Nikolskoye

Nikolskoye grew from two neighbouring villages, Nikolskoye or Nikolo-Pyostrovka, known from 1668, and Malaya Pyostrovka, founded in the 1680s. By 1761 they had come under one owner and formed a single settlement. The surrounding forests and good glassmaking sand, together with rivers that allowed goods to be floated downstream in spring, offered favourable conditions for industry.

In 1764 Catherine II permitted the landowner Alexei Bakhmetev to establish a glass and crystal works at his estate. Its first factory buildings rose that year, and the quality of its products earned the enterprise a reputation well beyond the district. Bakhmetev also established a porcelain and earthenware factory in 1773. In 1806 the glassworks received an imperial commission for a table service for seventy covers, a sign of how far the workshops of this rural estate had come.