for his company at the Koprinskaya school. His former teacher, a talented educator with half a century of experience, Dmitry Popov, would help him in this work. At this stage, the parting words for future employees of dairy enterprises were as follows: "In Moscow, all five-altyn coins are the same, but you must shine!" "Brilliant is noticeable from afar" - this metaphor was fully revealed at the next stage.
We continue our series of articles about entrepreneurs of pre-revolutionary Russia. We have already told you about old Russian entrepreneurs and the dawn of women's business , about the first Russian startups , about the marketing of "chocolate" kings and the techniques of the capital's department stores. If you are interested in the origins of Russian business, be sure to read it! Today's article will be useful for those who work with personnel, deal with motivation issues and think about non-material ways to encourage employees.
At the peak of his career, Alexander Chichkin owned almost a hundred stores throughout the uganda whatsapp list Russian Empire and two factories, employing a total of three thousand people. As a far-sighted entrepreneur, he understood that it was most profitable to grow loyal employees in a team. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was very concerned with finding talent, and then retaining and developing it. He also thought about when and why they might burn out, calling this state a zone of numbness and immobility.
The result was a comprehensive motivation system with five life stages, covering the age period from 8 to 65 years. The entrepreneur himself went through some of these stages, so the poetic names and inspiring slogans conveyed the mood of the age well and found a response in people's hearts.
8–20 years. Birth of a dream and love for the profession
Alexander Chichkin's own professional path began at the age of 8 at the Koprino Dairy School in the Yaroslavl Province. The school, where peasant children were trained to work in cheese production, was supported by the major Russian cheesemaker entrepreneur Vladimir Blandov. Thus, the talented son of a Volga pilot found himself among its first students.
From the first years of study at the Koprinskaya school, children with a penchant for mathematics were noted. And when they turned 13-14, the best were sent to study in Moscow. Young people were provided with a hostel, a cultural program was organized for them. The main qualities that they sought to develop were efficiency, politeness and the desire to learn.
After finishing school, Alexander Chichkin began working in the shops of his patron Blandov. He studied in Paris with his money, and opened his first shop with his credit. But when he began to grow, he entered into competition with him. All of Moscow watched as one opened new shops on the same streets where the other was already trading. Chichkin won this race, being more famous and larger.
At this stage, the parting words for future employees of dairy enterprises were: “In Moscow, all five-altyn coins are the same, but you must shine!”
Many years later, Alexander Chichkin himself would select personnel for his company at the Koprinskaya school. His former teacher, a talented educator with half a century of experience, Dmitry Popov, would help him in this work. At this stage, the parting words for future employees of dairy enterprises were as follows: "In Moscow, all five-altyn coins are the same, but you must shine!" "Brilliant is noticeable from afar" - this metaphor was fully revealed at the next stage.