P. K. Ushkov and Co. Chemical Company

Description

In the 1840s, guild merchant P. K. Ushkov learned that potassium bichromate (an expensive dye) imported into Russia from England, was actually produced from raw materials found in the Urals. He decided to set up his own bichromate production and constructed a plant in the village of Kokshan, producing the first batch of locally-produced potassium bichromate in 1850. He soon cornered the market and started building a second chemical factory near his native village of Bondyuga (now in the Republic of Tatarstan), two kilometres from the Kama. The nearness of the waterway and cheap local labour were key factors of his success.

In 1868, Ushkov started the first production line of sulfuric acid, followed thereafter by papermaker’s alum, potassium alum and other ingredients for soap, paint and other products. It was at this point that the area became the chemistry capital of the Volga region. Ushkov employed the German Karl Bayer to invent a new way of producing alum and set up the first production of chlorine in Russia. In 1889, Ushkov’s factories began making hydrochloric acid and synthetic sulfates.

During a 30-year period, Ushkov worked successfully with the brilliant chemist Dmitri I. Mendeleyev, after whom the Periodic Table is named. An example of Mendelyeyev’s research at Ushkov’s chemical plant was the production of smokeless gunpowder. In 1967, Bondyuga was renamed Mendeleyevsk in his honour. Today, it is still a very large chemical complex. The Ushkov estate with museum is now a major tourist attraction.