The Orenburg Down Shawl at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries

In order to study the question in depth, we researched archival data and turned to real documents dating from the first half of the last century. Here is what we managed to learn about the development of down knitting.

The documents studied confirm that the craft really originated in the Orenburg Governorate, mainly founded by the Cossacks of the former Orenburg Uyezd, and that down knitting already existed as a craft before 1870 (the officially known date when the craft began to rise, which some consider the actual date of its origin), but was not widespread. The figures cited speak of no more than 300 craftswomen knitting down items (at that time mainly shawls).

The first serious opportunity to make the craft widely known was the famous Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition of 1872, at that time the largest exhibition venue for industrial, agricultural, military, cultural and technical achievements. Orenburg down shawls took a place of honour at this event. From then on, the craft attracted interest all over the country, and the items came into demand, which inevitably gave impetus to the development of the down-knitting craft as a whole. Year after year the number of people involved in making and selling goat down items grew. For comparison: by 1894 about 4,000 people were officially engaged in down knitting, with a total turnover not exceeding 100,000 roubles. In just 10 years their number grew almost 5 times, and in 1904 items worth 489 thousand roubles were sold. The pace of the craft's development can be traced in the summary tables given in official documents.

It is worth noting that there were no large down artels yet at that time, and the scattered knitters were heavily economically dependent on middlemen who supplied them with raw material but bought the finished items at extremely low prices, driving the craftswomen into real "bondage". This factor, unfortunately, slowed the craft's development, yet growth continued steadily and Orenburg down shawls gradually reached the international market. In the last years before the war, openwork shawls were delivered in large quantities to Paris and London. Large foreign firms exporting down items began actively developing the making of high-grade shawls, which quickly led to higher incomes for the craftswomen and, accordingly, faster development.

An interesting fact is that at the beginning of the 20th century the main "competitor" of the Orenburg down shawl was considered to be Penza shawls, but they were much inferior in quality, and so down items from Orenburg were valued more highly and were in much greater demand.

Alas, the war dealt a serious blow to Orenburg down knitting. While from 1916 shawl output fell sharply, by 1921 the craft had practically come to nothing; Cossack women knitted only occasionally and only for themselves.

The revival of the craft began at the turn of 1925–1926. Interestingly, while before the war only women were involved in the process, after the war men stopped unequivocally regarding down knitting as "women's work" and actively joined in, gradually regaining the positions lost during the war years.

So from 1926 the first officially registered down partnerships began to appear, and in the same period a provincial union of craft cooperatives was created. Again, serious growth can be seen: by 1927 the craft ranked first in the number of people employed in small-scale and cottage industry.

By the mid-1930s, 38 large down partnerships existed and flourished in 19 districts of the Orenburg Region. According to official data, the number of craftswomen reached 11,706.

Interestingly, the Great Patriotic War, despite its destructiveness, dealt a much smaller blow to the craft; among other things, the knitters' work was directed to military needs (you can read about this in our article). The war and post-war years were again marked by growth both in total output and in the number of people involved.

Thus we see that the knitting of Orenburg down shawls has gone through many ups and downs. From our experience, we can say that today a growing interest in the craft itself and in down items can again be seen. Considering ourselves a down artel and taking our lead from the experience of such artels in the craft's best years, we will do everything possible to promote its further development.