Zhigulevsky Brewery

A brewing complex operates by the Volga River: red-and-white production buildings stand behind an embankment and dam that protect this plot from flooding and erosion. The brewery had its own pier, and beer was distributed by river on steamships and refrigerated barges to dozens of cities. Before the current buildings, a brewery belonging to the merchant Vasily Bureev operated here; the city then received it for debts, and the riverbank was left vacant. The brewery bore the name Zhigulevsky Brewery long before a Soviet beer variety was given the same name.

The red-and-white buildings by the Volga River are still used for brewing. Yet the enterprise did not begin with a recipe. Alfred von Vacano, an engineer and dealer in brewing equipment, came to Samara to establish a large steam-powered brewery, and first entered the bidding for this riverbank.

A dilapidated brewery belonging to the merchant Vasily Bureev already stood here. Bureev owed money to creditors, the enterprise passed to the city, and the site was left vacant. The location suited von Vacano: the Volga trade route ran nearby, the railway reached Samara, the population was growing, and there were almost no strong local competitors. In eighteen eighty, the entrepreneur requested from the municipal administration two thousand eight hundred square sazhen of land for ninety-nine years.

At the auction he competed with the grain merchant Pyotr Subbotin, who intended to obtain the same plot. Subbotin offered two thousand two hundred rubles in annual rent. Von Vacano added one ruble and won. That difference decided who would control the riverbank for almost a whole century.

The winner nearly lost what he had acquired immediately after the auction. Construction and equipment consumed the money before the brewery had time to gain strength. Von Vacano had to seek partners. He was helped by the brewer Moritz Faber and that same Pyotr Subbotin, whom he had outbid by one ruble. The former rival invested in the enterprise, and in eighteen eighty-one the three men founded a shareholding partnership with capital of two hundred thousand rubles. They began brewing Vienna Beer and Vienna Table Beer in the new buildings, built their own pier, and acquired steamships and refrigerated barges. The Volga River, because of which von Vacano had chosen this plot, carried Samara beer to dozens of cities.

The lease agreement contained another obligation: the owners had to protect the riverbank from erosion and spring flooding. Von Vacano built a dam, filled the space in front of the brewery with earth, and laid out a garden and grounds. A few years later, members of the city duma accused the partnership of unlawfully seizing the newly formed land. The entrepreneur replied that the dry land had appeared during work required by the agreement, and offered to pay for it separately. A city commission inspected the riverbank, found the payment sufficient, and noted that the brewery embankment was sturdier than the city's. The partnership retained the plot, and the buildings gained protected access to their own pier.

The von Vacano family lost the brewery during the First World War and the revolution. The founder, though he was already a Russian subject, was accused of espionage because of his Austrian origin and expelled from Samara. The case was later closed after falsifications were discovered in it. In nineteen eighteen, the enterprise was nationalized; the brewery, damaged during the fighting, lost some of its equipment, and Alfred von Vacano left Russia.

A few years later, the state needed people capable of restarting production. The founder's sons secured a twelve-year lease of the family brewery. Lothar von Vacano signed the agreement, the brothers restored the equipment, and in the spring of nineteen twenty-three beer was brewed here again. They were not allowed to complete the term: first the state bought a controlling stake, and in April nineteen twenty-nine it took over the enterprise completely. Most of the brothers left the country. Alfred von Vacano died that same spring.

The brewery bore the name Zhigulevsky Brewery as early as eighteen eighty-one. The Soviet beer of the same name appeared only half a century later and took its name from the enterprise. A plaque with a portrait of Alfred von Vacano is now installed on the wall of the surviving production complex; behind it, the buildings that his partnership constructed on the Volga riverbank he protected continue to be used for their intended purpose.