Asbest - from mine to town
Horse transportation of trolleys from the bottom station of the inclined lift of an open-cast mine ¹11, the beginning of 1920s years.
Works at Voznesensky mine. Russia, 1903
Works at Voznesensky mine. Russia, 1903
Asbest was engendered at the place of bogs nearby from lake Shuchye, Okunyovoye and Talitskoye. About rock flax it was known already in XVIII century. Local peasants, visiting these boggy places, directly on an earth surface found the lumps of the rock flax formed by confused fibres of asbestosþ
The first geological investigation was in these parts spent in 1830 by geologist A.Chajkovskó. Then it was found out that the coil with asbestos proveins here is the basic rock. But interest to this opening was in a greater degree shown by scientists, than industrialists. Only in fifty years nearby to lake Shuchye high-quality chrysotile-asbestos was found out.
The message about opening of a rich d.eposit of "mountain flax" has quickly extended among businessmen. At the place of bogs one after another there were asbestos mines which have received the name Voznesensky. By the autumn of 1885 here there were the first houses, suitable for a life during winter time, and a warehouse. So there was a first mine settlement which in a many years turned to the town Asbest.
The population of mines consisted basically of seasonal workers. In summertime close on 15 thousand of peasants from neighbouring villages and villages came here for earning. In the end of XIX - the beginning of the XX-th century the life in asbestos mines began to vary very quickly. In Kudelka (so in use all mine settlements named) at last there was appeared a resident population, including salesmen and office employees. Offices, warehouses, houses and barracks were under construction. Miner settlements began to take a form of small villages. To the beginning of the First World War Kudelka consisted of five mine settlements, largest of which was Voznesensky. In total constantly 2200 persons lived in these settlements at that time.
The revolution of 1917 and the new power introduced the corrective amendments in a life of mines. The century of a private asbestos craft on the basis of the New Economic Policy appeared short. In 1921 presidium of Supreme council of national economy confirmed the position about association of the state asbestos enterprises of Ural Mountains, and already in the beginning of next year trust "Uralasbest" started to work.
The population of the State asbestos mines in comparison with pre-war level had grown in six times and reached to 1927 15 thousand persons. The settlement with such quantity of inhabitants left far for administrative frameworks of village council, therefore on the basis of the decision of All-Union central executive committee mine settlements were united. So on a map of Ural Mountains there appeared a new name - Asbest. Already in 1933 Asbest became a town.
Today Asbest is the large industrial center. The city-forming enterprise is joint-stock company "Uralasbest". Well-known in the country and abroad the trademark of the Ural factory of asbestos-technical products. In the town it is made not only asbestos, but also paronite and automobile overlays, a brick and crystal, ferro-concrete and porcelain products, furniture and steel constructions. In 2008 Asbest celebrated 75 ears.