In the seventh secret, you saw how the factory was saved from extinction — and why more than half of the staff spend their entire professional lives here. Today, we're making it concrete: we're introducing you to some of these people. Not all of them. But enough to give you an idea of who is truly behind the "SevChern" brand.
Sergey Prokshin — 45 years, one factory
Sergey Sovetovich Prokshin joined the factory in 1978. Directly after the army. "My life credo was: After the army, I had to go to work, to continue living." His aunt, who already worked at the factory, brought him to human resources. "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 — making them shiny and glossy. "I liked the work, and it came easily to me from day one." From the third grade to the fourth to the fifth. Brigadier of the youth brigade. First place in the professional competition "Best in his profession" — as an award he received a silver ring from the factory itself.
From a polisher, he became a maintenance engineer. Then a senior engineer-technologist. Then a senior quality specialist. Today, 45 years after his first day, he says: "I have given 45 years of my life to Severnaya Chern. Thanks to good supervisors, thanks to a dedicated Trudovoy collective, thanks to truly interesting work — and beautiful women." Many families have formed over the years in the factory he knows. Most of them last.
Alexander Legostaev — 40 years as a fitter
Alexander Legostaev joined the factory as an apprentice jeweler-fitter and fell in love with his work. His task: to assemble a whole from the individual parts produced by other workshops. With soldering. A steady hand, a sharp eye.
He's been doing this for 40 years now. When asked what he likes: "The work here is very interesting, diverse — we have a huge assortment, constantly different tasks throughout the day. That doesn't get tiring. Although it requires responsibility, endurance, and diligence." He wasn't just at the workbench — he played on the factory's volleyball team, helped with Subbotniks (voluntary factory activities), and participated in the social life of the manufactory.
"We discuss all problems together, solve them together, help each other," he says. "No one refuses to help another."
Denis Kholopov — he sets 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 manufacture
- The assay — i.e., the silver content (925 for SevChern)
- The origin — the marking that it was manufactured in Veliki Ustyug
The person who strikes these hallmarks is Denis Kholopov. He has been doing this for more than 10 years. "Every piece goes through my hands. Every single piece ends up with me, I work with it. I really like that."
So what you see on every SevChern piece — these small three or four letter/number stamps — are not machine-applied. They are attributable to one person. A person who held every single piece before it left the factory.
Alyona Yatsenko — the younger generation
SevChern loyalty doesn't just begin after 40 years. It begins on the first day. Alyona Yatsenko has been at the factory for four months. Her job: designer and photographer. She takes the product pictures you see on social networks and factory brochures — and which sometimes end up in our shop.
"I really like the work. It's creative, I'm constantly thinking: What new can I invent for a photo? I go to work every morning with pleasant feelings. I plan beforehand what the next shot could be. And usually, they turn out to be quite usable photos." Such young people bring fresh eyes to the factory — they show the old pieces anew. Sometimes the masters suddenly see their own work differently because a 25-year-old photographs it in such a way that it looks like it's for the first time.
What this has to do with SevChern as a brand
There's an effect that factories can't 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've experienced it twenty times before.
At SevChern, staff stability is not a PR issue, but a fact: More than half of the employees have spent their entire professional lives here. This is not common. In most factories in Russia, employees move on after two, three, five years. Here, they stay.
One can imagine what this means for the error rate. What it means for the style, you already read in the third secret: Every master has their own lines. A workshop that retains its masters has identity. It is not interchangeable.
What you feel when you know this
Next time you look at a SevChern piece with niello, think of the hallmark. Three small letters. Imagine Denis Kholopov striking them with the exact same depth into the silver — like all the pieces he has seen before. Imagine Sergey Prokshin, who would have polished the same piece decades ago. Imagine Alyona Yatsenko, who later takes the photo of it.
Behind a SevChern piece is not a brand. Behind a SevChern piece are 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 technical control department. 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) and factory videos. Texts by premiumgeschenk.de | SilberKosmos.