G. Gurariy bought out the oldest tobacco and shag factory “Duruncha S.” Brick buildings occupied almost a whole block between Vesyolaya, Kievskaya, Sadovaya and Gerikovsky lanes. The products of the G. Guraria factory – “scented smoking powder” – were well known not only in the city but throughout Russia.
Mostly women and children worked at the enterprise. They lived in basements and barracks. For their difficult 12-14 hour working day in caustic tobacco dust, they received miserable pennies. Exhausting labour, and unbearable living conditions led to mass diseases, and an increase in infant mortality. The local newspaper wrote: “Acutely contagious diseases are not translated in the city: typhus and relapsing fever, measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria. Mortality in Kremenchuk is 30 people per 1000. This rate is much higher than usual.”
G. Petrovsky, a deputy of the 4th State Duma who visited Kremenchuk, in the newspaper Severnaya Pravda, described the situation of the city’s workers in the following way: “Squeezing the juice out of the workers comes to unprecedented exploitation. The owners are not shy and go to disgusting actions, especially in tobacco, shag factories and sawmills. There is complete autocracy of the owner here … It’s scary to look at the girls who work in tobacco factories. Here are the real victims of capital: meagre earnings, poverty, ignorance, prostitution…”
The workers waged a struggle against this situation. So on May 1, 1902, more than 200 workers and workers of tobacco factories with the Red Banner and revolutionary songs marched along Veselaya Street to the building of the City Duma, where they were dispersed by the police.
In 1910, as a result, factory of G. Guraria burned to the ground.
Authors: A.N. Lushakova and L.I. Evselevsky