WORKERS OF THE SHURMA FACTORY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVIII CENTURY (Based on the Materials of the Third Census)

The article analyzes the process of the factory population’s formation on the example of the Shurma factory of the Mosolov industrialists’ dynasty in the Urzhum district of the Kazan province. The materials of the third census (revision), dated 1763–1764, from the funds of the Central State Archive of the Kirov region, which were introduced into scientific circulation, served as a source for the study of workers in the early period of the enterprise’s existence. The social, gender, age and family composition of the factory’s employees was studied. The conducted research allowed the author to come to the conclusion that serfs of the factory owner were involved in the production, bought or transferred from various estates (including illegitimate, runaway and mortgaged). They were mostly young people of working age, who had a simple family structure and retained family ties with the serfs of the Mosolovs’ Moscow region and Ural possessions.