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The construction of the match factory in Kaluga was started in 1928. Due to the lack of match production machinery, some equipment was brought from the small factories in other towns (for example, match production in Medyn, Kaluga region was stopped in 1932 and all the equipment was moved to Kaluga). The first production of the new "Gigant" match factory was started in 1931. By 1940 the factory produced around 10% of all the matches in the USSR.
In the first years of its existence the "Gigant" match factory also made presents to the delegates of different congresses and conferences ("To the participants of the IV All-Union congress of the Soviets", "To the participants of the IV Comintern Congress", "To the participants of the XVII congress of the VKP(b)"). That was the matches in the big ply-wood boxes (16x12x5,5) with the special photo-labels.
During the WWII the factory was totally demolished. The production was restored only in 1949. The factory was equipped with the new machinery, the production was fully mechanized.
In the early 50-s (till the building of Balabanovo match factory) the offset shop of the "Gigant" match factory produced labels for most of the match factories in the European part of the USSR.
In 1957, when the new furniture shop was set to work, the factory was reorganized into the match and furniture industrial complex. In 1960 new plywood shop was set to work and in 1964 - splint-slabs production shop.
After the Chernobyl catastrophe the match production at the complex was stopped, as the woods used for match production fell into the nuclear pollution zone.
In the beginning of the 1980-s the factory organized the first in the USSR "Museum of Matches". Part of its collection became the collection of one of the most known Soviet collector V.Bogdanov. In 1990 all the museum funds were transferred to the Kaluga Regional Studies Museum, where a special exposition room is opened.
In 1990-s the were several attempts to restart match production, but they all failed.
Today CJSC "Gigant" is purely furniture factory. The match production seems to stop forever.
(materials for the review presented by Gennady Golyadkin)
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