Very few people in America really know how delicious and diverse the candy in Russia truly is. One company that has stood the test of time and war is the Slavyanka Confectionary Company. They have endured for centuries, starting with a steam turbine purchased in Belgium in the 19th century that they simultaneously used the steam to make pocket-shaped buns and ring-shaped rolls. Later, there would be an addition of a beekeeping yard and hazelnuts from the forest to the sweets produced.
They expanded the confections they produced in the 19th century, from gingerbread to toffee, jams and fruit jellies. It would be in the spring of 1929 that would test the resolve of the factory and it’s workers when the company was nationalized. The factory stopped production and the workers became redundant, as well as the equipment. The following year, the government officials remembered the factory and once the people learned that there was interesting in returning the factory to working order, there was an organization to restore the factory to it’s former glory.
Local craftsmen undertook the efforts to reconstruct the factory and in 1932, their effort paid off. From that year until 1941, the factory made a variety of gingerbreads, hard candies and halvahs, which is similar to baklava. However, during the Great Patriotic War, confectionary production diminished. It was after the Germans had left the area, former employees, mostly the women of the area, set to working on the damaged equipment. They immediately went to baking bread for the famished families in the area. Following that year was a battle in the Great Black Soil Region and due to the close proximity, there was a hospital on the same property as the confectionary.
Once the frontline of the battle moved further west, the town began reconstructing the factory and recreating delicious breads and hard candies. In the 50’s there was a major technical upgrade for the factory: a mechanical line for the “Golden key” toffee, a dough mixing machine, a dragee pan and a mechanical wrapping line for the candies.
Beginning in 1970, the factory has increased it’s products to over 150 different confections and has been updating and upkeeping with the most modern techniques available and now produces over 15,000 tons of candy per year.
