Plant
The Kazan Gunpowder Plant was founded several miles west from Kazan in 1786 by order of Catherine the Great. Workers lived in the nearby Porokhovoy settlement, which was so big that it had its own church and mosque. In the beginning of the 20th century settlements were absorbed by Kazan. The plant had its own horse railway. It was one of Russia's best powder plants, one of the first started to produce smokeless powder in the Empire in 1893. In 1884 a minor fire occurred in the plant. After this first fire Vsevolod Luknitsky, an officer who had already worked for 11 years at the plant, was appointed director. He worked at the plant as director for 32 years, until the second tragedy occurred. In 1888 The Red Gates were constructed during an anniversary celebration, the only construction of the original plant preserved till today.
In 1915-1916 new workshops were built to the west of the old plant, and during the fire and explosion they also were damaged, but were soon restored. The original plant, except for the Red Gates was totally destroyed in 1917.
In 1917, 11,600 people, including 2,500 soldiers worked at the plant.
Read more about this topic: 1917 Kazan Gunpowder Plant Fire
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