EKATERINBURG LAPIDARY FACTORY’S ACTIVITIES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 1920s

The article considers the stone-cutting art of the region in the first post-revolutionary years by the example of the activities of the Ekaterinburg lapidary factory. Recurring since the 1950s, from publication to publication, the idea of interrupting the activities of this pre-revolutionary Russia’s key production in the first decade of Soviet power, or its reorientation exclusively to gem cutting, when studied in detail, demonstrates a different picture of the factory’s life during the period under review. Drawing upon archival documents and a few publications in the media, allows restoring a more complete picture of the stone-cutting activity of the enterprise in the first half of the 1920s. The article provides documentary information both on the activities of the factory and rare artworks created at that time. Based on the revealed archival data, including inventories and protocols, it clarifies the state of production at the time of its transfer to the state trust “Russkiye Samotsvety”. This change in the subordination of the Ekaterinburg Lapidary factory is regarded as a key event that allowed the factory itself to be preserved, as well as to avoid interrupting the tradition of artistic cutting of colored stone in the Urals.