In the seventh secret, you saw how the factory was saved from extinction — and why more than half of the staff spends their entire professional life here. Today, we're getting specific: we’re introducing you to some of these people. Not all of them. But enough so that you can get an idea of who is truly behind the "SevChern" brand.
Sergey Prokshin — at the factory since 1978
Sergey Sovetovich Prokshin came to the factory in 1978. Directly after the army. "My life’s credo was: After the army, I had to get to work, to keep living." His aunt, who already worked at the factory, brought him to the HR department. "In those days, it was very difficult to get into Severnaya Chern," he says.
He became an apprentice and worked as a polisher of art pieces — he made them bright and shiny. "I enjoyed the work, and it came easily to me from the very first day." From third grade to fourth to fifth. Brigadier of the youth brigade. First place in the "Best of Profession" competition — as a reward, he received a silver ring from his own factory.
The polisher became a maintenance engineer. Then a lead engineer-technologist. Then a lead quality specialist. In the factory documentation, 45 years after his first day, he says: "I have given 45 years of my life to Severnaya Chern. Thanks to good superiors, thanks to a dedicated collective, thanks to truly interesting work — and beautiful women." In the factory he knows, many families have been formed over the years. Most of them have lasted.
Alexander Legostaev — four decades as a fitter
Alexander Legostaev came to the factory as an apprentice jeweler-fitter and fell in love with his work. His task: To assemble a whole from the individual parts that other workshops have produced. With soldering. A steady hand, a sharp eye.
At the time of the factory recordings, he had been doing this for 40 years. Asked what he likes: "The work here is very interesting, diverse — we have a huge assortment, constantly different tasks throughout the day. It doesn't get tiring. Although it requires responsibility, patience, and diligence." He wasn't just at the workbench — he played on the factory's volleyball team, helped with subbotniks (voluntary work events), and participated in the social life of the manufactory.
"We discuss all problems together, solve them together, help one another," he says. "No one refuses help to another."
Denis Kholopov — he strikes the hallmark
When a SevChern piece leaves the factory, it bears several small, stamped markings — the hallmarks (Russian kleyma). These stamps tell you three things at a glance:
- The year of production
- The fineness — meaning the silver content (925 at SevChern)
- The origin — the manufacturer's mark of the factory in Veliky Ustyug
The person who strikes these hallmarks is Denis Kholopov. He has been doing this for more than 10 years. "Every piece passes through my hands. Every single piece ends up with me; I work with it. I like that very much."
So what you see on every SevChern piece — those small three or four letter/number stamps — are not applied by machine. They are attributable to a single person. A person who held every single piece in their hand before it left the factory.
Aljona Yatsenko — the younger generation
SevChern loyalty doesn't just start after 40 years. It starts on the first day. Aljona Yatsenko had only been at the factory for four months at the time of the recordings. Her task: designer and photographer. She takes the product images you see on social networks and factory brochures — and which sometimes end up in our shop too.
"I really like the work. It's creative, I’m constantly thinking: What new thing can I invent for a photo? I go to work every morning with pleasant feelings. Planning beforehand what the next shot might be. And mostly they turn out to be quite decent photos." Young colleagues bring fresh eyes to the factory — they show the old pieces in a new way. Sometimes the masters suddenly see their own work differently because a young colleague photographs it in a way that makes it look like the first time.
What this has to do with SevChern as a brand
There is an effect that factories cannot buy: institutional knowledge. Nothing makes a factory as stable and quality-assured as people who work there for decades. They know every peculiarity of the material, every weakness of the machines, every strength of their colleagues. They know what to do when something doesn't go as usual — because they have already experienced it twenty times.
At SevChern, staff stability is not a PR topic, but a fact: more than half of the employees have spent their entire professional lives here. That is not something to be taken for granted. They stay here.
One can imagine what that means for the error rate. As for what it means for the handwriting, you already read about that in the third secret: every master has their own line work. A workshop that keeps its masters has identity. It is not interchangeable.
What you feel when you know this
When you look at a SevChern piece with niello next time, think of the hallmark. Three small letters. Imagine Denis Kholopov striking them with exactly the same depth into the silver — like all the pieces he has seen before. Imagine Sergey Prokshin, who might have polished the same piece decades ago. Imagine Aljona Yatsenko, who later takes the photo of it.
Behind a piece of SevChern stands no brand. Behind a piece of SevChern stand people. And they stay.
In the next secret
Even the best hands sometimes make mistakes. Who ensures that no faulty piece leaves the factory? In the last secret of our series, it’s about the OTK — the Department for Technical Control. Seven pairs of eyes, each with decades of factory experience. Secret No. 10 — the OTK.
This series of articles shows in 8 episodes how a SevChern piece is created. Sources: official documentation of ZAO Severnaya Chern (Veliky Ustyug, Vologda) as well as factory videos. Texts by premiumgeschenk.de | SilberKosmos.