History of Grigiskes Paper Factory

Grigiskes is a village on the outskirts of Vilnius, 12 kilometres West of the centre. It is settled near the Voke River by Vilnius-Kaunas highway. The settlement was called Grigiskes (also Grzegozewo, Grigorava) since 1923, when an engineer Grigas Kurecas has built a paper factory in the location between Voke and Neris Rivers.

Grigas Kurecas – the founder and the owner of paper factory

Grigas Kurecas was born in 1868 in a family of Byelorussian farmer in Shipka village (Vileika district, Chotenich parish, Belarus). As a child he was interested in mechanics and worked as an apprentice and as a metalworker in some factories of Vilnius. Later on he practised in St.Petersburg where he worked in the famous Putilov factories and also as a mechanic in some paper factory. Back in Lithuania he started to work as a master in Drucky-Lubecky Kapėnai cardboard factory. It was the first and the only newly built (in 1900) cardboard factory in Kaunas region. Two years later Grigas Kurecas was asked to direct a business in a bigger cardboard factory in Ural, which he directed until 1904. He came back rich enough to lease the same cardboard factory of Drucky-Lubecky in Kapenai. He was very successful in Kapenai and built another one modern cardboard factory in 1908. This was later called Shleipiai cardboard factory (probably because of a German word Schleifer, which means defibrer – the most important machine in cardboard production).

The activities of G.Kurecas in Kapenai inspired the owners of surrounding manors to start a cardboard business too. Count Tiskevicius, the owner of Voke manor, asked Grigas Kurecas to reconstruct his cardboard factory built in 1887. G.Kurecas modernised the factory in 1912 – he built a powerful concrete dam of 6 metres high, stone buildings and new equipment. The village and the factory were named Stone Voke. Grigas Kurecas became a manager of Stone Voke factories and later he leased the factories. During that time he was looking for areas suitable for industries where the power of water could be employed. He precisely examined the territory surrounded by Voke, Merkys and Neris Rivers and made a major plan how to utilise the natural fall of water of Voke River into Neris River. He also took into account soft and clean water of Voke River and decided to build his own paper factory on the place.

Grigas Kurecas was very precise when building a new factory. He did it step by step without announcing about his activities. He chose a confluence of Voke and Neris Rivers and bought an empty plot from the State Direction of Forests in 1922. He employed some workers and started construction works with the help of his family. The place was very advantage – an average channel and a small dam on Voke River resulted in a powerful waterfall of 12 metres high for the turbines of the factory.

Grigas Kurecas did not simply buy standard equipment for his factory but created his own models in which he emphasised the simplicity of construction and economy. The owner himself constructed many of paper and cardboard machines. The machines were manufactured at the metal factories of Vilnius and the finishing works were carried out in Grigiskes under the supervision of Kurecas. The factory also had two German defibrers by “J.M.Voith” for cardboard production and four paper machines and one sieve machine for cardboard moulding.

Paper machines of Grigiskes paper factory in 1928.

The factory started to operate in the autumn of 1925. The cardboard was in demand and so the cardboard cartel was established. Cheap labour force and free energy was very profitable: the cardboard production could bring up till 20-22 % of profit at the time.

The stock company was organised and the construction of another one factory was started. This time Grigas Kurecas decided to produce white cardboard. The new channel of 500 metres long was made between Voke and Neris and a bigger dam was built. The level of the waterfall was raised 4 metres up till 16 metres high. So, the more powerful engine of two turbines (425 HP each) was built. The capability of the factory was 3,5 tons of paper per year.

The turbine of Grigiskes paper factory in 1928.

All the construction and equip works of the new factory was managed by Grigas Kurecas. The factory was completed in less than two years and was inaugurated on the 26^th of June 1927.

Inauguration and dedication of Grigiskes paper factory in 1927. Bishop Michalkevicz (in the centre) and Grigas Kurecas (right to bishop).

Bishop Michalkevicz dedicated factory. The representatives of government, journalists and Vilnius citizens also participated in the inauguration. During the inauguration people had an opportunity to see the existing powerful factory and also they were impressed by the new ideas of Grigas Kurecas. Newspaper “Kurjer Wilenski” wrote in 1928 ”Grigiskes is the biggest paper factory from all the eight operating in our country. The waterpower in the factory is used in a very interesting way”.

A view of Grigiskes paper factory in 1927.

A view of Grigiskes paper factory in 1928.

In 1928 Grigas Kurecas started to build the third paper factory. He intended to do everything himself again, but the most outstanding engineers from Vilnius offered their help. A company “Water measuring station of Vilnius” researched the debit and incline of Voke River. During the period of 1928-1930 the three kilometres long channel was made, the dam five kilometres away from Voke mouth was built, another dam on the river Merkys was built and all its water turned into Papis lake from which the Voke River outflows.

Channel works, 1928.

And also there was built an 800 metres long concrete aqueduct. It was supposed to bring water from the channel to the water power plant of the factory. The waterfall level was raised up till 25 metres high and two new turbines (1000 HP each) were installed.

Aqueduct of Grigiskes paper factory in 1935.

Construction engineers occupied in the building of the factory were impressed by the qualities of Grigas Kurecas and his technical abilities and sharpness: he could easy correct by eye the inclines of channel or aqueduct without a single instrument, while engineers or geodesists used precise gear and calculation.

President of Poland I.Moscinski visited Grigiskes paper factory in 1930. The sight of aqueduct impressed him and his entourage since it was a unique structure in Poland.

President of Poland is visiting Grigiskes paper factory in 1930.

At the time there worked around 1000 workers in Grigiskes, mostly peasants from surrounding villages.

By the end of the third decade the economic crisis struck the world. Grigas Kurecas had to refuse his ideas about new factories and only modernised the existing ones. He assembled a new continuous cardboard machine out of the old machines and started to produce sandwich cardboard and various sorts of paper.

The factory was nationalised in 1940 when the Soviets came. All the property of Grigas Kurecas was evaluated as 8 million Litas. There were only 230 workers left in the factory and it produced 5 tons of paper per year. Grigas Kurecas moved to Kaisiadorys (central Lithuania) but later immigrated to Germany. The new managers started to direct his factories.

The World War II and the occupation had caused major damages of the factory. Running German army bombed the factory on the 12^th of July 1944. The roofs of main buildings were burned and the equipment was damaged. Renovation works took more than a year. The factory started to operate again on the 25^th of September 1945. In 1946 Grigiskes paper factory already had 136 workers and produced 1100 tons of paper. In 1947 the factory was stopped because of the collapse of the main building, so the reconstruction of the building was carried out. The following activities and the expansion of the factory started in 1949 when the company was recognised as a promising one.

In the Soviet period the factory was reconstructed and expanded. In 1948 worker’s dwelling houses and the whole settlement was built by the project of architect P.Janulis. In 1958 the settlement has got the rights of the town and in 1959 there lived 2578 inhabitants. In 1963 there were 22 streets and 330 houses (269 of the houses were built in 1945-1962). The factory was the centre of Lithuanian paper industry. The technological laboratory of paper industry and industrial association of paper factories were based in Grigiskes. Many outstanding specialists and leaders of paper industry were living in Grigiskes, too.

In 1958 the factory started a new production – a coloured velvet cover paper. In 1964 there was built the biggest in the Baltics chipboard shop (capability of 5.5 million square meters per year of chipboard). In 1965 a large shop of cigarette filters was established. In 1973 a new production of refined chipboard was started. In 1980-1985 Grigiskes paper factory was the main enterprise in the association of paper factories and Pabrade and Naujieji Verkiai paper factories were affiliated to it.

On the 18^th of December 1990 the enterprise was owned by the state. In 1990-1992 – it was a Lithuanian-American Joint Stock Company and on the 2^nd of April 1992 a private stock company was established. In 1998 a new boiler-house (utilising timber waste) was built and in 1999 a new waste-paper recycling line was built. Now a Joint Stock Company “Grigiskes” produce toilet paper, sanitary paper and chipboard.

Marija Dremaite, historian of architecture

1 October 2002, Vilnius

Literature:

Lietuvos medienos pramonė. Nuo ištakų iki 2000 m. sud. A.Morkevičius. V., 2001. P.265-275.

The project The Power of water is part of a larger Nordic-Baltic project Industrial Heritage Platform, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

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