Urals (4 results)

Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. A fine hardcover copy in a fine jacket/brodart covered. First Edition, 235pp. A very nice copy in like new and unread condition. No bumped corners to book. No tears, no chips to jacket. No signatures.

Condition: Very Good. 20 pages, 4 figures. An authentic standalone article, extracted from a larger volume. Not a reprint or reproduction, but an original work in its own right. Preserved in a modern card cover, prepared for practicality - an unassuming but serviceable presentation that favours function over finery. Size: 18 x 25 cms. Category: Economic History Review; Cosmo Books : 29 years on ABE, 47 years taking care of customers. A bookseller you can rely on. Softcover (Booklet - Unbound Pages).…

First edition; oblong 4to (20 x 29 cm); 30 collotype plates with captions in Russian, very minor foxing to a few plates; loose as issued in the original publisher's portfolio with gilt title, a little rubbed and corners bumped, ribbon tie missing, a good copy. an uncommon album of the magnetite mining industry in the Urals in the original portfolio. Iron ore was discovered on the banks of the river Kushva in 1735 by a hunter of the Mansi tribe, Stepan Chumpin. He presented it to state mining officials who decided to explore the area and were impressed by the high quality and volume of material they found. The name 'Blagodat' meaning grace in Russian was given to the mountain in honour of Empress Anna Ioannovna (Anna meaning gracious in Hebrew). According to legend Stepan Chumpin was burned by his fellow tribesmen for revealing the mountain's riches to the Russian Empire. In his memory, a monument was erected on the mountain's peak in 1826 which can be seen in this album. The mine's success went from strength to strength and attracted the attention of the explorer Peter Simon Pallas and the scientist Mendeleev who both spent time in Kushva studying the iron ore. This album depicts the mine at the height of its industrial growth at the turn of the 20th century. The images of factories, workshop interiors and their workers reveal the vast social changes which were taking place in Russia at the time and which would play a role in the worker strikes of 1905 and 1917.…

None. Condition: None. Oblong Folio album (ca. 23x34,5 cm or 9 x 13 ½ in). 15 card stock leaves. With 100 mounted original gelatin silver photos, including four larger images ca. 12,5x17 cm (5 x 6 ½ in); the rest of the photos are ca. 8,5x11 cm (3 ¼ x 4 ¼ in). All photos with period pencil captions in Russian and French on the mounts. Period grey full cloth album; silver-stamped title "Album," colour-stamped ornaments and manuscript ink title in Russian and French on the front cover. Decorative endpapers, all edges coloured. Binding slightly soiled and rubbed on extremities, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of interesting photos. Historically significant rare collection of well-annotated original amateur photos, documenting the construction of Russian and French-owned metallurgical factories on the Vishera River and its tributaries in the Kama River basin of the Eastern Ural Mountains, (modern-day Perm Krai of Russia), in the late 1890s - early 1900s. The first metallurgical factory in the area was established in 1890 on the Kutim River, a tributary of the Uls River in the Upper Vishera basin. The "Société Minière et Métallurgique Volga-Vichéra" was established in 1897 by a group of French banks and companies, a prominent Russian entrepreneur of French origin, Yury Goujon (1852-1918), and others. The company acquired the factory on the Kutim River and constructed new plants in the mouths of three of Vishera's tributaries - Vels River, Akchim River, and Vizhaikha River (location of the future town of Krasnovishersk). Vishera River served as the main transport artery, so the navigation was improved by clearing its watercourse and building dams. By the early 1900s, nine company steamers went up the Vishera as far as to the iron mines near the camp of Upper Chuvalsk above its confluence with the Vels River (now the territory of Vishera Nature Reserve). Due to the economic crisis, the company went bankrupt and closed down its factories in 1907, removing the equipment and abandoning the structures. In the 1920s-1930s, the former sites of the factories became forced labour camps of the Soviet Gulag system. Famous Russian writer Varlam Shalamov was imprisoned there in 1929-1931; his experiences are described in the collection of autobiographical essays "Vishera." Most likely compiled by one of the company's associates, the album includes a series of images documenting the construction of the metallurgical factory on the Vizhaikha River: views of the brick factory and the sawmill, construction of the factory's "tower," furnace foundations, auxiliary railway and cargo trains, construction of a river dam, installation of stilts and the floor of the bridge, loading of a "locomobile," house of the Director, barracks for the workers, warehouses, a road under construction, &c. Two large photos show the Kutim factory "after the fire" (blast furnaces and boilers) and two - the settlement of Ust-Uls (the wharf and charcoal furnaces). There are also general views of Vizhaikha, Belye Mhi/"White Mosses" (houses of engineers, Tatar workers, mine shafts), Akchimsk, and Nizhny Chuvalsk (wharf). Several photos show the company's river steamers "Vels" (with a scene of a church service), "Alexander Nevsky," and "Nadimov," as well as images of the steamers wintering at Vizhaikha. There are also photos of various parts of the middle Vishera River with rocky banks, ice drift, and local peasants and fishermen. Several photos portray the company's engineers and associates ("I.M. Novosyolov," "I.S. Bryn," "G.I. Zhurda"), their families, dogs and cats. There are also two general views of the Motovilikha metallurgical plants in Perm. Overall an interesting, content-rich original source on the history of Russian-French metallurgical enterprises in the Eastern Ural Mountains in the late 19th - early 20th century.…