Serf craftsmen at Khmelita supplied the whole household of the Griboyedovs

The "Economic Notes of the General Survey for Smolensk Province" of 1781 record that the inhabitants of Khmelita included:.

"confectioners, distillers who make vodka of various sorts for household consumption, blacksmiths, locksmiths, joiners, cooks, weavers who make German tablecloths, painters, gilders, lacquerers, bookbinders, saddlers, cobblers, shoemakers, tailors for men and for women, surveyors, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, plasterers, masons, carpenters, stove-makers, brewers, reed-makers, cloth-makers, candle-makers, window-makers, coopers, brickmakers, tanners, and, of women's various crafts, gold-embroiderers of cuffs and lace-makers. All the above-described persons produce work for the manorial household expenditure."

Can you imagine the scale of life on the Griboyedovs' estate? No wonder Khmelita was reckoned one of the richest estates not merely in the Smolensk region but in the whole of Russia. The numerous house serfs specialised in the most varied branches of contemporary production, meeting the needs of their masters in full, from vodka and liqueurs of every sort to gold embroidery.