Candied apple jellies, cacao and safo sweets: The story of the Bolshevik confectionery plant

Did the Sioux couple from France have any idea in 1855 when they opened a small confectionery shop on Tverskaya Street in Moscow that their sons would create a candy factory in central Moscow 30 years later? This sweets manufacturer would become Europe’s largest company, the first chocolate maker in Russia, and it would be awarded the title of His Majesty’s court supplier.

Small confectionery shop on Tverskaya Street

A French couple, Adolf and Eugenie Sioux, moved to Russia in 1853. It was believed at the time that Moscow was a good place to save money, which rather appealed to a modest employee of a French perfume-making company.

In 1855, they opened a small confectionery shop on Tverskaya Street. Mme Sioux ran the shop, as Adolf was on contract and could not be in charge of his own business. A confectionery chef and his apprentice made the sweets in the shop’s basement. On the first day, revenues reached an impressive 122 roubles and 70 kopecks, which bode very well. Soon customers from all parts of Moscow flocked in to buy the handmade candies. After a while, the Siouxs had to increase production and hire cooks from France and Russia.

C. Sioux and Co. Trading House

Adolf and Eugenie had three sons - Louis, Charles and Adolf Jr. After their service in the French army, they returned to Moscow and began helping their parents at the confectionery factory. In 1881, the brothers went to visit candy making plants in America and Europe, and upon their return, founded the C. Sioux and Co. Trading House.

The first Russian factory with electricity

The Sioux sons decided to build a factory that would be unrivalled in Russia. It took them a long time to choose a place for the future sweets empire. Eventually, they opted for several hectares near the St Petersburg Motorway (now Leningradsky Prospekt). In 1884, a red brick compound was erected on St Petersburg Motorway, with a wide front staircase, a fountain at the entrance and lacy cast iron banisters, based on architect Oscar Didio’s designs. The brothers also installed DC electric generators in the factory workshops, which was unprecedented in Russian industry at the time.

Thus, a small sweets shop in central Moscow evolved into a huge, technically advanced confectionery plant with 20 shops, making unusual sweets for Russia including pastilles and candied fruit jellies. Each department, as the shops were called, had its own “delicious” name: chocolate, cacao, caramel, fruit jellies, safo, sponge cake, waffles, candies, and ice-cream. Monsieur Sioux senior also asked his sons to launch four perfume-making departments at the factory. Also, the factory had utility and storage rooms where packaging and boxes were made, and carriages mended. There was also a laundry room where hundreds of aprons and towels were hand washed daily. The factory also had its own first aid room.

Soon, the Sioux brothers bought the adjacent land with a pond to expand production. Oscar Didio designed the buildings for the new factory on piles over the pond.

How Muscovites learned to drink cacao and eat chocolate

The Sioux brothers unveiled a whole new world of sweets for people in Moscow. They were the first to produce hard chocolate in Russia. They imported special raw chocolate from Europe. They also began making cacao powder and coffee. Initially, the raw coffee was roasted manually, so it was always unevenly roasted, sometimes was burnt or remained raw. So the factory owners purchased automatic roasters. After roasting, the coffee beans were poured on a table, then quickly cooled with powerful fans and sealed into tins. This allowed them to retain the unique coffee aroma. S. Sioux and Co coffee had a reputation as one of the country’s best.

The plant made dozens of different types of caramels – with fruit juices, praline and jam. Each was hand wrapped with baking paper and then the wrapping paper with a vignette. The plant workers boiled syrups and jam themselves, using berries and fruit purchased from local suppliers. Candied fruit jellies were made from apples, sugar and fruit juices only. Pastilles were hugely popular. The confectionery chefs had to test-eat plenty of recipes before they found the unique flavour of the company’s pastilles. Nougat with almonds and pistachios also attracted customers as well as safo caramel candies similar to modern fudge and toffees.

The special art of candy wrapping

The wrappers of Sioux sweets deserve special mention. Russian and west European artists worked on the designs. Those with a sweet tooth could learn Russian history from the candy wrappers, and boxes with sweets contained flyers that could be used to make a collection on a certain subject. Such topics as The Alphabet, Geography and History were meant for children, while Pushkin, Russian Romantic Song and Cabinet Photographs were designed for adults.

The chocolate wrapper, a White Army General with an image of Gen. Mikhail Skobelev commemorated the Khiva conquest as the Russian Empire annexed the Central Asian territories. Ahead of New Year celebrations, the factory’s graphics house released calendars that were put into biscuit and candy boxes.

The most glamorous and expensive sweets were sold in tinned boxes with a lock, and were mostly designed as gifts for women and children. Leather gripsacks were designed for men.

Imperial court supplier

In 1908, the C. Sioux and Co. Trading House was renamed the C. Sioux and Co. Factories Companionship. But the landmark event in the company’s history came in 1913 when the country was preparing to celebrate the 300^th anniversary of the Royal dynasty. For this occasion, the factory released eau de cologne in a crystal bottle In Memory of the 300th Anniversary of the Romanov House, Susanin candies and the legendary Yubileinoye biscuits. In the same year, the factory was awarded the honorable title of His Majesty’s Court Supplier.

Revolution, new rule, new name

The 1917 October Revolution forced the Sioux dynasty to leave the country and abandon the factory. Workers and Red Army soldiers sealed the storage rooms and its book-keeping office, leaving one of Russia’s leading confectionary companies unmanaged. Production was suspended as there were not enough raw materials or managers to run it. The plant was nationalised in 1918, and renamed in March 1919. The Sioux enterprise was now called State Confectionery Factory Number 3. In 1920, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin decided to give the factory a new revolutionary name, Bolshevik. As the country recovered from these turbulent times, the Bolshevik company gradually resumed production. In 1927, the factory began to produce only baked products, while the perfume, printing and chocolate workshops underwent restoration.

Europe’s largest confectionery plant

During the Great Patriotic War (WWII), Bolshevik had to convert to the defense sector, manufacturing bottles for Molotov cocktails and cleaning rods to lubricate gun barrels. After the victory, the country was faced with the challenging task of restoring the economy and restarting pre-war industrial production. Many plants and factories were destroyed by the war, but not Bolshevik. The war had no impact on the facility exterior or interior, therefore the production lines were quickly restarted. The plant was once again making biscuits, gingerbread, waffles, rolled and other cakes, and grew into Europe’s largest confectionery plant. It had its own radio and newspaper The Voice of the Worker. Three or four generations of employees’ families worked at the plant, whose production saw sustained growth.

In the 1970s, the plant put out 70-80 metric tonnes of 170 types of sweets. Children living on Leningradsky Prospekt next to the plant believed that cacao and chocolate were flowing inside the pipes laid next to the delicious smelling factory (in fact, these were water mains). In 1980 the country was preparing to host the 22^nd Olympic Games and Bolshevik was working at full capacity day and night so that every tourist could taste Soviet sweets. Sales volumes remained high until the 1990s.

In 1992, the French regained control of the plant – Danone acquired 80 percent of its shares. The new owners wanted to change the name but the Muscovites were more used to and attached to the old brand. Hence, the sweets maker retained the name Bolshevik.

Barn museum and Bolshevik sweets shop

However, the company’s long history did not necessarily have a good effect on the factory’s historical image. In Soviet days, some buildings were adapted for production needs, but in the 1990s factory owners turned many buildings into warehouses. This was detrimental, causing the building structures to rust and disrupting the distribution of the utilities.

In 2012, the confectionery production lines were relocated for a thorough repair of the entire complex. One of the main tasks facing conservation architects was to preserve the historical look of the former factory. When he designed the building 130 years ago, architect Oscar Didio added light-coloured bricks to the red brick walls of the building to make it stand out among other buildings. The unique ornamentation resembled a pattern on a biscuit. Restoration was a painstaking effort as conservation architects had to extract the broken bricks and recreate new ones. The ornamental design on the Bolshevik’s facade was restored using archived blueprints and photos. The most valued buildings – three buildings looking out on Leningradsky Prospekt – have been preserved in their original form.

Hence, the Bolshevik complex has retained both its name and historical image. Its engineering and technological equipment have been replaced and the complex itself overhauled for modern use. By contrast, new projects have set off the unique and inimitable architecture of Bolshevik. A key new element is the glass atrium dome that links the three buildings into a single space open to the public with its own infrastructure and resting zone.

Another gem in the renovated Bolshevik is the Museum of Russian Impressionism, which was built in the former flour barn. Architects have wrapped the huge silver cylinder-shaped museum with perforated metal and glazed the ceiling. Inside, the museum has been split into five floors with a winding ladder to emphasise the dynamics. It is hard to imagine that a barn once used to be at this site where flour was delivered via pipes under pressure.

The project to transform the former industrial enterprise into a modern and comfortable culture and business centre has fit perfectly with the architectural concept of the city’s construction policy. The project has received acclaim by Moscow residents, where the majority voted “good” and “excellent” on the restoration effort via an Active Citizen online vote. In all, 226,285 “active citizens” cast votes.

Muscovites were also impressed that the confectionery plant remained in its historical place. The old address can still be used to buy cakes produced under the Bolshevik brand.