Until 1917, merchants were favorite targets of newspaper feuilletonists and cartoonists. Who hasn’t practiced their wit at the address and “your degrees.” What were they like in reality - Russian rich people? How did you spend your wealth, how did you have fun?
Merchants Club
First of all, the Russian merchant was famous as a lover of good food. In Moscow hallmark The merchant club wanted to emphasize in every possible way the superiority of the big money over the pillar noble aristocracy, which was losing its former importance in the state. If the nobles who had not yet gone bankrupt preferred French cuisine, the merchants in their club emphasized ancient Russian dishes: “sterlet fish soup; two-yard sturgeon; beluga in brine; “banquet” veal; a white, creamy turkey, fattened with walnuts; “halved” pies made from sterlet and burbot livers; pig with horseradish; pig with porridge" and much more.
Piglets for Tuesday dinners at the Merchant Club were bought at a huge price from Testov, the same ones he served in his famous tavern. He fattened them himself at his dacha, in special feeders in which the piglet’s legs were blocked with bars, “so that he wouldn’t kick the fat!” - explained Ivan Testov. Capons and poultry came from Rostov-Yaroslavsky, and “banquet” veal came from Trinity, where calves were fed with whole milk... In addition to the wines that were being consumed by the sea, especially champagne, the Merchant Club was famous throughout Moscow for its kvass and fruit waters, the secret of which was Only one long-term club housekeeper knew - Nikolai Agafonovich.
Frenchwoman for two hundred thousand
Well, after that you could taste other earthly joys:
“At dinners, Stepan Ryabov’s orchestra played, and choirs sang - sometimes Gypsy, sometimes Hungarian, and more often Russian from Yar. The latter enjoyed special love, and his owner, Anna Zakharovna, was held in high esteem by the traveling merchants because she knew how to please the merchant and knew who to recommend which singer; the latter carried out every order of the mistress, because the contract placed the singer at the complete disposal of the choir owner.”
However, for the most part, smaller merchants were content with the enslaved singers. Financial aces preferred higher-flying women who required huge expenses. The record holder in this regard was Nikolai Ryabushinsky, for whom the Frenchwoman Fagette cost two hundred thousand rubles, spent in two months. For just one necklace with pearls and diamonds from Faberge, Ryabushinsky paid ten thousand two hundred rubles. It is worth recalling that at that time a payment of fifty kopecks per working day was considered a good price for a worker. But Nikolai Pavlovich was by no means going to limit himself to just one Frenchwoman. Relatives, frightened by the insane scale of the young rake's spending, managed to establish guardianship over him, which he managed to remove only a few years later. And now he has turned around with all his might. It is curious that, in addition to his ineradicable passion for women, Ryabushinsky turned out to be, perhaps, one of the first Russian reckless drivers. Muscovites quickly learned to recognize his luxurious red Daimler with a power of 60 horsepower (which was the latest technology at that time). Several times he was brought to justice for violating the rules of newfangled automobile driving, and once he had to pay a substantial compensation to a hit pedestrian.
But Nikolai Ryabushinsky hosted the main fun at his own villa “Black Swan” in Petrovsky Park, where, as Muscovites excitedly gossiped, “Athenian nights with naked actresses were held.” Apparently, in order to make these very nights more fun, Ryabushinsky decorated the villa with a collection of poisoned arrows from New Guinea. The fact is that when traveling in my youth exotic countries, Nikolai Pavlovich visited the cannibal Papuans and even allegedly drank wine from the skull of a defeated enemy from the leader of a hospitable tribe. Is it true, gossips claimed that this story was suspiciously reminiscent of a “skull Prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav”, from which the Pechenegs who killed him loved to drink strong drinks.
Be that as it may, the number of ladies wanting to visit the scandalous Black Swan villa did not decrease. Passion to female Nikolai Ryabushinsky kept it for life. Already in old age, when he was over seventy, while working at the Hermitage art gallery in Monte Carlo, he experienced his last infatuation - with a young refugee from Germany, three times his age.
Tigress and scientist pig
The passion for creating mansions built on the principle of being more expensive and fancier could end badly for its owner very sadly - Arseny Morozov, for example, became a Moscow laughing stock, having built a house well known to today's Muscovites - the building of a society for friendship with foreign countries, which is opposite the Khudozhestvenny cinema. To the architect's question about what style the house should be built in, Morozov answered - in all, there is enough money. The architect complied with the instructions, amusing the townspeople thoroughly.
The poorer merchants, of course, could not afford such a financial scale, so they came up with something cheaper and more primitive. No money for a trip to Egypt or New Guinea- but you can get drunk to death and leave Moscow to “hunt crocodiles in Africa.” True, such trips usually ended somewhere in Tver, in a station restaurant. If the millionaire merchant and famous eccentric Mikhail Khludov appears everywhere only accompanied by a tame tigress, it means that smaller merchants buy themselves the learned pig of the clown Tanti and arrange a ceremonial eating of it. True, then, unlike Khludov, they become the laughing stock of all of Moscow because, as it turned out, the cunning circus performer slipped them a simple and completely uneducated pig, and kept the “actress” intact. Mikhail Khludov preferred to carry his tigress around the wars. He acquired it during the conquest of Central Asia, where the animal received baptism of fire.
Their eastern colleagues also tried to keep up with their Russian colleagues. The owner of the largest Baku oil fields, Armenian Alexander Mantashev, very clearly explained why he made an unusually generous donation for the construction Armenian Church it was in Paris - “this is the city where I sinned most.” In order to sin properly, he went there every year.
His sons, Levon and Joseph, already firmly established in Moscow, amazed Muscovites with their dinners and banquets. Suffice it to say that carloads of fresh flowers were specially brought from Nice in winter for these dinners. But the brothers' main passion was horses. And they spared literally nothing for their favorites, building real palaces instead of stables - with hot water, ventilation and showers.
Not wanting to lag behind fashion, Levon began collecting works of famous artists. But he treated them in a unique way - he loved to shoot at canvases with a pocket pistol. Hot man...
From fads to museum creation
Fortunately for art, other wealthy collectors treated their collections with much more care. One can talk endlessly about the merits in the creation of domestic museums, in the development of sciences and art, of the merchant dynasties of the Tretyakovs, Morozovs, Shchukins, the same Ryabushinskys, Mamontovs and many others.
Often, the passion for collecting began as an ordinary merchant's whim. The creator of the famous theater museum, Alexey Bakhrushin, for example, began his activities with a bet. Argued with cousin that in just a month he will collect a larger and better collection than the one that his brother collected for several years. He won the bet, but got carried away so much that over time it became a difficult problem for his wife to get money from him for the household. Bakhrushin considered a ruble not spent on the museum to be lost.
But the merchant's temperament turned collecting into a kind of competition, a game of chance, forcing its owners to commit, from the point of view of an outsider, completely meaningless acts. For example, Mikhail Abramovich Morozov bought 4 paintings by Gauguin for only 500 francs each. And a few years later he was offered 30,000 francs for them. The merchant could not resist such a price and sold the paintings. But the next day, visiting an art gallery, he discovered that the paintings were already being sold for 50 thousand. Seeing the amount his former property was now valued at, Morozov decided to make a secondary purchase. Buy for five hundred, sell for thirty thousand and buy again for fifty thousand - there is something in this.
So there was everything in the history of the Russian merchants - crazy sprees, drunken tyranny, and an invaluable contribution to the development of national culture.
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Forbes magazine has been publishing its famous "richest lists" since 1918 - but it would be interesting to look at such a list from 1818 or even 1618.
There is no doubt: Russians would occupy a prominent place in it. Conquest of Siberia, victory in Northern War, beef stroganoff, tea with honey and Tretyakov Gallery- at the expense of the Russian oligarchs of the distant past.
1. Stroganov, Anika Fedorovich
Place and time: Northern Urals, 16th century
How he got rich: salt production and supply
...Somehow, at the end of the 15th century, the Novgorod merchant Fyodor Stroganov settled on Vychegda near Veliky Ustyug, and his son Anika opened a saltworks there in 1515. In those days, salt, or rather brine, was pumped from wells like oil and evaporated in huge frying pans - menial work, but necessary. By 1558, Anika had succeeded so much that Ivan the Terrible gave him huge lands on the Kama River, where Russia’s first industrial giant, Solikamsk, was already thriving. Anika became richer than the tsar himself, and when his possessions were plundered by the Tatars, he decided not to stand on ceremony: he summoned the fiercest thugs and the most dashing ataman from the Volga, armed him and sent him to Siberia to sort things out. The ataman’s name was Ermak, and when the news of his campaign reached the king, who did not want to new war, it was no longer possible to stop the conquest of Siberia. Even after Anika, the Stroganovs remained the richest people in Russia, sort of aristocrats from industry, owners of industries, guest houses, trade routes... In the 18th century they received the nobility. The Stroganov barons' hobby was finding talent among their serfs: one of these “finds” was Andrei Voronikhin, who studied in St. Petersburg and built the Kazan Cathedral there. Sergei Stroganov discovered in 1825 art school, where even peasant children were accepted - and who now does not know “Stroganovka”? In the 17th century, the Stroganovs created their own icon painting style, and in the 18th century, an architectural style, in which only 6 churches were built, but they cannot be confused with anything. And even “beefstraganoff” is called that for a reason: one of the Stroganovs served this dish to guests in his Odessa salon.
- - All of Siberia.
- - Architectural ensembles of Usolye and Ilyinsky ( Perm region) - “capitals” of the Stroganov Empire.
- - Churches in the Stroganov Baroque style in Solvychegodsk, Ustyuzhna, Nizhny Novgorod, Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
- - Icons of the “Stroganov school” in many churches and museums.
- - Stroganov Palace and Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt.
- - Moscow State Art and Industry Academy named after. S.G. Stroganov.
- - Beef Stroganoff is one of the most popular dishes of Russian cuisine.
2. Demidovs, Nikita Demidovich and Akinfiy Nikitich
Ill. Demidov Nikita Demidovich
Place and time: Tula and Middle Urals, XVIII century
How they got rich: ferrous metallurgy
At the end of the 17th century, Peter I often visited Tula - after all, he was going to fight with invincible Sweden, and weapons were made in Tula. There he became friends with the gunsmith Nikita Demidych Antufiev, appointed him chief of metals and sent him to the Urals, where Nikita founded the Nevyansk plant in 1701. Sweden then produced almost half of the metal in Europe - and Russia began to produce even more by the 1720s. Dozens of factories grew up in the Urals, the largest and most modern in the world at that time, other merchants and the state came there, and Nikita received the nobility and the surname Demidov. His son Akinfiy succeeded even more, and throughout the 18th century Russia remained the world leader in iron production and, accordingly, possessed the strongest army. On Ural factories Serfs worked, cars were powered by water wheels, metal was exported along rivers. Some of the Demidovs joined the classical aristocracy: for example, Grigory Demidov established the first botanical garden in Russia in Solikamsk, and Nikolai Demidov also became the Italian Count of San Donato.
What Russia has left as a legacy:
- - Victory in the Northern War, St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea.
- - Gornozavodskoy Ural is the main industrial region of the USSR and Russia.
- - Rudny Altai is the main Russian Empire supplier of silver, the “ancestor” of coal Kuzbass.
- - Nevyansk is the “capital” of the Demidov Empire. For the first time in the world, the Nevyansk Inclined Tower used reinforcement, a lightning rod and a truss roof.
- - Nizhny Tagil has been an industrial giant for all three hundred years of its history, where the Cherepanov brothers built the first Russian steam locomotive.
- - St. Nicholas-Zaretskaya Church in Tula is the family necropolis of the Demidovs.
- - The Botanical Garden in Solikamsk is the first in Russia, created according to the consultations of Carl Linnaeus.
3. Perlov, Vasily Alekseevich
How he got rich: tea import
Why do they say “tea” in Russian, and “ti” in English? The British penetrated China from the south, and the Russians from the north, and so it differed different ends Celestial pronunciation of the same hieroglyph. In addition to the Great Silk Road, there was also the Great Tea Road, which since the 17th century ran through Siberia, after the border Kyakhta, coinciding with the Siberian Highway. And it is no coincidence that Kyakhta was once called the “city of millionaires” - the tea trade was very profitable, and despite the high cost, tea was loved in Russia even before Peter I. Many merchants got rich from the tea trade - such as the Gribushins in Kungur. But the Moscow merchants Perlovs took the tea business to a completely different level: the founder of the dynasty, tradesman Ivan Mikhailovich, joined the merchant guild in 1797, his son Alexei opened the first tea shop in 1807, and finally in the 1860s Vasily Perlov founded the Tea Trade Association, growing into a real empire. He had dozens of stores throughout the country, he built the famous Tea House on Myasnitskaya, but most importantly, by establishing imports by sea and catching on to the railways in time, he made tea accessible to all segments of the population, including peasants.
What Russia has left as a legacy:
- - Tea culture, which has become an integral part of Russian everyday life.
- - As a result - Russian samovar and Russian porcelain.
- - The Tea House on Myasnitskaya is one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow.
4. Putilov, Nikolai Ivanovich
Place and time: St. Petersburg, XIX century
How he got rich: metallurgy and heavy engineering
Just as without the Hermitage and Isaac, St. Petersburg cannot be imagined without the Putilov (Kirov) plant. The largest plant in the Russian Empire. And it all started with the fact that in Crimean War the talented engineer Nikolai Putilov was introduced to Nicholas I and received from him an almost impossible order: to build a fleet of screw steamers at the St. Petersburg shipyards for the next navigation. Russia did not have such ships at that time, and the only possible “teacher” - Britain - smashed Russia to smithereens in Crimea. But Putilov performed a miracle worse than the Soviet one atomic bomb: when the ice melted in the Baltic, Russia already had 64 gunboats and 14 corvettes. After the war, the engineer went into business, modernized several factories in Finland and St. Petersburg, and in 1868 founded his own factory on the outskirts of the capital. He brought Russian metallurgy to a different level, reducing imports of steel, alloys, rails and heavy machinery significantly. His factory built machine tools, ships, guns, locomotives, and carriages. His last project was the new St. Petersburg port on Gutuevsky Island, which he did not live to see completed.
What Russia has left as a legacy:
- - Kirov plant and Northern Shipyard in St. Petersburg.
- - St. Petersburg Sea Port in its current form.
5. Tretyakov, Pavel Mikhailovich
Place and time: Moscow, XIX century
How he got rich: textile industry
Everyone knows this story from school curriculum: a rich Moscow merchant with an unlucky wife family destiny collected Russian art, in those days few people were interested, and he collected such a collection that he built his own gallery. Well, the Tretyakov Gallery is perhaps the most famous Russian museum now. In the Moscow province of the 19th century, a special breed of rich people developed: all as a selection - from old merchants, or even rich peasants; half are Old Believers; all owned textile factories; many were philanthropists, and no less famous here are Savva Mamontov with his creative evenings in Abramtsevo, the Morozov dynasty, another collector of paintings (though not Russian) Sergei Shchukin and others... Most likely, the fact is that they came to elite straight from the people.
What Russia has left as a legacy:
- - Tretyakov Gallery.
- - Numerous ancient factories in Moscow and the Moscow region.
6. Nobels, Ludwig Emmanuilovich, Robert Emmanuilovich and Alfred Emmanuilovich
Ill. Nobel Ludwig Emmanuilovich
Place and time: Baku, XIX century
How they got rich: explosives production, oil production
The Nobels are not entirely “Russian” characters: this family came to St. Petersburg from Sweden. But they changed Russia, and through it the whole world: after all, oil became the Nobels’ main business. People knew about oil for a long time, they extracted it in wells, but they didn’t really know what to do with this nasty thing and burned it in ovens like firewood. The flywheel of the oil era began to gain momentum in the 19th century - in America, in Austrian Galicia and in the Russian Caucasus: for example, in 1823, the world's first oil refinery was built in Mozdok, and in 1847, the world's first well was drilled near Baku. The Nobels, who became rich in the production of weapons and explosives, came to Baku in 1873 - then Baku industries lagged behind Austrian and American ones due to their inaccessibility. In order to compete with the Americans on equal terms, the Nobels had to optimize the process as much as possible, and in Baku in 1877-78, one after another, the attributes of modernity began to appear for the first time in the world: the tanker “Zaroaster” (1877), an oil pipeline and oil storage facility (1878), the motor ship “Vandal” "(1902). The Nobel oil refineries produced so much kerosene that it became a consumer product. A gift from heaven for the Nobels was the invention of the German diesel engine, the mass production of which they established in St. Petersburg. "Branobel" ("Nobel Brothers Petroleum Production Partnership") was not much different from oil companies modernity and brought the world into a new - oil - era. Alfred Nobel was tormented by his conscience for the invention of dynamite in 1868, and he bequeathed his grandiose fortune as a fund for the “Peace Prize,” which is awarded in Stockholm every year to this day.
What is left as a legacy for Russia and the world:
- - The oil era with all its pros, cons and features
- - Pipelines, oil storage tanks, tankers.
- - Motor ships and diesel-electric ships.
- - Industrial (not consumer) thermal power engineering.
- - Dynamite (invention of Alfred Nobel, 1868)
- - Nobel Prize- She owes 12% of her capital to Branobel
7. Vtorovs, Alexander Fedorovich and Nikolai Alexandrovich
Ill. Vtorov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Place and time: Siberia, turn of XIX-XX centuries
How they got rich: services sector
...In 1862, the Kostroma man Vtorov came to merchant Irkutsk, and almost immediately suddenly acquired good capital: some say he married successfully, others say he robbed someone or beat someone at cards. With this money, he opened a store and began supplying manufactured goods from the Nizhny Novgorod Fair to Irkutsk. There was no sign that this would become the largest fortune in the world. Tsarist Russia- about 660 million dollars at the current exchange rate by the beginning of the 1910s. But Vtorov created such an attribute of modernity as a chain supermarket: under the common brand “Vtorov’s Passage”, huge stores equipped with the latest technology with a single structure, assortment and prices appeared in dozens of Siberian, and then not only Siberian, cities. The next step is the creation of a network of “Europe” hotels, again made to a single standard. After thinking a little more, Vtorov decided to promote the business in the outback - and now the project for a store with an inn for villages is ready. From trade, Vtorov moved to industry, founding a plant in the Moscow region with the futuristic name “Electrostal” and buying up metallurgical and chemical plants almost in bulk. And his son Nikolai, who founded the first business center in Russia (Business Dvor), most likely would have increased his father’s capital... but a revolution happened. Richest man Russia was shot dead by an unknown assailant in his office, and his funeral was personally blessed by Lenin as “the last meeting of the bourgeoisie.”
What Russia has left as a legacy:
- - Supermarkets, business centers and chain establishments.
- - Dozens of “Vtorov’s passages”, which in many cities are the most beautiful buildings.
- - Business yard on Kitai-Gorod.
Russian merchants have always been special. Merchants and industrialists were recognized as the most wealthy class of the Russian Empire. These were brave, talented, generous and inventive people, patrons of art and connoisseurs of art.
Bakhrushins
They come from the merchants of the city of Zaraysk, Ryazan province, where their family can be traced through scribe books until 1722. By profession, the Bakhrushins were “prasols”: they drove cattle in droves from the Volga region to big cities. The cattle sometimes died on the road, the skins were torn off, taken to the city and sold to tanneries - this is how the history of their own business began.
Alexey Fedorovich Bakhrushin moved to Moscow from Zaraysk in the thirties of the last century. The family moved on carts, with all their belongings and youngest son Alexander, the future honorary citizen of the city of Moscow, was carried in a laundry basket. Alexey Fedorovich - became the first Moscow merchant Bakhrushin (he has been included in the Moscow merchant class since 1835).
Alexander Alekseevich Bakhrushin, the same honorary citizen of Moscow, was the father of the famous city figure Vladimir Alexandrovich, collectors Sergei and Alexei Alexandrovich, and the grandfather of Professor Sergei Vladimirovich.
Speaking of collectors, this well-known passion for “gathering” was distinctive feature Bakhrushin family. The collections of Alexey Petrovich and Alexey Alexandrovich are especially worth noting. The first collected Russian antiquities and, mainly, books. According to his spiritual will, he left the library to the Rumyantsev Museum, and porcelain and antiques to the Historical Museum, where there were two halls named after him. They said about him that he was terribly stingy, since “every Sunday he goes to Sukharevka and bargains like a Jew.” But he can hardly be judged for this, because every collector knows: the most pleasant thing is to find an authentic one yourself. valuable thing, the merits of which others were not aware of.
The second, Alexey Alexandrovich, was a big theater lover, for a long time presided over the Theater Society and was very popular in theatrical circles. Therefore, the Theater Museum became the world's only richest collection of everything that had anything to do with the theater.
Both in Moscow and in Zaraysk they were honorary citizens of the city - a very rare honor. During my stay in the City Duma there were only two honorary citizens of the city of Moscow: D. A. Bakhrushin and Prince V. M. Golitsyn, the former mayor.
Quote: “One of the largest and richest companies in Moscow is the Trading House of the Bakhrushin brothers. They have leather and cloth business. The owners are still young people, with higher education, renowned philanthropists who donate hundreds of thousands. They conduct their business, albeit on a new basis - that is, using last words science, but according to ancient Moscow customs. Their offices and reception rooms, for example, make them want a lot." "New Time."
Mamontovs
The Mamontov family originates from the Zvenigorod merchant Ivan Mamontov, about whom practically nothing is known, except that the year of birth was 1730, and that he had a son, Fyodor Ivanovich (1760). Most likely, Ivan Mamontov was engaged in farming and made a good fortune for himself, so his sons were already rich people. One can guess about his charitable activities: the monument on his grave in Zvenigorod was erected by grateful residents for the services provided to them in 1812.
Fyodor Ivanovich had three sons - Ivan, Mikhail and Nikolai. Mikhail, apparently, was not married, in any case, he did not leave any offspring. The other two brothers were the ancestors of two branches of the venerable and numerous Mammoth family.
Quote: “Brothers Ivan and Nikolai Fedorovich Mamontov came to Moscow rich people. Nikolai Fedorovich bought a large and beautiful house with an extensive garden on Razgulay. By this time he had big family" ("P. M. Tretyakov". A. Botkin).
The Mamontov youth, the children of Ivan Fedorovich and Nikolai Fedorovich, were well educated and diversely gifted. Savva Mamontov’s natural musicality especially stood out, which played a big role in his adult life.
Savva Ivanovich will nominate Chaliapin; will make Mussorgsky, rejected by many experts, popular; will create a huge success in his theater with Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Sadko”. He would be not only a patron of the arts, but also an adviser: the artists received valuable instructions from him on issues of makeup, gesture, costume and even singing.
One of the remarkable undertakings in the field of Russian folk art is closely connected with the name of Savva Ivanovich: the famous Abramtsevo. In new hands it was revived and soon became one of the most cultural corners of Russia.
Quote: “The Mamontovs became famous in a wide variety of fields: both in the field of industry, and, perhaps, especially in the field of art. The Mamontov family was very large, and representatives of the second generation were no longer as rich as their parents, and in the third, the fragmentation of funds "It went even further. The origin of their wealth was tax farming, which brought them closer to the well-known Kokorev. Therefore, when they appeared in Moscow, they immediately entered the rich merchant environment." (“The Dark Kingdom”, N. Ostrovsky).
The founder of this one of the oldest trading companies in Moscow was Vasily Petrovich Shchukin, a native of the city of Borovsk, Kaluga province. At the end of the seventies of the 18th century, Vasily Petrovich established trade in manufactured goods in Moscow and continued it for fifty years. His son, Ivan Vasilyevich, founded the Trading House “I. V. Shchukin with his sons” The sons are Nikolai, Peter, Sergei and Dmitry Ivanovich.
The trading house conducted extensive trade: goods were sent to all corners Central Russia, as well as to Siberia, the Caucasus, the Urals, Central Asia and Persia. IN last years The trading house began to sell not only calicoes, scarves, linen, clothing and paper fabrics, but also wool, silk and linen products.
The Shchukin brothers are known as great connoisseurs of art. Nikolai Ivanovich was a lover of antiquities: his collection contained many ancient manuscripts, lace, and various fabrics. He built a beautiful building in the Russian style for the collected items on Malaya Gruzinskaya. According to his will, his entire collection, along with the house, became the property of the Historical Museum.
Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin occupies a special place among Russian nugget collectors. We can say that all french painting beginning of this century: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, some of their predecessors, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Degas - were in Shchukin’s collection.
Ridicule, rejection, misunderstanding by society of the work of this or that master did not mean anything to him. of the slightest significance. Often Shchukin bought paintings for a penny, not out of his stinginess and not out of a desire to oppress the artist - simply because they were not for sale and there was not even a price for them.
Ryabushinsky
From the Rebushinskaya settlement of the Pafnutyevo-Borovsky monastery in the Kaluga province in 1802, Mikhail Yakovlev “arrived” to the Moscow merchants. He traded in Kholshchovoy Row in Gostiny Dvor. But he went bankrupt during the Patriotic War of 1812, like many merchants. His revival as an entrepreneur was facilitated by his transition to the “schism.” In 1820, the founder of the business joined the community of the Rogozhskoe cemetery - the Moscow stronghold of the Old Believers of the “priestly sense”, to which the richest merchant families of the mother throne belonged.
Mikhail Yakovlevich takes the surname Rebushinsky (that’s how it was spelled then) in honor of his native settlement and joins the merchant class. He now sells “paper goods”, runs several weaving factories in Moscow and Kaluga province, and leaves his children a capital of more than 2 million rubles. Thus, the stern and devout Old Believer, who wore a common people's caftan and worked as a “master” in his manufactories, laid the foundation for the future prosperity of the family.
Quote: “I have always been struck by one feature - perhaps characteristic the whole family is internal family discipline. Not only in banking matters, but also in public affairs, everyone was assigned his own place according to the established rank, and in the first place was the elder brother, with whom others reckoned and, in a certain sense, obeyed him." ("Memoirs", P. Buryshkin).
The Ryabushinskys were famous collectors: icons, paintings, art objects, porcelain, furniture... It is not surprising that Nikolai Ryabushinsky, “the dissolute Nikolasha” (1877-1951), chose the world of art as his career. An extravagant lover of living in grand style, he entered the history of Russian art as the editor-publisher of the luxurious literary and artistic almanac “The Golden Fleece,” published in 1906-1909. The almanac was collected under the banner of “pure art” best forces Russian" silver age": A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Bryusov, among the "seekers of the golden fleece" were the artists M. Dobuzhinsky, P. Kuznetsov, E. Lanceray and many others. A. Benois, who collaborated in the magazine, assessed its publisher as "a figure most curious, not mediocre, in any case special."
Demidovs
The founder of the Demidov merchant dynasty - Nikita Demidovich Antufiev, better known by the name Demidov (1656-1725) was a Tula blacksmith and advanced under Peter I, receiving vast lands in the Urals for the construction of metallurgical plants. Nikita Demidovich had three sons: Akinfiy, Gregory and Nikita, among whom he distributed all his wealth.
In the famous Altai mines, which owe their discovery to Akinfiy Demidov, ores rich in gold and silver content, native silver and horny silver ore were found in 1736.
His eldest son Prokopiy Akinfievich paid little attention to the management of his factories, which, despite his intervention, generated huge income. He lived in Moscow, and surprised the townspeople with his eccentricities and expensive undertakings. Prokopiy Demidov also spent a lot on charity: 20,000 rubles to establish a hospital for poor mothers at the St. Petersburg Orphanage, 20,000 rubles to Moscow University for scholarships for the poorest students, 5,000 rubles to the main public school in Moscow.
Tretyakovs
They came from an old but poor merchant family. Elisey Martynovich Tretyakov, the great-grandfather of Sergei and Pavel Mikhailovich, arrived in Moscow in 1774 from Maloyarovslavets as a seventy-year-old man with his wife and two sons, Zakhar and Osip. In Maloyaroslavets, the Tretyakov merchant family existed since 1646.
The history of the Tretyakov family essentially boils down to the biography of two brothers, Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich. During their lifetime, they were united by genuine family love and friendship. After their death, they were forever remembered as the creators of the gallery named after the brothers Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov.
Both brothers continued their father's business, first trading, then industrial. They were linen workers, and flax in Russia has always been revered as an indigenous Russian product. Slavophile economists (like Kokorev) always praised flax and contrasted it with foreign American cotton.
This family was never considered one of the richest, although their commercial and industrial affairs were always successful. Pavel Mikhailovich spent huge amounts of money on creating his famous gallery and collecting his collection, sometimes to the detriment of the well-being of his own family.
Quote: “With a guide and a map in his hands, zealously and carefully, he reviewed almost all European museums, moving from one big capital to another, from one small Italian, Dutch and German town to another. And he became a real, deep and subtle connoisseur painting". ("Russian Antiquity").
Soltadenkovs
They come from the peasants of the village of Prokunino, Kolomensky district, Moscow province. The founder of the Soldatenkov family, Yegor Vasilievich, has been listed in the Moscow merchant class since 1797. But this family became famous only in the half of the 19th century, thanks to Kuzma Terentievich.
He rented a shop in the old Gostiny Dvor, sold paper yarn, and was involved in discounting. Subsequently he became a major shareholder in a number of manufactories, banks and insurance companies.
Kuzma Soldatenkov had a large library and a valuable collection of paintings, which he bequeathed to the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum. This collection is one of the earliest in terms of its composition and the most remarkable in terms of its excellent and long existence.
But Soldatenkov’s main contribution to Russian culture is considered to be publishing. His closest collaborator in this area was the well-known Moscow city figure Mitrofan Shchepkin. Under the leadership of Shchepkin, many issues dedicated to the classics were published economic science, for which special translations were made. This series of publications, called the Shchepkin Library, was a most valuable tool for students, but already in my time - the beginning of this century - many books became bibliographic rarities.
A merchant is not such an ancient profession as a hunter, but still a fairly ancient specialty in the field of entrepreneurship, that is, activities aimed at systematically making a profit from trade.
Basics
There were merchants in Rus' already in the 9th century. In those days, the state treasury was filled mainly due to tribute collected from conquered peoples. The second source of income was trade. She was also the engine of progress. Cities were built mainly along the banks of rivers, which served as trade routes. By historical information The Scythians had no other roads at all. Coastal cities first became shopping centers, and then crafts developed in them. IN Ancient Rus' a merchant is not only a trader. which was installed in Tver, in his homeland, he was both a sailor “across three seas”, a discoverer, and a diplomat. And the famous legendary Novgorod merchant Sadko also visited the bottom of the sea.
Trade routes
Thanks to the exchange of goods and its representatives, such great trade routes, such as “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, the “Great Silk Road”, which is called the “crossroads of civilizations”, the “Chumatsky Way”, the famous “path of incense”, which crosses and many others. The merchants were Russian princes, forced to somehow get rid of excess tribute in kind or accumulated money, spending it on overseas curiosities. The merchant is also the main informant in those distant times: “Is it good or bad overseas? And what miracle is there in the world?” - we learned only from representatives of this multifaceted profession.
Petrine reforms affected everyone
This type of activity was respected, the merchants were an important class at all times. Legends were made about the commercial enterprise of Russians. Ancient merchant houses often came to the aid of the state. The richest Stroganovs discovered new lands, built factories, erected churches. Some historical studies say that Peter I crushed the merchants, as a result of which many types of Russian crafts, loved and supported by merchants, perished. The tsar carried out reforms, as a result of which the old form of merchant associations “hundreds” was abolished, and they were replaced by guilds. It was bad or bad, but the merchants did not die.
Rich and kind
The merchant class developed and gained strength, the best representatives of this class were promoted to the nobility for special services to the fatherland. For example, the Rukovishnikovs. The Moscow dynasty founded a noble family, and Ivan Vasilyevich (1843-1901) rose to the rank of Privy Councilor. The Novgorod dynasty, whose founder was a resourceful peasant, already in the third generation began to belong to the upper class. The motto of this family was the words “I sacrifice and care.” The same can be said about quite a large number of Russian entrepreneurs. This is the special mentality of the domestic merchant. A Russian merchant is in most cases a benefactor and patron. The names of the largest merchants and patrons of the arts, and the memories left by them, occupy a special place in Russian history. Who doesn’t know the merchant Tretyakov, the founder of an art gallery named after him. Anyone who is at least a little familiar with the history of Russia knows the names and deeds of the best representatives of this class - the Mamontovs and Morozovs (the legendary Savva Morozov), the Naidenovs and Botkins, the Shchukins and Prokhorovs. A large number of hospitals, charity houses, theaters and libraries in Russia were built at the expense of merchants.
Positive and negative images
However, in Russian literature the image of a merchant is rather negative. In many of Ostrovsky's plays, the merchant environment is ridiculed, and the merchant himself is more of a cunning rogue than an educated one generous man. Kustodievsky merchants and merchantwomen personify what is mockingly called “merchant taste.” Traits and reviews from foreigners add to the negative image. In this regard, I would like to note that there are very few Russians about whom foreigners speak well. Their opinion should not be a verdict. Many famous writers they laughed at the merchants. But Lermontov’s Kalashnikov is very good. It concentrates best features merchants - honesty, decency, courage, willingness to give life for the good name of a loved one. There were, of course, crooks in this environment. And in what environment are they not? And then, the merchants, as noted above, were divided into guilds. The “third” group, with a small capital (500 rubles), could include any irresponsible people. But wealthy Russian merchants, living in full view of everyone, thinking about their trademark, for the most part, they were, to say the least, conscientious and decent, but fanatically honest people. “The Merchant's Word” is not a legend. Of course, not all transactions were concluded only verbally. But this merchant's word was strictly adhered to, otherwise it would not have become a legend in in a good way this word.
Russian merchants have always been special. Merchants and industrialists were recognized as the most wealthy class of the Russian Empire. These were brave, talented, generous and inventive people, patrons of art and connoisseurs of art.
Bakhrushins
They come from the merchants of the city of Zaraysk, Ryazan province, where their family can be traced through scribe books until 1722. By profession, the Bakhrushins were “prasols”: they drove cattle in droves from the Volga region to big cities. The cattle sometimes died on the road, the skins were torn off, taken to the city and sold to tanneries - this is how the history of their own business began.
Alexey Fedorovich Bakhrushin moved to Moscow from Zaraysk in the thirties of the last century. The family moved on carts, with all their belongings, and the youngest son Alexander, the future honorary citizen of the city of Moscow, was transported in a laundry basket. Alexey Fedorovich - became the first Moscow merchant Bakhrushin (he has been included in the Moscow merchant class since 1835).
Alexander Alekseevich Bakhrushin, the same honorary citizen of Moscow, was the father of the famous city figure Vladimir Alexandrovich, collectors Sergei and Alexei Alexandrovich, and the grandfather of Professor Sergei Vladimirovich.
Speaking of collectors, this well-known passion for “gathering” was a distinctive feature of the Bakhrushin family. The collections of Alexey Petrovich and Alexey Alexandrovich are especially worth noting. The first collected Russian antiquities and, mainly, books. According to his spiritual will, he left the library to the Rumyantsev Museum, and porcelain and antiques to the Historical Museum, where there were two halls named after him. They said about him that he was terribly stingy, since “every Sunday he goes to Sukharevka and bargains like a Jew.” But he can hardly be judged for this, because every collector knows: the most pleasant thing is to find for yourself a truly valuable thing, the merits of which others were not aware of.
The second, Alexey Alexandrovich, was a great theater lover, chaired the Theater Society for a long time and was very popular in theater circles. Therefore, the Theater Museum became the world's only richest collection of everything that had anything to do with the theater.
Both in Moscow and in Zaraysk they were honorary citizens of the city - a very rare honor. During my stay in the City Duma there were only two honorary citizens of the city of Moscow: D. A. Bakhrushin and Prince V. M. Golitsyn, the former mayor.
Quote: “One of the largest and richest companies in Moscow is the Trading House of the Bakhrushin brothers. They have tanning and cloth making. The owners are still young people, with higher education, well-known philanthropists who donate hundreds of thousands. They conduct their business, albeit on a new basis - that is, using the latest words of science, but according to ancient Moscow customs. Their offices and reception areas, for example, make them want a lot.” "New time".
Mamontovs
The Mamontov family originates from the Zvenigorod merchant Ivan Mamontov, about whom practically nothing is known, except that the year of birth was 1730, and that he had a son, Fyodor Ivanovich (1760). Most likely, Ivan Mamontov was engaged in farming and made a good fortune for himself, so his sons were already rich people. One can guess about his charitable activities: the monument on his grave in Zvenigorod was erected by grateful residents for the services provided to them in 1812.
Fyodor Ivanovich had three sons - Ivan, Mikhail and Nikolai. Mikhail, apparently, was not married, in any case, he did not leave any offspring. The other two brothers were the ancestors of two branches of the venerable and numerous Mammoth family.
Quote: “Brothers Ivan and Nikolai Fedorovich Mamontov came to Moscow rich people. Nikolai Fedorovich bought a large and beautiful house with an extensive garden on Razgulay. By this time he had a large family.” ("P. M. Tretyakov". A. Botkin).
The Mamontov youth, the children of Ivan Fedorovich and Nikolai Fedorovich, were well educated and diversely gifted. Savva Mamontov's natural musicality especially stood out, which played a big role in his adult life.
Savva Ivanovich will nominate Chaliapin; will make Mussorgsky, rejected by many experts, popular; will create a huge success in his theater with Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Sadko”. He would be not only a patron of the arts, but also an adviser: the artists received valuable instructions from him on issues of makeup, gesture, costume and even singing.
One of the remarkable undertakings in the field of Russian folk art is closely connected with the name of Savva Ivanovich: the famous Abramtsevo. In new hands it was revived and soon became one of the most cultural corners of Russia.
Quote: “The Mamontovs became famous in a wide variety of fields: both in the industrial field and, perhaps, especially in the field of art. The Mammoth family was very large, and the representatives of the second generation were no longer as rich as their parents, and in the third the fragmentation of funds went even further. The origin of their wealth was the tax farming industry, which brought them closer to the well-known Kokorev. Therefore, when they appeared in Moscow, they immediately entered the rich merchant environment.” (“The Dark Kingdom”, N. Ostrovsky).
The founder of this one of the oldest trading companies in Moscow was Vasily Petrovich Shchukin, a native of the city of Borovsk, Kaluga province. At the end of the seventies of the 18th century, Vasily Petrovich established trade in manufactured goods in Moscow and continued it for fifty years. His son, Ivan Vasilyevich, founded the Trading House “I. V. Shchukin with his sons” The sons are Nikolai, Peter, Sergei and Dmitry Ivanovich.
The trading house conducted extensive trade: goods were sent to all corners of Central Russia, as well as to Siberia, the Caucasus, the Urals, Central Asia and Persia. In recent years, the Trading House began to sell not only calicoes, scarves, linen, clothing and paper fabrics, but also wool, silk and linen products.
The Shchukin brothers are known as great connoisseurs of art. Nikolai Ivanovich was a lover of antiquities: his collection contained many ancient manuscripts, lace, and various fabrics. He built a beautiful building in the Russian style for the collected items on Malaya Gruzinskaya. According to his will, his entire collection, along with the house, became the property of the Historical Museum.
Both brothers continued their father's business, first trading, then industrial. They were linen workers, and flax in Russia has always been revered as an indigenous Russian product. Slavophile economists (like Kokorev) always praised flax and contrasted it with foreign American cotton.
This family was never considered one of the richest, although their commercial and industrial affairs were always successful. Pavel Mikhailovich spent huge amounts of money on creating his famous gallery and collecting his collection, sometimes to the detriment of the well-being of his own family.
Quote: “With a guide and a map in his hands, zealously and carefully, he reviewed almost all European museums, moving from one large capital to another, from one small Italian, Dutch and German town to another. And he became a real, deep and subtle connoisseur of painting.” ("Russian Antiquity").
Soltadenkovs
They come from the peasants of the village of Prokunino, Kolomensky district, Moscow province. The founder of the Soldatenkov family, Yegor Vasilievich, has been listed in the Moscow merchant class since 1797. But this family became famous only in the half of the 19th century, thanks to Kuzma Terentievich.
He rented a shop in the old Gostiny Dvor, sold paper yarn, and was involved in discounting. Subsequently he became a major shareholder in a number of manufactories, banks and insurance companies. [C-BLOCK]
Kuzma Soldatenkov had a large library and a valuable collection of paintings, which he bequeathed to the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum. This collection is one of the earliest in terms of its composition and the most remarkable in terms of its excellent and long existence.
But Soldatenkov’s main contribution to Russian culture is considered to be publishing. His closest collaborator in this area was the well-known Moscow city figure Mitrofan Shchepkin. Under the leadership of Shchepkin, many issues were published dedicated to the classics of economic science, for which special translations were made. This series of publications, called the “Shchepkin Library,” was a most valuable tool for students, but already in my time - the beginning of this century - many books became bibliographic rarities.
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