Or maybe we should bring shoe shiners back to the street?

1.
Crimea 1900s

***
Come closer to me
Put your foot here
Your shoes are red
Doesn't fit anywhere.

I'll clean it with cream
Black velvet rub,
To make him completely yellow,
Like the sun in the morning.

Osip Emilievich Mandelstam. 1926

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Crimea 1900s

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Crimea 1900s

"These archival photographs of Crimea are probably more than a hundred years old. We saved them from complete destruction by snatching them from a dumpster. The photographs were packed in a bag with the inscription "Crimea 1900s." Judging by the stamps with inventory numbers, they were stored in some institution: a publishing house or an archive.Then someone took these archival photographs of Crimea to the trash heap.

The sheet film was badly damaged by time and careless handling. Realizing that a full-fledged restoration is impossible, and these photographic films from the Crimea, anyway, perish, we digitized what at least somehow yielded to scanning and reshooting. And here we have the digital album "Crimea 1900s". Selective photos from this album, we decided to show you".
The authors of the text are Igor and Larisa Shiryaev. http://www.interesmir.ru/arhivnyie-fotografii-kryima
More Archival photographs of Crimea in the 1900s, saved from destruction (33 photos)

4.

Shoe shiner
***
And I'll burn all my shares
And I'll give my limousine to the driver.
Employees problyu about love.
Freeloaders leaving stupid pack.

I'll buy myself a huge black box
Two pairs of brushes, waxes in reserve
And I will clean my shoes, in the present
Let the brilliance of her human caress the eye.

Let the brushes prancing in my hands,
Let them betray the heavenly light to the shoes.
I'll be drunk, on wax, like on vodka.
There is no better shine of shoes ...

Shoes shine like the lights of Broadway.
Gives wild chic and aroma
And this happiness is wildly tipsy
I will be happy, from that rich.

Coins flow into my pockets
From all the dandies in black shoes.
And undoubtedly local coquettes
They will know that all the glitter is in my hands.

Well, that's all I can dream of.
I'm blinded by the lights of your boots
And the brushes are circling, dancing wildly,
Granting me my ticket to happiness.
Ignatov http://www.stihi.ru/2014/05/08/11135

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Jules Bastien Lepage (1848-1884) French painter. In 1879-1882 he traveled around England, where he painted the painting "Shoe Shiner in London"

If I'm not mistaken, readers have never had to use the services of a street sweeper. They are gone, they are no more. And there was a time when you desperately needed clean shoes, and then next you saw a booth in which for a small fee (I don’t remember how much) you could get what you wanted.

You sat on a chair, put your foot on a special stand, the master of his craft inserted protective visors from the sides into your shoes or boots and started working with brushes. Then velvet was used, which gave your (sometimes well-worn) shoe-boot a fabulous mirror shine. Then he tapped the brush on the stand, which meant: "Change your foot!"

11.


These memories are inspired by Jules Bastien-Lepage's painting A Shoe Shiner in London (1882). A handsome boy in uniform stands leaning on a post. Near it on the left is a stand for the client's foot. He is wearing a red jacket with a dark brown collar and cuffs of the same color.
The most interesting detail is that a plaque with an inscription and a number hangs on the jacket on the left. The inscription indicates the organization for which this boy works - "Black Shoe Home" ("House of the Black Shoe"), and the place of his work, Marylebone - an affluent area of ​​London.

12.

The number on the badge indicates that there are several such cleaners. Historians write that since 1851, the London Black Shoe Brigade, founded by John MacGregor and Lord Shaftesbury, provided regular and well-paid work for children who earned their living by cleaning shoes. In the evenings, they attended a school for disadvantaged children, free schools that have existed in England since the 19th century, in which children received food and clothing.

It is estimated that some 300,000 children passed through these schools between 1844 and 1881. Today in London there is a museum of such schools. And the brigade was created like this: once three teachers from one of these charity schools were walking down the street, and one of them said that he had seen shoe shines in Paris.

“Maybe we should get those boys back on the street?”

The idea was accepted, five boys were taught how to shine their shoes, and on the last day of March 1851 they went to work for the first time in bright red uniforms (it cost one penny to shine shoes). It was impossible to call this work easy: the boys were bullied by their poor peers, gave them offensive nicknames, very likely, sometimes they were beaten for nothing, just like that.

In 1869 the Black Shoe Society had 377 cleaners, who in 1869 brought in an income of £8,830. In the same year, 50 boys in red uniforms worked in the Central Brigade, 10 in the Marylebone Brigade (uniforms - red and black), 6 in Islington (brown uniforms), 11 in the City of London. Let's return to the painting by Bastien-Lepage.

It cannot be said that the boy has a joyful life: longing is read in his eyes, his hands are in polish, there is a stain from wax on his face, under his right eye there is a trace of a bruise. He is not happy that after a working day (how long it lasted at that time - at least eight hours, and now it is only noon) he still has to sit at his desk.

No man could have predicted the future of a shoe shiner. Today it is known that the cleaners were Luis da Silva - President of Brazil, Alejandro Toledo - President of Peru, Rod Blagojevich - Governor of Illinois, USA.

What happened to this sad boy? No answer...
Author: Boris Rokhlenko
http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-71351/

Why in Russia, because of the ubiquitous dirt, there are car washes at every turn, but I have never seen shoe shiners?
The answer to this question lies in our show-offs. In our "Orthodox" society, people will prefer to sit on benefits, extort, beg, rob, kill, join MMM, but to fall so low as to clean someone's shoes is below our dignity.
By the way, it is precisely because of these show-offs that the business will be super profitable.

* There is nothing wrong with cleaning another person's shoes. If you perceive the other as an equal, then you will not even have such a thought. And that's exactly what is missing in our society. Each of the skin climbs to prove that he is the king, and all the rest are shit. And you call it dignity?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

13.


Monument to shoe shiner in Baku, Azerbaijan
Modern Shoe Shiners:

14.

Photo from the site http://www.sunhome.ru/foto/chistiljshhik-obuvi

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Photo from the site http://ruvesna.ru/obshchestvo/1249253806?page=117
http://www.antisled.ru/clauses/chistka-obuv/

Constitution of the USSR 1936
Article 9. Along with the socialist economic system,
which is the dominant form of economy in the USSR, is allowed
by law small private farming of individual peasants and handicraftsmen,
based on personal labor and excluding the exploitation of someone else's
labor.
USSR Constitution 1977
Article 17
individual labor activity in the field of handicraft
crafts, agriculture, consumer services,
as well as other activities based solely on
personal labor of citizens and their families. State regulates
individual labor activity, providing it
use in the public interest.

16

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Photo from the end of the 1980s. I. Nagaitseva. Same tent.

On the basis of these articles of the Soviet constitutions, it was mainly the artels of the disabled and ... Aisors that operated. The Aisors (aka Assyrians) appeared in Moscow in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In connection with serious persecution in Turkey, they began to move, including to the territory of Soviet Russia. In Moscow, they began to shine shoes, and over time it became their monopoly. Muscovites, as a rule, called them "Armenians", but there were no Armenians among them.

18.

Photo taken in 1947 by R. Capa. Corner of Rozhdestvenka and Cannon Street
Gutalin was made by ourselves. To do this, kiln soot was mixed with egg and beer. At the same time, the soot should be as fine as possible, otherwise the cleaner would risk scratching the shoes. Each family had its own shoe polish, a secret one. Its color was chosen depending on the color of the boot. The secrets of the craft were passed down from generation to generation and were not given to outsiders. But the cleaning algorithm was the same everywhere: first of all, dust was brushed off with a brush like a clothes brush. Then cardboard boxes were inserted into the boot around the leg, so as not to inadvertently stain the socks. Cream was applied to the shoes. If necessary, several different creams were mixed to find the right shade. This composition was rubbed into the shoes with another brush. A few minutes later, the third one was polished. The final shine was induced by velvet. Dust did not stick to such boots for several days! From here.
But this, of course, was in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 70s, shoe polish was already factory-made.
Many of them are still in their places and work.
One of the central Soviet newspapers wrote about one of these cleaners. He had this note hanging in a frame in his tent. I saw and talked to him myself, but now I can’t remember where his tent was? On Tverskoy Boulevard? Maybe someone remembers?

I didn’t have a goal to show all such tents in Moscow, there are too many of them :)

An ethnic organization of Assyrian entrepreneurs engaged in repairing and cleaning shoes in Moscow asks Sergei Sobyanin for protection. According to people, consumer service tents should be removed from auctions as socially significant objects. Repair is the area where you need to evaluate the quality, and not the willingness to pay for the lot, experts say.

The Moscow Assyrian society "Hayadta" addressed an open letter to the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin. “At open auctions for the conclusion of a contract for the placement of non-stationary objects, a raider seizure of consumer service tents for repairing shoes, clothes, watches, making keys, and metal repairs takes place,” its authors write (the document is at the disposal of MN). The basis for the statements was the auctions held in recent months for the placement of non-stationary objects of trade, where consumer service tents were played equally with everyone. “There are about 50 such tents all over the city,” says Hayadta deputy chairman Felix Tumasov. - They repair shoes, watches, keys. Everything is done by professionals."

Artel "Moscow Cleaner" Assyrians created in 1928. The craftsmen were given plots for kiosks, where shoeshine and household repairs began. Artel was dissolved in 1989 and its members became individual entrepreneurs. Many of the cleaners passed on the business by inheritance.

Bidding for the right to place stalls is basically completed. However, as noted by those involved in the "repair" business, the new owners are in no hurry to organize personal services in the places won. According to entrepreneurs who rely on the help of the mayor's office, this may indicate a dishonest game. They believe that repair tents, as socially significant objects, should not be put up for auction or, as a last resort, specialized competitions should be held for them.

“Now people who have worked in one place for more than ten years are on the street,” Tumasov laments. According to him, many people who also suffered from the auctions have already joined the Hayadta ethnic organization.

“The specifics of domestic services are not the specifics of trade,” says Ivan Lebedev, a former owner of six repair tents in the Western Administrative District. “It takes a year to grow a master.” Income from a "promoted" point can reach 100-150 thousand rubles per month. But in the first months it is unlikely to exceed 40 thousand rubles. The right to trade on the site of one of Lebedev's tents cost the new owners about 250,000 rubles. “The new pavilion costs half a million, and it still needs to be electrified, contracts for garbage collection and water supply must be signed,” says Lebedev. “And in three years there will be auctions again.”

In the prefecture of the Western District, which received the most criticism from the Hayadt society, they believe that nothing terrible is happening. “There are laws that are common to all,” said Olga Veldina, official representative of the ZAO prefecture. - All of our facilities are socially significant. There are competitions for everything."

“There are people who have their own clientele in the districts. People know the master and go to him,” says Alexander Popov, chairman of the Russian Trade Union of Medium and Small Business Workers. In his opinion, the essence is washed out at the auction - the quality of the service. “The auction gives a rough quantitative assessment, where everything is measured by money. But this is a matter of service, so the auction does not solve the problem, - Popov is sure. “The services of the one who pays the city more will cost more.” If people work for 15 years, it means that their tent is profitable and satisfies the population, the head of the trade union believes. “A system of competitions is needed, but qualitative indicators should play the main role, and for this officials need to cooperate with entrepreneurs,” he believes.

On the basis of these articles of the Soviet constitutions, it was mainly the artels of the disabled and ... Aisors that operated. The Aisors (aka Assyrians) appeared in Moscow in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In connection with serious persecution in Turkey, they began to move, including to the territory of Soviet Russia. In Moscow, they began to shine shoes, and over time it became their monopoly. Muscovites, as a rule, called them "Armenians", but there were no Armenians among them.

Photo from the 1980s Petrovka, near house number 3.

Photo from the end of the 1980s. I. Nagaitseva. The same tent.

Photo taken in 1947 by R. Capa. Corner of Rozhdestvenka and Cannon Street.
Gutalin was made by ourselves. To do this, kiln soot was mixed with egg and beer. At the same time, the soot should be as fine as possible, otherwise the cleaner would risk scratching the shoes. Each family had its own shoe polish, a secret one. Its color was chosen depending on the color of the boot. The secrets of the craft were passed down from generation to generation and were not given to outsiders. But the cleaning algorithm was the same everywhere: first of all, dust was brushed off with a brush like a clothes brush. Then cardboard boxes were inserted into the boot around the leg, so as not to inadvertently stain the socks. Cream was applied to the shoes. If necessary, several different creams were mixed to find the right shade. This composition was rubbed into the shoes with another brush. A few minutes later, the third one was polished. The final shine was induced by velvet. Dust did not stick to such boots for several days! From here.
But this, of course, was in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 70s, shoe polish was already factory-made.

Photo taken in 1981 by V. Tsarina. There. But the tent is brand new.

Photo taken in 1980 by V. V. Miloserdov. There, under the sign "Snowflake" (it was a dry-cleaner), you can see the tent "Shoe Shine".

Mark Lutsky
Memories of Shoe Shiners
Do you remember - nimble and disputes,
With deep antiquity in the eyes
Boot shiners - Aisors
Sitting in booths on the corners?
Their hands acted cunningly
Witchcraft in all its glory!
A colorful palette of creams
In boxes from under monpasier!
And wave a semicircular brush!
And the reflection of bunnies-mirrors,
When raspberry velvet
The shoe cleaner caressed!
Which one is brighter? Well, which one?
As if the light came from the earth!
Where have you gone, Aisors?
Have you gone to Assyria?

Many of them are still in their places and work.
One of the central Soviet newspapers wrote about one of these cleaners. He had this note hanging in a frame in his tent. I saw and talked to him myself, but now I can’t remember where his tent was? On Tverskoy Boulevard? Maybe someone remembers?
UPD: Yuri Rost wrote. Here is his picture.

Dirty and soiled shoes are always unpleasant, especially in the city and eternal employment, this often becomes a real problem. Sometimes you have to resort to improvised means, such as napkins or rags.

But as a rule, it is almost impossible to give a decent look to shoes with improvised means, the maximum that can be done is to remove dirt. At such moments, BARKER shoe-shine stations come to the rescue. Quickly and efficiently, the shoes acquire an elegant look, the surface and the sole acquire a clean surface!

Where to clean shoes in Moscow?

For many years now, thousands of Muscovites and guests of the capital have been using the services of BARKER shoe-shine shops. It is enough to choose the nearest point, by the way, this can be done through the “contacts” section, come there and you will receive a high-quality cleaning of your shoes, no matter what condition they are in.

Masters will select high-quality materials, carefully remove dirt, treat with shoe polish and polish it to a shine if necessary!

You will comfortably sit on a luxurious armchair, you will have a few minutes of peace and quiet, while the master will work with your shoes.

It is important to know that after such a professional cleaning, the shoes retain their gloss and water-repellent properties for a long time.

With us you can not only clean your shoes, but also hand over your favorite product (shoes, jacket or bag) for repair or dry cleaning.

Shoeshine points in Moscow.

Attention! New service from BARKER shoe shiners.

Recently, it has become relevant to surprise guests with newfangled chips. Organizers of various events - banquets, weddings, receptions, promotions in newfangled stores and shopping centers - offer their visitors Shoe Shine on an armchair. The service is a hit with guests!

A professional shoemaker in a white shirt and white gloves, using professional cleaning products, will clean the shoes of everyone who wishes to sit in a comfortable chair and take advantage of this newfangled pleasant service, kindly provided by the organizer of the event, to a shine.

OFFICEPLANKTON teaches you how to clean your shoes. To start, we present a cool, instructional video that will appeal to anyone who wants their shoes to shine like gems.

Proper shoe care according to the shoe shine method.

To be honest, we did not even think that the shoe shine profession existed today. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the video that accidentally caught our eye. First impressions - the process itself looks very stylish and impressive. Besides, how exciting it is.

The profession of a shoe shiner appeared in the 18th century and was relevant until the moment when shoe polish became as rare as it was. When he appeared in every home, the actual profession began to fall. This profession gained its greatest popularity at the end of the 19th century.

Today you can meet representatives of this profession only as an entertainment for tourists. Experienced shoe-shine masters in front of the client turn his old worn shoes into something clean and shiny. Without the use of shoe polish, only natural, expensive creams that are carefully selected for the various needs of customers. To complete this ritual, a piece of dry and clean cloth will rub your shoes to a truly amazing shine.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you know how to clean your shoes or not, as professionals do, you will learn from the video below.