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Philanthropy in Russia: the golden age. Pre-revolutionary and current patrons: who is more? The history of the term

Employees of the “Drop of Milk” point give milk to the needy and starving. Minsk. 1914–1916 From the site http://charity.lfond.spb.ru

By the end of the 19th century, charity in Russia received massive development. Charity societies for peasants, nurseries, and various zemstvo organizations were opened in the villages. In the cities, a system of guardianship of the poor was established. Special committees were created within the city self-government.

A new scale of charity

The basis of this work was the rapidly growing private philanthropy, and it was not only wealthy people who donated to charity. "Mug" fees were very popular: iron mugs hung on the walls of shelters, shops - alms were thrown there. And the organ-grinders, before being allowed to walk the streets, had to make a contribution to the establishment of educational homes.

Figures of well-known and respected philanthropists appeared. For example, Prince Peter of Oldenburg gave 42 years to charity, having founded the first night orphanage in St. Petersburg. During his life, the volume of donations of Peter of Oldenburg exceeded 1 million rubles. A monument was erected to him on Liteiny Prospekt - "The Enlightened Philanthropist" (after the revolution, the monument was demolished).

The "competition" of private charity was parish charity: by the end of the 19th century, parochial guardianships were available in almost every Russian city. There were also numerous charitable organizations that worked in certain areas (for example, the "Union to Combat Child Mortality in Russia").

By the end of the 19th century, charity in Russia had become such a large-scale social phenomenon that in 1892 a special commission was created, which was in charge of the legislative, financial, and even estate aspects of charity. Ensuring transparency can be considered the most important outcome of the commission's work. charitable activities in Russia, openness and accessibility of all information (including financial) for all segments of society.

Since the end of the 19th century, public control over charity has been established in the country, resulting in an increase in public confidence in the activities of philanthropists and, as a result, a new unprecedented increase in the number of donors.

Peak development of Russian charity: names and numbers

At the end of the century, among wealthy industrialists and wealthy merchants, it becomes fashionable to invest in the development of culture and art. Museums, libraries, schools, art galleries, exhibitions - this is the range of charitable activities of Russian patrons, whose names have forever entered the history of Russia: the Tretyakovs, Mamontovs, Bakhrushins, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Shchukins, Naydenovs, Botkins and many others.

For every 100 thousand inhabitants of the European part of Russia, there were 6 charitable institutions. In 1900, 82% of charitable institutions were created and were under the patronage of private individuals; In total, in 1902, 11,040 charitable institutions were registered in the Russian Empire (in 1897 - 3.5 thousand) and 19,108 parish councils of trustees.

In March 1910, the All-Russian Congress of Charity Figures stated that 75% of funds for charitable purposes were private voluntary donations and only 25% from the state. At the same time, at least 27 million rubles were distributed in the form of alms every year.

TRADITIONS OF RUSSIAN CHARITY

"Charity is a word with a very controversial meaning and with a very simple meaning. Many interpret it differently and everyone understands it the same," wrote V. O. Klyuchevsky in his essay " Good people Ancient Rus'". Today, perhaps, everything is no longer so simple. Increasingly, one can hear the opinion that charity has no right to exist at all: in a normal society, social problems should be solved by the state, and not by handouts.

One of the US industrial magnates, Henry Ford, said: "professional charity is not only insensitive; it does more harm than help ... It's easy to give; it's much more difficult to make a handout redundant." It's hard to disagree with this. But, like many correct views, this view is based on some ideal notion. And we live here and now. Every day we pass by beggars with outstretched hands and cripples with posters "Help for the operation." We see endless email addresses and charitable foundation accounts, and photographs of sick children, and TV commercials of newly opened hospices. But then we immediately recall newspaper publications about embezzling money from various funds, about homeless children who are forced to beg by threats...

As you know, human behavior in society is clearly regulated by traditions, since it is impossible to decide for yourself what is good and what is bad every time. For example, it is considered obligatory to give a seat to an old woman on a bus, but it seems to be not accepted for a young woman. What can we say about more complex and delicate situations, such as alms. So what are the traditions of Russian charity and have they survived to this day? In Rus', the poor were loved. Russian princes, starting with St. Vladimir, were famous for their generous charity. In Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" we read: "Be fathers of orphans; do not leave the strong to destroy the weak; do not leave the sick without help." According to Klyuchevsky, in Rus' only personal charity was recognized - from hand to hand. The donor, who gives money himself, performed a kind of sacrament, besides, they believed that the poor would also pray for the person from whom they received alms. On holidays, the king himself went around the prisons and handed out alms with his own hands; mutual "beneficence" was obtained: material - for the one asking, spiritual - for the giver.

The main moral question in charity: for whose sake is it done? Who does not know that almsgiving is sometimes harmful: thoughtless philanthropy not only does not oppose this or that social evil, but often gives rise to it. For example, in medieval Europe gratuitous meals were common in monasteries. Huge crowds of people flocked there, and, probably, more than one person, having such a reliable way of subsistence, abandoned his unprofitable craft. When the monasteries were closed during the Reformation, for many the only source of livelihood dried up. Thus arose a class of professional beggars.

In the Middle Ages, begging became a problem not only in Europe, but also in our country. We read Dahl: "Begging is a common affliction in big cities." History shows that punitive measures in this case were not successful. In England, for example, vagrancy was punished with whips and the top of the right ear was cut off - it would seem a severe punishment, but even it did not give practically any result.

Peter I developed a whole system of such measures for healthy beggars. Tramps were given into soldiers, sent to mines, to factories, to construction work in St. Petersburg. By the way, those who gave alms were also punished, they were recognized as "assistants and participants" in the crime and they were fined five rubles for this.

The system of public charity is more fruitful, although it is by no means a panacea.

The charity of the poor in Ancient Rus' was mainly dealt with by the Church, which owned quite significant funds. She donated some of her wealth to charity. But there was also state charity, the beginning of which was laid under the Rurikovichs. The "Stoglav" of 1551 speaks, for example, of the need to create almshouses. There are also words about helping the needy in the "Cathedral Code of 1649" (in particular, about the public collection of funds for the ransom of prisoners). Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich establishes a special order in charge of charity. Under Peter the Great, almshouses were set up in all provinces at the expense of the treasury, "hospitals" were built for foundlings. In 1721, helping the poor was charged with the duty of the police.

In the reign of Catherine II, they began to create educational houses. It was assumed that abandoned children would become the basis of a new class of people - educated, hardworking, useful to the state. In 1785, orders of public charity were established in each province, which were assigned not only charitable, but also punitive activities. Therefore, the care of the poor was entrusted to zemstvo captains, governors, and private bailiffs. In the 90s of the 18th century, the Invalid House was established in St. Petersburg for the care of the wounded, sick and elderly soldiers.

Empress Maria Fedorovna, the second wife of Emperor Paul I, played a special role in the development of philanthropy in Russia. She founded numerous educational houses, a commercial school in Moscow, established several women's institutes in the capital and provinces, and laid the foundation for a wide free education of women in Russia. By the middle of the 19th century, there were already 46 women's institutions that existed at the expense of the treasury and charitable donations.

The laying of a shelter for the terminally ill named after Metropolitan Sergius in Savvinsky Lane. May 25, 1899

August 4, 1902. Bookmark in Moscow on Kaluga street almshouse named after I. and A. Medvednikov. Below - the facade of the almshouse designed by architect S. I. Solovyov

In the 19th century, various societies appeared that provided the poor with work (for example, the "Society for the Encouragement of Diligence" in Moscow), correctional and workhouses. However, until 1861 charitable societies existed only in eight Russian cities. Zemstvo charity began to develop only in the second half of the 19th century. By the end of the century, Russian zemstvos are already spending about 3 million rubles a year on helping the homeless, migrants, and on creating vocational schools.

Nevertheless, government measures to combat poverty could not eradicate it in principle. Probably because there was always not enough money in the treasury (as it is now in the budget). In addition, the state is a rather clumsy mechanism; it cannot, in particular, respond to newly emerging social problems. It is for this reason that private philanthropy has been, and in many ways remains, the mainstream philanthropic activity in developed societies.

The traditions of private philanthropy in Russia take shape in the second half of the 18th century, when Catherine II allowed her subjects to open charitable institutions. However, at first, private capital was not so developed as to significantly affect the situation. But in the second half 19th century everything has changed. The rapid development of industry and the accumulation of capital began. By 1890, two-thirds of the funds spent on charity in Russia belonged to private individuals, and only a quarter was allocated by the treasury, zemstvos, city authorities and the Church.

The Museum of Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists and Patrons has existed in Moscow for 10 years. During this time, it has collected an extensive exposition: documents, photographs, personal belongings of Russian industrialists, merchants, bankers. The vast majority of the exhibits were donated to the collection by the descendants of those people to whom the museum is dedicated: Alekseev-Stanislavsky, Bakhrushin, Armandov, Mamontov, Morozov ... Lectures on the history of entrepreneurship and charity are held here, meetings with business people are organized. Museum workers strive to preserve that special culture that arose in the 19th century in a new class of Russian people - industrialists and entrepreneurs, and which we associate with the concept of patronage.

Tells Lev Nikolaevich Krasnopevtsev, curator of the museum:

The 19th century in Russia is a very special historical phenomenon. I would call this period the Russian Renaissance. If the culture of the West had an ancient tradition, and Western civilization developed consistently (its economy to XIX century had a completely solid foundation), then in Russia the economic recovery began almost spontaneously - there was neither an industrial base nor an ideology on which the "new people" who appeared then could rely. There was some syncretism, that is, the interpenetration of culture, social life and business. Russian merchants, in addition to their main business, had to invest in education, medicine, build houses, railways ... This did not always promise profits - they just had to create minimal conditions for their business. Is it right to call this kind of activity charity?

For an entrepreneur, business matters. Philanthropy is a rather vague concept. However, it was the practical approach that often determined the attitude of the industrialist to man. After all, in order for an enterprise to work and generate income, it is necessary that the worker be healthy, well-fed and sober (this is very important even in the current conditions). This means that housing, hospitals and doctors, libraries and theaters are needed - then the tavern will not be the only place of rest from work.

Everyone knows that the salaries at the factories were small. In the Soviet school history course, this circumstance was given special attention. But after all, no one in the same course said, for example, that workers were provided, as a rule, with free housing. Moreover, the housing is solid - not wooden barracks (which, by the way, in the 30s of the twentieth century, during the period of industrialization, Moscow, and other industrial cities were overgrown), but brick buildings with central heating, with sewerage, with water supply. The factory necessarily had a theater, a school, an almshouse.

House of free apartments named after the Bakhrushin brothers on Sofiyskaya embankment, consecrated on September 7, 1903

Many rural workers did not want to live in apartments. Then they were given land. For example, Pavel Ryabushinsky gave six acres (didn't our country plots come from here?), Provided interest-free loans for building a house. The Ryabushinskys, who were considered the most tight-fisted among the entrepreneurs of that time, provided their workers with mowing, grazing for livestock, and watering places. Of course, and this is your calculation. After all, the whole family cannot be busy at the factory - there are children, old people. So they worked on the ground. Naturally, the owner of the enterprise had no income from such activities, but the standard of living of his workers increased. The worker had a kind of second - natural - salary.

P. M. Ryabushinsky

A very serious part of the profits went to social construction. Of the two small villages of Orekhovo and Zuevo, the Morozovs and Zimins built the most Big City Moscow province after Moscow. A city arose from the weaving village of Ivanovo. The present Presnya is a former industrial settlement of the Prokhorovskaya manufactory. By the end of the 19th century, hundreds of towns sprang up around the factories. Modern European Russia was mostly built in this way.

M. A. MorozovS. T. Morozov

City Children's Hospital named after V. A. Morozov, consecrated on January 19, 1903

The 19th century is truly the "golden age" of Russian charity. It was at this time that a class of people appeared who, on the one hand, possessed the capital necessary for philanthropic activity and, on the other, were receptive to the very idea of mercy. Of course, we are talking about the merchants, whose efforts created the most extensive and reliable system of charity that has ever existed in Russia.

I. D. Baev K. D. Baev

The stories of many millions of fortunes began with a ransom from the fortress. (See "Science and Life" No. 8, 2001 _ "Eliseev's Store".) No matter how rich the son or grandson of the former serf is, the path to high society is practically ordered to him (exceptions, however, there were, but only exceptions) . Therefore, it was philanthropy that became one of those areas in which Russian merchants could realize their desire for social activities. Charity in the 19th century did not give any financial benefits, the amount of taxes, good deeds at that time were not reflected. However, the state did not leave such cases completely unattended. For example, a merchant could receive a rank or be presented to an order only by distinguishing himself in the field of serving society, that is, by spending money for its benefit. Needless to say, how important it was for people who were not spoiled by public recognition.

The building of the shelter of the Pyatnitsky guardianship of the poor, opened in Monetchikov Lane in 1907

Ermakovskiy doss house on Kalanchevskaya street. 1908

Striking cases are also known: for example, by a special royal decree, the merchant Pyotr Ionovich Gubonin, who came out of the serfs, founded the Commissar Technical School and contributed a significant amount to the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, received hereditary nobility - "taking into account the desire to contribute to the public good with his labors and property" . Received hereditary nobility Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov was also offered the nobility, but he refused, saying that "he was born a merchant, he will die a merchant."

famous creator Tretyakov Gallery P. M. Tretyakov donated it to Moscow. (Portrait by I. N. Kramskoy)

Considerations of prestige and possible profit have always been not alien to patrons and philanthropists. But still, probably, not only these considerations remained paramount. There was a saying among the Russian merchants: "God has blessed with wealth and will require an account on it." For the most part, the new Russian industrialists were very pious people, moreover, many of them came from Old Believer families, in which religiosity was observed especially strictly. Caring for one's soul is the most important thing for such people, and in Russia, as we remember, it was charity that was considered the surest way to God. Many merchants negotiated for themselves the right to be buried in the churches they built. So, the Bakhrushin brothers are buried in the basement of the church at the hospital, which they founded. (By the way, under Soviet rule, when this church had already been liquidated and new hospital premises appeared in its place, they began to think about what to do with the burial. In the end, the basement was simply walled up).

V. A. Bakhrushin

City orphanage named after the Bakhrushin brothers

The unsympathetic image of the Russian merchant - a symbol of inertia and philistinism, created through the efforts of many writers and artists (ironically, those who were often supported by merchant patrons) - has firmly entered our ideas about Russia XIX century. Museum Creator fine arts Professor I. V. Tsvetaev writes in his hearts about contemporary merchants: "They walk around in tuxedos and tailcoats, but inside they are rhinos." But after all, the same Russian merchant Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsov became in fact the only donor (2.5 million gold rubles) for the construction of the museum and the purchase of collections.

A. I. Abrikosov N. A. Naydenov

And it is impossible not to admit that at that time among the merchants there appeared people of exceptional education. Savva Morozov graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University and was preparing to defend his dissertation at Cambridge. Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky, after graduating from the same faculty, became a professor at the Sorbonne, founded the first aerodynamic laboratory in Russia (now TsAGI) in his estate Kuchino. Aleksey Aleksandrovich Bakhrushin financed medical research (among them, a trial of an anti-diphtheria vaccine). Fedor Pavlovich Ryabushinsky organized and subsidized a scientific expedition to study Kamchatka. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin founded the Institute of Psychology at Moscow State University. There are many, many such examples.

In general, the contribution of Russian merchants to domestic science and education is very serious. Actually, they had their own interest in this area: after all, it is impossible to develop production without skilled workers, engineers, builders. Therefore, it is with merchant money that vocational and commercial schools and institutes are built, courses for workers are organized (for example, the famous Prechistensky courses in Moscow). But merchants also financed educational institutions not directly related to their industrial activities: gymnasiums, universities, art schools, conservatories. In 1908, the People's University was founded in Moscow with funds bequeathed for this purpose by the gold miner A. L. Shanyavsky. The huge medical complex on Pirogovskaya, now owned by the First Medical Institute, was created mainly with private donations.

General A. L. Shanyavsky, who founded the People's University in Moscow

Another area of investment and energy for entrepreneurs of the XIX century was the arts. It would seem that business and culture are two poles between which there is nothing in common. However, it was the phenomenon of patronage that determined the cultural process at that time. It is difficult to imagine how Russian painting, opera, and theater would develop if it weren't for Morozov, Mamontov, Stanislavsky, Tretyakov, and many other amateur merchants who were passionate about art.

The curator of the Museum of entrepreneurs, philanthropists and patrons tells L. N. Krasnopevtsev:

Art, which by its very nature is the opposite of business, has also turned out to be dependent on it. Indeed, until the 19th century, art was basically imperial: the imperial Hermitage, the imperial theater and ballet - everything was financed by the Ministry of the Court. The activities of our largest patrons of that time (and simply many businessmen) became the basis on which national painting, opera, and theater began to develop. These people did not just invest in culture, they created it. The sophistication of our patrons in art has often been truly amazing.

Unlike in Russia, investment in culture in the West was business as usual. The owners of galleries and theaters had to focus not so much on their own taste, but on the conjuncture. For Russian businessmen, the organization of theaters, the collection of paintings, at first brought only losses. I think it was precisely because of this amateur approach to collecting that patrons of that time largely recognized promising trends in art. After all, it was important for them to support new directions (what was in demand without them, they were not interested). Tretyakov gathered the Wanderers for a long time, and then he met representatives of the next generation of artists - Serov, Korovin, Levitan, Vrubel - and switched to them. It's funny, but the Wanderers began to express their dissatisfaction with him: they wanted to be monopolists in Russia.

I must say that contemporaries did not favor patrons: culture has traditionally been considered a protected area of the intelligentsia and the aristocracy. Public opinion conservatively. The appearance of merchants - collectors, owners of galleries, museums and theatergoers caused ridicule, and sometimes aggression. Savva Mamontov complained that in the fifteen years that his private opera had existed, he was insanely tired of the attacks against him. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was considered by many to be crazy, and his passion for the Impressionists played an important role here. However, if patrons sometimes had to listen to unflattering reviews addressed to them, this was more than paid off by cordial friendship, which often connected them with artists and artists. It is impossible to read with indifference the correspondence between Savva Mamontov, who went bankrupt and was put under arrest on suspicion of embezzlement, with Vasily Polenov. It is amazing how vividly the people known to us from the stories of the guides in the Tretyakov Gallery appear in these letters, how much sincerity and simplicity in their attitude towards each other.

Gradually private charity becomes more and more popular. A wide variety of non-state charitable institutions are being created, mostly small, with very narrow specifics, for example, "Society for organizing shelters for old and incurable female doctors on Znamenka" or " Moscow Society improve the lot of women to protect and help those who have fallen into debauchery".

At each hospital, at each gymnasium, a trustee society arose, which collected funds for various needs. At the expense of such funds, for example, children who do well, but from poor families, could study at the gymnasium for free. The trustees' societies included both very wealthy people (Soldatenkov, for example, bequeathed two million rubles to the hospital), and poor people - they paid annual contributions from the ruble and above. There was no paid staff in the societies, only the treasurer received a modest salary (20-30 rubles), all the rest worked on a voluntary basis. The intelligentsia, which, as a rule, did not have free money, participated in charity in their own way. Some doctors gave free consultations once a week or worked some days on a voluntary basis in hospitals. In educational societies, many scholars gave free lectures.

K. T. Soldatenkov

There were also so-called territorial charitable societies. Moscow, for example, was divided into 28 sections. At the head of each of them was a council responsible for collecting money. Council members surveyed their area, looked for families in need, helped them. Students took an active part in this work.

The 20th century, which brought many changes to Russia, became fatal for the philanthropic idea as well. Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago: "And where did this Russian kindness go? It was replaced by consciousness." After the revolution, former beggars and former patrons found themselves in the same boat, and private charity disappeared as a concept. Philanthropic organizations were abolished - secular charity was liquidated in 1923.

The church tried for some time to continue the work of charity. For example, during the famine in the Volga region in the early 1920s, Patriarch Tikhon established the All-Russian Church Commission to help the starving. However, the position of the Church in Soviet Russia was so shaky that she could not seriously influence the situation. In 1928, church charity was officially banned.

State measures to combat poverty gradually developed into a fight against the poor. Vagrancy was declared a crime, and very soon it was gone: the homeless were sent away from big cities, or even to camps.

After the Chernobyl disaster, when humanitarian aid turned out to be simply necessary, the state policy towards charity has changed significantly. However, until now we have not developed the etiquette of philanthropy: we have lost our old traditions, and we are prevented from adopting the Western model both by cultural differences and (not least) by the backwardness in the economy.

Modern Russian philanthropy already exists in some separate manifestations, but as a concept it has not yet developed. "Patrons" refers to people who provide sponsorship services in exchange for publicity for their companies. Charitable foundations are not trusted. The same applies in many respects to foreign and international charitable organizations: the concept of "humanitarian aid" has acquired a negative connotation in colloquial language. The society has not formed a single definite view both on charity in general and on those people who need it today. How, for example, should one treat the homeless, whom we now commonly call "homeless" and who are less and less likely to evoke, it would seem, such a natural pity? All the more difficult is the attitude towards refugees, hostility towards whom is often fueled by national conflicts.

Doctors Without Borders is an international non-governmental humanitarian organization providing free medical care to people in crisis situations. It was founded 30 years ago and already operates in 72 countries around the world. In Russia, the organization "Doctors Without Borders" runs several programs, the largest of which is medical and social assistance to the homeless in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Tells Alexey Nikiforov, head of the Moscow part of the project:

The problem of homelessness, unfortunately, has become an integral part of our lives. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are between 100,000 and 350,000 homeless people in Russia, and according to independent experts, between one and three million. The situation is especially deplorable in large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is here that people flock and here the desperate to find a job or get legal protection settle.

The idea that a homeless person - the so-called homeless person - is a degraded, indecent-looking creature with a frightening set of diseases that does not want to return to ordinary life, is very common with us. The layman judges the homeless by the most visible, most repulsive part of this community, and it does not exceed 10% of the whole. Meanwhile, a survey of the homeless conducted by our organization showed that 79% of them want to change their lives, and the majority have the same priorities as the average Russian citizen - family, work, home, children. In general, the statistics among the homeless are not so strikingly different from those that characterize society as a whole. Four out of five homeless people are of working age (between 25 and 55); more than half have a secondary education, up to 22% have a specialized secondary education, and about 9% have a higher education.

And with diseases, everything is not as bad as it could be, given the conditions in which these people live. For example, in 1997, 30,000 homeless people visited our first-aid post. Venereal diseases were detected in 2.1% of the examined, tuberculosis - in 4%, scabies - in 2%. Meanwhile, many medical institutions refuse to accept the homeless, although they are required by law. But the fact is that medical workers, like the rest of the inhabitants of Russia, treat the homeless with prejudice, to put it mildly. So it turns out that our work often comes down to law enforcement: to help a person get a passport, get him a job, bring him to the hospital - and at the same time make sure that he is not thrown out of there through the back door ... At one time we tried to act according to the scheme , which is accepted in Western countries, - free lunches, distribution of clothes and so on. But in Russia it almost does not work. You can not endlessly get rid of handouts from people who can earn their own bread.

More and more often you hear that charity in the modern world can and should be a business. It's not just that profit is the preferred motive for business people. Nowadays, any organization, no matter what it does, seeks to earn money for its activities itself. It is no coincidence that modern charitable societies pay great attention to PR campaigns - although this causes irritation for many: where is the modesty with which good deeds should be done?

Perhaps it is worth recalling the experience of the century before last and trying to restore the interrupted tradition of Russian private charity. After all, it is entrepreneurship, which today is gradually getting on its feet in our country, that at one time became the basis for the flourishing of philanthropy and patronage. The main lesson is that it is impossible to help someone or solve any social problem simply by giving money. True charity becomes a matter of life.

E. ZVYAGINA, correspondent of the journal "Science and Life"

“Charity is a word with a very controversial meaning and a very simple meaning. Many interpret it differently and everyone understands it the same,” wrote V. O. Klyuchevsky in his essay “Good People of Ancient Rus'”. Today, perhaps, everything is no longer so clear. Increasingly, one can hear the opinion that charity has no right to exist at all: in a normal society, social problems should be solved by the state, and not handouts.

One of the US industrial magnates Henry Ford said: "professional charity is not only insensitive to more harm than help from it ... Giving easy is much more difficult to make a handout redundant." It's hard to disagree with this. But, like many correct views, this view is based on some ideal notion. And we live here and now. Every day we pass by beggars with outstretched hands and cripples with posters "Help for the operation." We see endless emails and charity accounts and pictures of sick children and TV commercials of hospices reopening. But then we immediately recall newspaper publications about embezzling money from various funds, about homeless children who are forced to beg by threats...

As you know, human behavior in society is clearly regulated by traditions, since it is impossible to decide for yourself what is good and what is bad every time. For example, it is considered obligatory to give a seat to an old woman on a bus, but it seems to be not accepted for a young woman. What can we say about more complex and delicate situations, such as alms. So what are the traditions of Russian charity and have they survived to this day? In Rus', the poor were loved. Russian princes, starting with St. Vladimir, were famous for their generous charity. In Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" we read: "Be fathers of orphans, don't leave the strong to destroy the weak, don't leave the sick without help." According to Klyuchevsky, in Rus' only personal charity was recognized - from hand to hand. The donor, who gives money himself, performed a kind of sacrament, besides, they believed that the poor would also pray for the person from whom they received alms. On holidays, the king himself went around the prisons and handed out alms with his own hands, resulting in mutual "beneficence": material - for the one asking, spiritual - for the giver.

The main moral question in charity: for whose sake is it done? Who does not know that almsgiving is sometimes harmful: thoughtless philanthropy not only does not oppose this or that social evil, but often gives rise to it. For example, in medieval Europe, free meals were common in monasteries. Huge crowds of people flocked there, and, probably, more than one person, having such a reliable way of subsistence, abandoned his unprofitable craft. When the monasteries were closed during the Reformation, for many the only source of livelihood dried up. Thus arose a class of professional beggars.

The system of public charity is more fruitful, although it is by no means a panacea.

The traditions of private philanthropy in Russia take shape in the second half of the 18th century, when Catherine II allowed her subjects to open charitable institutions. However, at first, private capital was not so developed as to significantly affect the situation. But in the second half of the 19th century, everything changed. The rapid development of industry and the accumulation of capital began. By 1890, two-thirds of the funds spent on charity in Russia belonged to private individuals, and only a quarter was allocated by the treasury, zemstvos, city authorities and the Church.

Lev Nikolaevich Krasnopevtsev, curator of the museum, says:

The 19th century in Russia is a very special historical phenomenon. I would call this period the Russian Renaissance. If the culture of the West had an ancient tradition, and Western civilization developed consistently (its economy by the 19th century had a completely solid foundation), then in Russia the economic upswing began almost spontaneously - there was neither an industrial base nor an ideology that those who appeared then could rely on " new people". There was some syncretism, that is, the interpenetration of culture, social life and business. Russian merchants, in addition to their main business, had to invest in education, medicine, build houses, railways ... This did not always promise profits - they just had to create minimal conditions for their business. Is it right to call this kind of activity charity?

A very serious part of the profits went to social construction. From the two small villages of Orekhovo and Zuevo, the Morozovs and Zimins built the largest city in the Moscow province after Moscow. A city arose from the weaving village of Ivanovo. The present Presnya is a former industrial settlement of the Prokhorovskaya manufactory. By the end of the 19th century, hundreds of towns sprang up around the factories. Modern European Russia was mostly built in this way.

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City orphanage named after the Bakhrushin brothers

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The unsympathetic image of a Russian merchant - a symbol of inertia and philistinism, created through the efforts of many writers and artists (ironically, those who were often supported by merchant patrons) - has firmly entered our understanding of Russia in the 19th century. The creator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Professor I. V. Tsvetaev, writes in his heart about contemporary merchants: "They walk in tuxedos and tailcoats, but inside are rhinoceros rhinos." But after all, the same Russian merchant Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsov became in fact the only donor (2.5 million gold rubles) for the construction of the museum and the purchase of collections.

In general, the contribution of Russian merchants to domestic science and education is very serious. Actually, they had their own interest in this area: after all, it is impossible to develop production without skilled workers, engineers, builders. Therefore, it is with merchant money that vocational and commercial schools and institutes are built, courses for workers are organized (for example, the famous Prechistensky courses in Moscow). But the merchants also financed educational institutions not directly related to their industrial activities: gymnasiums, universities, art schools, conservatories. In 1908, the People's University was founded in Moscow with funds bequeathed for this purpose by the gold miner A. L. Shanyavsky. The huge medical complex on Pirogovskaya, now owned by the First Medical Institute, was created mainly with private donations.

The curator of the Museum of entrepreneurs, philanthropists and patrons L. N. Krasnopevtsev says:

I must say that contemporaries did not favor patrons: culture has traditionally been considered a protected area of the intelligentsia and the aristocracy. Public opinion is conservative. The appearance of merchants - collectors, owners of galleries, museums and theatergoers caused ridicule, and sometimes aggression. Savva Mamontov complained that in the fifteen years that his private opera had existed, he was insanely tired of the attacks against him. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was considered by many to be crazy, and his passion for the Impressionists played an important role here. However, if patrons sometimes had to listen to unflattering reviews addressed to them, this was more than paid off by cordial friendship, which often connected them with artists and artists. It is impossible to read with indifference the correspondence between Savva Mamontov, who went bankrupt and was put under arrest on suspicion of embezzlement, with Vasily Polenov. It is amazing how vividly the people known to us from the stories of the guides in the Tretyakov Gallery appear in these letters, how much sincerity and simplicity in their attitude towards each other.

Gradually private charity becomes more and more popular. A wide variety of non-governmental charitable institutions are being created, mostly small, with very narrow specifics, for example, the Society for the Construction of Shelters for Old and Incurable Female Doctors on Znamenka or the Moscow Society for the Improvement of the Plight of Women to Protect and Help Those Who Have Fallen into Debauchery.

The church tried for some time to continue the work of charity. For example, during the famine in the Volga region in the early 1920s, Patriarch Tikhon established the All-Russian Church Commission to help the starving. However, the position of the Church in Soviet Russia was so precarious that it could not seriously influence the situation. In 1928, church charity was officially banned.

Alexey Nikiforov, head of the Moscow part of the project, says:

The idea that a homeless person - the so-called homeless person - is a degenerate, indecent-looking creature with a frightening set of diseases, who does not want to return to normal life, is very common among us. The layman judges the homeless by the most visible, most repulsive part of this community, and it does not exceed 10% of the whole. Meanwhile, a survey of the homeless conducted by our organization showed that 79% of them want to change their lives, and the majority have the same priorities as the average Russian citizen - family, work, home, children. In general, the statistics among the homeless are not so strikingly different from those that characterize society as a whole. Four out of five homeless people are of working age (from 25 to 55 years old), more than half have a secondary education, up to 22% have a specialized secondary education, and about 9% have a higher education.

And with diseases, everything is not as bad as it could be, given the conditions in which these people live. For example, in 1997, 30,000 homeless people visited our first-aid post. Venereal diseases were detected in 2.1% of the examined, tuberculosis - in 4%, scabies - in 2%. Meanwhile, many medical institutions refuse to accept the homeless, although they are required by law. But the fact is that medical workers, like the rest of the inhabitants of Russia, treat the homeless with prejudice, to put it mildly. So it turns out that our work often comes down to law enforcement: to help a person get a passport, get him a job, bring him to the hospital - and at the same time make sure that he is not thrown out of there through the back door ... At one time we tried to act according to the scheme , which is accepted in Western countries - free meals, distribution of clothes and so on. But in Russia it almost does not work. You can not endlessly get rid of handouts from people who can earn their own bread.

E. ZVYAGINA, correspondent of the journal "Science and Life"

One lady for many years, celebrating her birthday, put on festive table a vase with seven irises - for good luck. But one day her preferences changed: the guests saw roses, tulips, daisies and something quite exotic in a vase.

One of them exclaimed: “Where are the irises?” The hostess was surprised: “Yes, here they are!” - and pointed to the same vase. Looking closely, the guests saw: seven irises, indeed, were in place. They have not gone away, they still formed the basis of the composition. It's just that against the background of such a variegation, the irises were lost.

Exactly the same story happened with merchant charity in Russia mid-nineteenth centuries. The “rolling age” of Russian philanthropy has come. He looked - and still looks - so luxurious, so multi-colored that against his background the good old charity of the traditional kind is lost - to shelters, to almshouses, to hospitals, to churches. However, if you look closely, it will be in the same place, moreover, it has grown in scale compared to previous decades. Here are just new, exceptionally bright and diverse phenomena that made up the glory of domestic patronage, obscure it from distant descendants. It still forms the "basis of the composition", but in historical memory of our people, she is given the modest place of Cinderella, who did not get a silk dress and glass shoes, and therefore she did not get into the princess, giving way to a young lady dressed richer.

The period of about fifty or sixty years is called the "golden age" of Russian patronage. It stretches from the beginning of the "great reforms" of the 1860s to the First World War. Thus, the events of the "golden age" are scattered over the chronological space of the last three reigns. Entrepreneurs of that time felt drawn to high culture. They spent colossal sums on collecting art collections; in their mansions appeared in multitudes first-class works art, old books, antiques; museums, libraries, galleries were then made up of these riches, which ultimately went to Moscow. They patronized the theater, ballet, music. Together with painters and architects, they developed a "national style".

At first it was considered a fad, then it became a fashion, and at sunset in imperial Russia it became almost an obligatory ritual confirming the social status of a respectable businessman.

Pavel Afanasyevich Buryshkin, a major businessman and highly educated person, believed that at that time there was "...not a single cultural area left where representatives of the Moscow merchants did not make their contribution." To prove his words, he cited the statement of K.S. Alekseev-Stanislavsky, a theatrical figure with world authority: “I lived at a time when a great revival began in the field of art, science, aesthetics. As you know, in Moscow, this was greatly facilitated by the then young merchants, who for the first time entered the arena of Russian life and, along with their commercial and industrial affairs, became closely interested in art. New theater buildings, vast museum collections, large-scale educational book publishing, as well as excellent galleries, among which the famous Tretyakov Gallery excels - all this was created by the will of Moscow entrepreneurs, under the influence of their taste and, of course, with their money. Modern Russia, unfortunately, knows nothing of the kind. Merchant of times Alexander III, considered with light hand playwright Ostrovsky55, a kind of tyrant and scoundrel, in terms of its cultural level, in terms of aesthetic demands, rises above the modern oligarchs. In many cases, an enlightened entrepreneur who lived a century or a half ago could serve as a moral model for the capitalist of our day.

Speaking of the splendor of the stormy patronage activities, we should not forget: it did not become the only form of merchant benefits. Just like a hundred years before, two and three hundred years before, traditional charity flourished everywhere in the second capital of the Empire. The modern historian of entrepreneurship G.N. Ulyanova writes the following about this: “A breakthrough in the development of the social sphere in turn of XIX-XX centuries has been directly related to the huge role of private donations. For 49 years, from 1863 to 1911, donations for charity in Moscow were received through the city government: in money - over 26 million 500 thousand rubles, in property - over 6 million rubles, and in total in the amount of over 32 million 500 thousand rubles. rub. Almost half of this amount was intended for public charity, and the other half was used in approximately equal amounts for medical assistance and public education. This has not yet included the colossal sums given to the church - for the erection of temples, for the repair of dilapidated churches, for the renewal of utensils, for the purchase of land for the construction of church buildings. So, it was the generous donations of a whole bunch of Moscow merchants that ensured then the grandiose construction at the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya monastery, allowing it to turn into a “second Lavra”. Incredibly rich Yu.S. Nechaev-Maltsev built churches, almshouses, houses for his workers, and now from all these large-scale works in people's memory remained in best case! - three million donated by him for the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts named after Alexander III56.

As before, not something special, recently acquired, but the unshakable principles of the Christian life forced entrepreneurs to donate a fair amount of their wealth to good deeds. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the elders of more than half of Moscow's churches were entrepreneurs - people from the commercial and industrial elite of the city. Meanwhile, only a person known for his devotion to the Christian faith and ready to conduct purely economic affairs, often associated with large expenses for maintaining church life, could take the position of a church elder. Taking office as an elder cathedral demanded even more money for donations57.

Nevertheless, the merchant willingly became a church warden, this not only raised his prestige, but also corresponded to the deepest movements of his soul. As an example, one of the most active merchants and philanthropists of Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, Nikolai Alexandrovich Lukutin, can be cited. “Nikolai Alexandrovich was engaged in charity a lot, showed it in a variety of cases. For ten years he was the chairman of the council of the Moscow Eye Hospital and at the same time the headman of the hospital church. Attracting donations and donating himself, he built a new large operating room and an outpatient clinic, and made a major overhaul of the church”58.

The Christian attitude to charity was passed down in merchant families from father to son - sometimes for many generations. However. convey in this way the craving for donations in favor of the theater or, say, for the purchase of paintings for art gallery until the second half of the 19th century, it was basically impossible. This was not the case among the Moscow "trading people" of the 18th century and even the first half of the 19th century. The transition, or, better to say, a coup in favor of patronage associated with secular culture, occurred in the reign of Alexander II.

But why exactly was the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century marked by the appearance of such a large number of patrons that contemporaries characterized that time as a “Medical”59 period in the history of Russian culture?

Firstly, this was caused by serious changes in the educational and, as a result, in the cultural level of the layer of Russian entrepreneurs: a big capitalist becomes a “European and a gentleman”, begins to realize the value of education; he has a need for an intellectual life, "a craving for everything scientific and artistic is growing." Describing the contribution of Moscow capitalists to the development of Russian national culture, P.A. Buryshkin specifically notes that “...this activity was carried out by people with exquisite aesthetic taste, who adopted European and national cultural ideals”60. Throughout the 19th century, the education system for merchant children underwent significant changes. If at the beginning of the century many of them “did not understand the letter”, then gradually, from the 1860s, they began to receive a specialized secondary (in the 1860-1880s, most entrepreneurs considered it sufficient to send their children to study at commercial schools and real schools, so that they can run the business of the firm), and then higher education(Somewhere since the 1890s, they have already tried to send them to classical gymnasiums with subsequent admission to a university or a higher technical university)61.

Second, the last third of the 19th century saw rapid economic growth. The banking system is emerging rapidly there is a merger of banking and industrial capital, merchant trading houses appear. After the reform of 1861, the process of transforming Moscow from a trading center, which it had been for a long time, into an industrial center noticeably accelerated. Enormous fortunes are being made on the railroads, at the latest factory enterprises. The entrepreneurial environment grows people who are able, under new favorable conditions, to very quickly transform a modest paternal inheritance into colossal capital. Ties with European industrialists and financiers are becoming much more intense. A trip to Germany, France or Italy becomes a common thing for a businessman, although his grandfather, and perhaps his father, never left the country. Europe beckons with the temptations of a highly developed, refined, sophisticated culture that permeates the life of the economic elite. And the increased turnover makes it possible to spend very significant funds “on culture”. So, the "golden age" of Russian patronage had a powerful financial basis, which was not in the previous period. And along with it, the "European temptation", which previously hurt our merchants to a lesser extent.

Thirdly, just at the time of Alexander II, unfortunately, the Church seriously lost its authority, thousands of parishes were closed. At the same time, Russian culture experienced an unprecedented onslaught of crudely atheistic ideologies, aggressive materialism in the most primitive form, as well as the latest occult trends. The result was the spiritual impoverishment of society. It was the second half of the 19th century that turned out to be the time when the Christian spirit began to weaken in our merchant class, which previously held so firmly to Orthodox traditions62. In other words, many merchants and industrialists began to be more interested in the heights of secular Europeanized culture than in the faith of their fathers and grandfathers.

In popular science literature, journalism, and sometimes in academic works, there are statements according to which the “golden age” of Russian patronage was the brainchild of Old Believer entrepreneurs. From time to time, people who seem to be seriously involved in the topic of charity begin to write about some special features of the Old Believer religiosity, which made patronage an integral part of their worldview, even an element of family life. This is usually followed by a list of the richest members of the business class. a good half of whom, upon closer examination, turn out to be parishioners of the most ordinary Orthodox churches, at best, co-religionists. Some of them really came from a family that, a generation or two ago, was in one of the Old Believers' "accords" - it would be foolish to argue with that! But after all, then it passed - sometimes partially, and sometimes completely - under the shadow of the Russian Orthodox Church. The entrepreneur himself, of course, has nothing to do with the life of the Old Believer communities. At the same time, Orthodox charitable merchants are relegated to the background, serving as a living “background” for authors of articles and books on patronage, and this creates an aberration of perception63.

There was a kind of "Old Believer myth" about the "golden age" of patronage in Russia. It partly goes back to the famous book "Merchant's Moscow", written by the same P.A. Buryshkin, a well-known public figure, a prominent freemason, who had no special love for the Orthodox Church (in the work of Pavel Afanasyevich, she actually remained outside the brackets, as something insignificant, not worth a serious conversation). In part, the hushing up of the Soviet historical literature that huge church charity, which was a natural part of the culture in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Historical reality does not give grounds to support this myth on any serious grounds. The truth is this: charity was a mass phenomenon, the norm of life equally among both ordinary Orthodox entrepreneurs and Old Believer businessmen. Until 1905, when the construction of new Old Believer churches was allowed, it was more difficult for an Old Believer to make a large donation for temple needs. But he could fulfill his Christian duty by spending in favor of public charity.

A.I. Guchkov wrote about the Russian merchant class as an environment closed from prying eyes from the outside.

Belonging to her by birthright, he naturally knew what he was talking about. Here are his words: “Even if someone from this class became a very famous person - for example, P.M. Tretyakov, - then disproportionately less is known about the merchant side of his life, the life of his family. Of course, to a certain extent, the merchants themselves, the merchant society, are also to blame for such anomalies. Until the reforms of the 1960s and 1970s and later, there was a certain desire for self-isolation - not complete, but partial. There was a kind of “permissible” framework”64.

The Golden Age interrupted this tradition. The largest benefactors, especially those who donated to art, science, literature, became socially significant figures. They were in full view of the educated public of the time. They were written about in newspapers and magazines, incredibly prolific in the middle of the century. Finally, our entrepreneurial class has become addicted to an occupation that was previously characteristic only of the nobility - the creation of diaries and memoirs. merchant memoirs and diary entries known since the 18th century. But they became a truly widespread phenomenon only in the 19th century, just in the second half of it. In addition, the titans of the "golden age" themselves now and then become characters in various kinds of "notes" of their contemporaries. Using these materials, a modern historian can study much deeper the psychology of Russian merchants who lived at that time. The subtlest movements of the soul, whimsical bends of the mind, hidden psychological motives for actions, including charity, become available. For the 18th century, and even more so the 17th, all this is either impossible, or is given by extreme tension.

Therefore, unlike the first part of the book, the second contains six biographies of famous entrepreneurs involved in charity. Their destinies, their way of thinking and acting provide an excellent illustration for the Russian business class as a whole. Previously, the authors of this book could immerse the reader in merchant life with its established customs and practices, but without drawing psychological portraits of personalities, even the most prominent ones. The "Golden Age" provides a precious opportunity for existential "portraiting".

For many of our contemporaries, educated Russians, interested in their own historical roots, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov - an exemplary figure of a Russian entrepreneur-philanthropist of pre-revolutionary Russia. They write about him all the time. His name is put at the head of the list of benefactors of that time. Not only the statements of Pavel Mikhailovich, but in fact his fate, as they say, were dragged into quotes. Indeed, he was a worthy person: a wealthy businessman, a businessman - and at the same time a great philanthropist, whose name is just as impossible to remove from the history of Russian art, as it is impossible to delete a note from the classical piece of music. P.M. Tretyakov is all the closer to us, people living at the “second baptism of Rus'”, that in best deeds his life he was guided by considerations of faith. Pavel Mikhailovich remained in the memory of his contemporaries as a strongly believing Christian, a truly Orthodox person.

Who will say a bad word about him?

At the same time, the titanic figure of P.M. Tretyakova, to some extent, blocks the personalities of other benefactors of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. His biography has been studied up and down. His character, way of thinking and mode of action are now well known not only to researchers, but simply to lovers of Russian antiquity. But the benefactors of his time, who sometimes committed no less significant deeds for the benefit of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, often remain for a person of our time people with “erased faces”. Worse, a huge constellation of outstanding patrons of that era is portrayed by their distant descendants as a multitude of “still Tretyakovs”. In other words, they often try to automatically attribute the character traits and motives of P.M. Tretyakov.

Meanwhile, the bright time of the "golden age" of Russian patronage is unusually rich in great people: sometimes whimsical, sometimes simple and "transparent", sometimes devoutly faithful, and sometimes - staying not close to the temple. The merchant environment has brought up many brilliant benefactors, by their nature they are in no way similar to Tretyakov, and even among themselves. If you put their lives in one row, you get a living rainbow - each of them is so unique!

They will be discussed in this chapter, but first it is still worth saying a few words about Pavel Mikhailovich. Let his biography become widely known, and it makes no sense for the thousandth time to retell in detail its main stages. The beneficence of this man deserved at least a few pages dedicated to his memory.

Born in 1832 and educated at home,65 Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov plunged very early into the practice of entrepreneurial life, like all merchant sons of that time. From adolescence, together with his brother Sergei, he was involved in his father's trading business. By the mid-1860s, the Tretyakov brothers increased their father's capital, "raised" their class status (if their father was a merchant of the second guild, then they were the first) and became owners trading house"Pavel and Sergei brothers Tretyakov and V. Konshin." Then the partnership of the Novo-Kostroma Linen Manufactory turned out to be their property.

Pavel Mikhailovich laid the foundation for his famous collection of paintings in 1856, having acquired the first painting, "Temptation", from the artist N.G. Schilder, and then the second, "Clash with Finnish smugglers", - from V.G. Khudyakov. Four years later, twenty-eight years old, Pavel Mikhailovich decided to create a national art gallery.

Tretyakov belonged to the number of those people who very early understand what they want to achieve - and all their lives, step by step, stubbornly strive for the cherished goal. Their perseverance is of the highest order: they are driven by a sense of correctness when they do their job, and as soon as they step aside from it, their souls are torn from the empty loss of precious time. Such people are usually quiet in outward manifestations, but have a strong will. They do not want to prove to anyone that they are right with the help of words. For what? Sooner or later, their deeds will speak for themselves. What’s more, they work tirelessly. Pavel Mikhailovich, both in commerce and in compiling the gallery, tried to achieve the best result, worked, according to his daughter, for ten people66. Thinking to arrange national gallery, he collected not what he personally liked, but what would show the development of Russian painting throughout the entire time of its existence. He did not just collect paintings, he immersed himself in the history of painting, tried to feel each canvas, to understand the specifics of the work of artists of different eras. The effort to get to the bottom of the phenomenon is one of the most characteristic features of the “Moscow silent man,” as his contemporaries called him.

There is another character trait of P.M. Tretyakov, to which I would like to draw special attention, is a sharply developed instinct for the present. The easiest way to show it is with an example.

Reading the memoirs of M.V. Nesterova67, following the author, one finds it difficult to understand the logic of Tretyakov's attitude towards his work. Perhaps the most famous thing of Nesterov - "Vision to the youth Bartholomew" - Tretyakov bought from him, despite the fact that the artists and critics who surrounded the patron of the arts, consistent supporters of the Wanderers, strongly advised him not to do this. “Well, Pavel Mikhalych, how can you look at such a thing? This is the undermining of rationalistic foundations! Yes, this Nesterov must be banned, he has completely unbelted! Long before this episode, which happened at the 18th traveling exhibition, P.M. Tretyakov acquired another painting by Nesterov, which had nothing to do with the personality of St. Sergius of Radonezh - "The Hermit". But other things of the “Sergius cycle” he considered for a long time and even praised, but. did not buy. Subsequently, Nesterov himself gave these paintings as a gift to the Tretyakov Gallery. Why didn't Tretyakov take them? Really spared money? Unclear.

However, if you visit the Nesterov Hall in the Tretyakov Gallery, everything falls into place. Here hangs the "Hermit", here are two monks fishing in silence against the backdrop of Sekirnaya Mountain (which is on Solovki), here, finally, is the "Vision of the lad Bartholomew." The picture is real, it seems to breathe, you look at it enchantedly and cannot formulate in words the whole depth of the meanings hidden in it. Words only snatch out a piece here, then there - but they cannot embrace the fullness. Yes, and no words are needed here, without them everything is clear - the picture itself flows into the soul.

What can not be said about the "Works of St. Sergius" hanging opposite. The first word that I want to apply to them is publicism. This is an attempt by an educated and sensitive person to adjust to the understanding of the “simple person”. Under each of the "Works" you can write a few words in which the entire content of the picture is exhausted. Here Sergius carries water, here he cuts down a hut, and there he simply stands, thinking about something; he invariably combines a physical feat with a prayerful feat. All. Nesterov's canvas can be easily "narrated", it is understandable to an inexperienced viewer, and at the same time, this external simplicity deprives him of the sharp power of "Vision", penetrating into the very soul. With all the great respect of the authors of this book to the wonderful Russian artist M.V. Nesterov.

Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov subtly felt the present. And that means the best.

Thanks to the aesthetic instinct of Pavel Mikhailovich, thanks to his ability to recognize a talented artist earlier than others, his Art Gallery became one of the main sights of Moscow.

Moreover, it was the first public city museum of Russian painting!

And finally, one more quality, without which it is difficult to understand the motives of P.M. Tretyakov, - his deep religiosity68. As he remembers eldest daughter, V.P. Siloti, members of the Tretyakov family were parishioners of the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi69. “Papa went occasionally to Vespers, and to early Mass every Sunday and on all major holidays; he stood quite in front, not far from the pulpit, with his nose in a corner, near a marble square column; modestly, quietly, he was baptized, quietly approached the cross and went home. Pavel Mikhailovich has been involved in charity all his life. Especially after 1886, when, at the age of eight, the healthy son of Pavel Mikhailovich, a favorite of the Vanechka family, died, and the mentally retarded eldest son survived. Ivan Pavlovich was to become his father's support in business. P.M. Tretyakov deeply experienced this personal tragedy: “How inscrutable the will of God is to take a healthy son from us and leave us a sick one.”71. In this grief, Tretyakov was comforted by faith, trusting in the mercy of God.

The most significant part of the good deeds of Pavel Mikhailovich falls on the last decade of his life - from 1889 to 1898.

Here is a far from complete list of the good deeds of Pavel Mikhailovich during this decade. Together with his brother Sergei Mikhailovich, he generously gave money for scholarships to students in the Meshchansky schools, and together with his wife - in favor of the neglected Workhouse. Since 1869, Tretyakov has been a trustee of the Arnold School (later the Arnold-Tretyakov Orphanage) for deaf and dumb children, on whose maintenance he regularly, especially since the mid-1880s, spent considerable funds. According to his will, he transferred more than 340 thousand rubles for the needs of the school. The entrepreneur bequeathed more than 800 thousand for the construction of a men's and women's almshouse; at his expense, the House of Free Apartments for Widows and Orphans of Russian Artists was built. And in August 1892, the most famous good deed of Pavel Mikhailovich took place: he presented Moscow with his art gallery as a gift72. On August 15, 1893, the official opening of the museum took place under the name "Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov." In 1894-1898, P.M. Tretyakov continued to acquire art for the gallery, now owned by the city.

For services in education and charity P.M. Tretyakov was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of the City of Moscow". Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov died on December 4, 1898. His body was buried at the Danilovsky cemetery73.

There is hardly a Russian person today who would not hear the name of Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, the founder of the world-famous Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane. This name has outlived its era for a long time - unlike the names of many other merchants who put no less work in the service of God and the people as philanthropists. It is unlikely that a person who is little versed in Russian history the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, knows who, for example, P.I. Shchukin and even more so S.V. Perlov. I.S. was a little more lucky. Ostroukhov: he is known as a talented painter, his paintings are exhibited in museums.

The time has come to introduce contemporaries P.M. Tretyakov - not so famous, but no less significant benefactors.

V.N. Abelentsev. Amur Cossacks (1st volume). Amur region. From century to century. Materials, documents, testimonies, memoirs. / Series “Priamure. From century to century” - 288 p. Publisher: JSC "Amur Fair", Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur, 2008, 2008

Catherine II: the golden age of Russian charity

After the death of Peter I in the field of charity (as well as in others) there was a certain lull. It was still not clear how much the reforms of the first Russian emperor would take root, where his descendants would lead the country. The reign of Peter II Anna Ioannovna Elizabeth and Peter III was remembered only by the fact that the punishment for professional begging became even more severe. Moreover, some of the newborn shelters were closed as money previously spent on these purposes went into the pockets of alternating favorites. Until the accession to the throne in 1762 of Empress Catherine II, we see stagnation in matters of charity.

Born Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future Empress had nothing to do with Russia, except that she was the wife of the Russian Emperor Peter III, who hated everything Russian. At the same time, among the representatives of the Romanov dynasty, it is difficult to find someone who could do more for Russia than Catherine II. As we already wrote, after the death of Emperor Peter I, very little attention was paid to charity issues. Of course, representatives of the ruling dynasty tried to follow the precepts of their great ancestor, but this was not enough. There was a lack of public will. Catherine II tried to change the current state of affairs. What actions were taken for this?

The first time of her reign, Catherine II did not pay much attention to charity, since first it was necessary to gain a foothold on the throne and there were other matters of priority importance. At this time, decrees were issued on liability for begging, but the form of punishment was somewhat mitigated. According to the decree of February 1764, the police could detain beggars. At the same time, until their case was considered in court, the detainees were entitled to a small monetary subsidy.

This fact should be emphasized, since, according to the established tradition, offenders and suspects are placed in pre-trial detention cells (CPC), the conditions in which not only leave much to be desired, but are more reminiscent of a prison where criminals already convicted by a court verdict are kept. The problem of the conditions of detention in the penal colony and the cases of death of detainees, which were especially sensational in the press (especially the case of Sergei Magnitsky), have acquired extraordinary urgency and discussion in society in our country. It is clear that it will not be possible to quickly change the conditions of detention of those suspected of committing crimes in the direction of mitigation, because. this requires large funds. But, at least, it is possible to limit the detention of persons who are not suspected of committing serious crimes in the penal colony. Apparently, therefore, the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, in one of his Addresses to the Federal Assembly, spoke about the conduct of a "reasonable criminal policy" aimed at the decriminalization of society. As a result, several years ago, laws were passed that allow for non-custodial punishments. Thus, the state “kills” two birds with one stone: it restricts communication in the bullpen of accidentally caught citizens with real criminals, and also does not place suspects (many of whom, as practice shows, will later be acquitted by court decision) in prison conditions. It's good to see that the experience humane treatment to detainees, which was first applied under Catherine II and was clearly forgotten during the years of Soviet power, is becoming in demand in our time.

After several years, when potential rivals were eliminated from the political horizon, Empress Catherine II was able to more actively engage in state affairs. The issue of charity was not left without attention. In 1764, the "Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens" was founded, which later turned into the well-known Smolny Institute. It was created with the aim of forming an educated society, spreading education. According to the plan of the Empress, who, right up to the Great French Revolution was influenced by the progressive ideas of Locke and Montaigne, the graduates of the society who returned to their family nests will try to give the education they received to their children. If initially future pupils were selected from the nobility, then a year after the founding of the Society, a department was opened for the rest of the estates (only children of serfs were not accepted).

Gradually, more and more educational institutions began to open throughout the country. Responsibilities for their arrangement fell on the Orders of public charity, which will be discussed below. The existing educational institutions were reformed in order to improve the quality of the education received. These were the first tentative steps towards the introduction of literacy among the common population. And, although it was still very far from the introduction of the system on a national scale, the beginning of public education, according to many historians, was laid precisely under Catherine II, who did everything for its development.

In 1763, they again remembered the shelters for abandoned babies, which were first founded under Peter I, but in last years were in oblivion. Catherine II was so fired up with this idea that she allocated 100,000 rubles from her funds, thereby setting an example for the rest of the well-wishers and, above all, for her favorites. The shelter has been very successful. Those who brought the children were asked to give only the name of the baby and to report whether he was baptized or not. That is why, in just 1765, almost 800 children were brought to the Orphanage, which meant 800 saved lives! At that time, it was not customary to refuse children, childbearing and fertility were perceived as a gift from God. Such cases, at first glance, could only take place among noble townswomen who needed to hide their connection on the side. And yet there was another reason to give the baby to the Orphanage. The fact is that the children of serfs after birth were also considered serfs, and according to the Charter of this institution, every baby was considered free from birth. That is why for many peasants, the delivery of a child to the Orphanage was the only chance to give him freedom.

In our country, in the context of a declining birth rate and a decrease in the number of indigenous people, interest in shelters for abandoned babies has again increased. Discussions around the so-called "baby box" were especially active. It is an incubator that is built into the wall of the hospital. The baby box has 2 doors: an outer door (the baby is placed through it) and an inner door (from where the staff of the institution picks up the child). Optimum temperature and humidity are maintained inside the box. Thanks to the special design, it is no longer possible to get the baby back. Immediately after the baby is in the box, the alarm is turned on and it is taken from there, examined and analyzed. The advantages of baby boxing are obvious. Complete anonymity is maintained (there are no video cameras near the box) and, as a result, one of the reasons for abortions is eliminated. In addition, you do not need to draw up any papers, you do not need to go through complicated procedures. It is enough just to put the child in the door and that's it. A mother who has abandoned a child is not criminally liable (of course, no one has yet canceled the reproach of conscience). But most importantly, human life is preserved. Now the issue of installing baby boxes is being discussed in the legislature. It is possible that they will be placed not only in hospitals, but also in social centers and monasteries. So, Catherine's idea of shelters for foundlings takes on a new breath in our time. katherine charity russia

The year 1775 was marked by the creation of the Orders of Public Charity. In their functions, they resembled modern social welfare bodies, but in their scope they represented the "Ministry of Charity". Their tasks included the organization of schools, orphanages, almshouses, workhouses, homes for the terminally ill (the prototype of modern hospices) and for the insane (straighthouses). In fact, it was created state system, in which Catherine II managed to combine all types of charitable activities.

It should be noted that some of the ideas contained in the decree were clearly ahead of their time. In particular, there were no shelters for the terminally ill in Soviet times. Those were simply discharged from the hospital, and they faded away already at home. The idea of hospices in our country was returned only in 1990. At present, there are 8 of them in Moscow alone, which is quite enough to accommodate the terminally ill. The idea of hospices is actively developing and at the beginning of 2012 their number in Russia exceeded 70. One can only be surprised at the breadth of the state mind of the empress, whose decisions in matters of charity have not lost their relevance to this day.

Along with the creation of a new state charitable system, any form of private charity was encouraged in every possible way, but donations were prescribed in favor of existing charitable institutions in order to prevent donations from falling into the hands of professional beggars. The Public Care Orders represented the "upper echelon" of public philanthropy. In the localities, however, the local bodies of care, for example, the court for orphans, the noble guardianship and others, were engaged in the affairs of mercy. In 1785, through the creation of district trustees, other segments of the population were also attracted to charity. Russia has grown up to the appearance of patronage.

Catherine II managed to make it fashionable to donate to charity. Patronage is becoming more and more common. Among their many names, we cannot keep silent about the Orlov brothers, Prince Grigory Potemkin, about merchants-philanthropists from the Stroganov family. So, Alexander Sergeevich Stroganov, became famous as the first Russian nobleman who began collecting art objects. He left behind one of the largest private collections of paintings in Europe and a huge library. His contribution to the maintenance and development of Russian art and librarianship was so great that he became the chief director of the imperial library and president of the Academy of Arts.

Prince Grigory Potemkin was an outstanding statesman of the times of Catherine II. All his life and work became a boon for Russia. It was through the efforts of the prince that the constant threat on the southern borders of Russia was eliminated, which was annually robbed by predatory hordes. Crimean Tatars. He removed from the political map of the world Crimean Khanate, making the steppes of ancient Taurida safe for a simple Russian tiller, after which his surname sounded differently - Potemkin-Tavrichesky. Along with this, the prince was considered an outstanding connoisseur of art. Like many of his contemporaries, he actively collected paintings by famous world artists, leaving behind a rich collection. But most of all he was remembered for his urban planning activities. Under him, many cities were founded in the south of Russia, several temples were erected at his personal expense. Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky was one of those people, thanks to whom the time of the reign of the Empress is referred to only as "the age of the golden Catherine."

Finishing the story about the state of charity in the Catherine era, we can only be surprised at the scale of the reforms carried out. And, under what conditions! By the time of accession to the throne of Catherine II, Russia was still waging the Seven Years' War. Shortly after its completion, long-term fighting With Ottoman Empire and revenge-hungry Sweden. Huge funds were spent on favorites, and then there were reforms aimed at reorganizing the charity system. Naturally, we are faced with a legitimate question: “Where is the money, Zin ?!” Where does the money for charity come from in a country that is in a constant state of war with its neighbors, when the level of corruption and favoritism hit all records?

The Orthodox Church becomes such an almost inexhaustible source of money for Catherine II. In 1764, a manifesto was issued, according to which the former system of church land tenure was abolished. From now on, all the land allotments that the Church had accumulated over several hundred years were subject to transfer to the College of Economy, and the peasants who inhabited them from now on began to be called "economic". As a result, about 1,000,000 peasants passed into the hands of the state. 1.366 million rubles of taxes were collected from economic peasants a year. Of this amount, at first, approximately 30% went to the Church, but later, with an increase in the amount of tax collected, it was reduced to 13%. In fact, it was a legalized form of robbery, however, in the absence of the institution of the patriarchate, the scattered protests of the clergy were easily suppressed. Those who disagreed with the reform were exiled to distant monasteries.

Summing up the reforms in the field of charity during the reign of Catherine II, we can say the following. Being a German by birth, she did her best to make life easier for her new subjects, whose well-being was above all for her. How unhypocritical her love for the Russian people was is best evidenced by the fact that when in 1775 they wished to erect a monument to her, for which more than 50,000 rubles were collected, Catherine II answered: “It is more important for me to erect a monument in the hearts of my subjects than in marble. With these words, she ordered that the collected money be sent to the organization of orphanages.

During the reign of Catherine II, radical changes were carried out in the issue of mercy. In the form of Orders of Public Charity, a “Ministry of Charity” was actually created, within which all its types were combined: the organization of almshouses, the arrangement of shelters, hospitals, schools and colleges. Moreover, the ideas of foundling shelters and hospitals for the terminally ill (hospices) were clearly ahead of their time. And now, 250 years later, they are being implemented again in the Russian Federation.

At the same time, the Orthodox Church under Catherine II suffered a severe blow, from which she never managed to recover. An end was put to the economic independence of the Church, however, the funds received during the secularization of church lands made it possible to reform the entire charitable system, which subsequently proved the viability of many of its ideas.

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