Leather haberdashery company "BEBEL" traces its history back to 1879, when the Swiss citizen Samuel BEHLEY bought a plot of land on Bolotnaya Street. Five years later, the first album factory in Russia was opened here, which produced elegant photo albums trimmed with expensive leather with gold embossing, a variety of toilet items for St. Petersburg fashionistas. Behli's factory did an excellent job of handling all the demands of album fashion. Therefore, when word of product quality reached the Imperial Court, BEHLEY immediately obtained a license as a Supplier to the Court of His Imperial Majesty. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, suitcases, travel bags (including medical ones), purses developed by talented craftsmen appeared in the assortment of the factory. But 1917 changed everything overnight. The first owner of the factory was forced to leave Russia. In the Civil War, production switched to the production of military products for the Red Army: cavalry saddles, harnesses, holsters. In 1921 the company started a new life. The factory became known as the State Saddlery-Case-Suitcase Factory. It was then that she received the name of one of the leaders of the German labor movement - August BEBEL.