Russian merchants. The most famous merchant families of Russia

V. A. Nikonov among colleagues
from Azerbaijan
(Frunze, September 1986)

About the author: Nikonov, Vladimir Andreevich(1904–1988). A well-known scientist, one of the largest specialists in onomastics. The author of numerous works on the most diverse areas and problems of this science: toponymy, anthroponymy, cosmonymy, zoonymy, etc. For more than 20 years, he led the group of onomastics at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was the initiator and organizer of several conferences on onomastics of the Volga region (the first took place in 1967).

In Russia, a project of the Interregional Onomastic Society named after V. A. Nikonov (UNM) has now been developed. Details can be read:. The author of this site not only supported the project of creating MONN, but also decided to make his own contribution to the further popularization of the ideas of V. A. Nikonov and place on the site a number of articles by the scientist, published at different times in a number of small-circulation collections and therefore not very accessible to modern researchers. Especially those who live in the provinces, whose libraries are not fully equipped with scientific literature on onomastics.

The proposed article is one of the last published during the lifetime of the scientist. She is rarely cited in scientific papers. Obviously, the collection in which it is published somehow missed onomasts. The work is devoted to the favorite topic of Vladimir Andreevich - Russian surnames. In it, he not only reiterates the results of his earlier studies on the geography of surnames, but also shows the social nature of surnames on the example of the history of the formation and composition of surnames of the four estates of pre-revolutionary Russia. Of particular interest are also the results of counting the 100 most common surnames in Moscow in the last quarter of the 20th century.

The red number in square brackets marks the beginning of the page in the printed version of the article. The number in square brackets is a footnote. See the output after the text of the article.

[p. 5] Surname is a social category. Its very emergence is dictated by a certain level of society. Historically, they appeared in Europe somewhere in the middle of the Middle Ages, but in five or six centuries they covered most European countries. They came to the Russians only in the 16th century. It is a mistake to take for surnames earlier princely titles (Suzdal, Vyazemsky, Shuisky, Starodubsky and others - from the names of feudal appanages) or generic names of boyars (Kovrovs, Kobylins, Pushkins and others - after the name of the ancestor: Andryushka Kover, Andrey Kobyla, boyar Pushka and etc.). They crumbled, disintegrated, changed.

People often ask: what was the very first Russian surname? There was no first, second, or tenth Russian surname! The usual other names gradually turned into surnames or new ones appeared according to their own model. Russians called them "nicknames" for a long time - even in the 19th century, although not officially. The term itself surname brought to Russia under Peter I with many other innovations from Western Europe (the Latin word family meant in ancient Rome the entire composition of the economy, including slaves). The modern meaning is the name of the family, inherited.

In each nation, the surnames first captured the ruling layer of the feudal lords, serving as a symbol of the hereditary transfer of land ownership, then the big bourgeoisie: the surname is the sign of the company, continuity in commercial or usurious transactions. Later, the surnames were acquired by middle-class citizens. The surnames reached the whole mass of the people very late.

The first list of surnames of the Moscow State in the second half of the 16th century. we can recognize the list of 272 guardsmen of Ivan the Terrible (the best verified list was published by V. B. Kobrin). this list does not contain a single nameless. The largest group (152 people) was made up of surnames and patronymics from non-church names, [p. 6] then prevailing over the church ones (Rtishchev, Tretyakov, Shein, Pushkin, etc.). Among them were insulting to the ears of subsequent generations - Sobakin, Svinin, although their carriers occupied the highest military posts. Surnames from church names had 43 guardsmen (Vasiliev, Ilyin; often distorted - Mikulin). The form of patronymics was possessive adjectives, answering the question "whose son?" (son of Pushka, son of Ivan, etc.). Therefore, the names of the XVI century. it is more correct to consider it "dedicism", since the surname, which was a patronymic, was fixed in the third generation, and patronymics continued to change.

Another large group of surnames of the guardsmen - according to the names of the possessions given to them for the service to the tsar: Rzhevsky, Zaretsky and so on. with formant - sky(sound version - tsky). This type of surname dominated the Polish gentry, whom the Russian nobility tried to imitate in many ways. Yes, the example of princely titles formed in the same way was also tempting.

The surnames of the guardsmen were also not unique, derived from Turkic words and names, but decorated according to the Russian model: Bakhteyarov, Izmailov, Turgenev, Saltykov. For 11 guardsmen, archaic Old Russian non-suffix forms of qualitative adjectives became surnames, expressing internal properties or external signs: Dirty, Good; or the same, but in the genitive case ("son of whom") - Zhidkago, Khitrovo. Five foreign guardsmen retained their Western European surnames (Kruse, Taube, and others). The presence of double surnames in the list (Musin-Pushkin, Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, etc.) is also characteristic.

These surnames of the first nobles became the prototype of the surnames of the Russian nobility for more than three centuries. Peter I, introducing a firm order of government, achieved the universal "surname" of all the nobles. But, of course, the nobility was replenished; the ratios between the main groups of noble families also changed. For example, surnames formed from patronymics from pre-Church names have noticeably decreased, but those formed from church names have increased many times over. But distortions also multiplied: in the list of Moscow nobles of 1910 we meet the Eropkins, Larionovs, Seliverstovs. This from the original names Hierofey, Hilarion, Sylvester. The biggest change is the increase in the proportion of Western European surnames. In 1910, out of 5371 families of the Moscow nobility, almost 1000 had foreign-language surnames (19%).

In the 17th century of the non-nobles, only a few, the richest merchants [p. 7] managed to get surnames. So they were called - "eminent merchants". For the next century, the nobles, the monopoly dominant force of the state, did not share power with the bourgeoisie. This was also reflected in the surnames. Even at the beginning of the XIX century. many merchants remained nameless. According to the 1816 census in 11 settlements of Moscow, out of 2232 merchant families, almost 25% did not have surnames, and for many with surnames it was written: “the nickname Sorokovanov was allowed to be called July 1817, 5 days”, “the surname Serebryakov was allowed to be called 1814 January 2, 17 days " and so on. Often, to the name and patronymic, it is attributed in a different handwriting at the bottom: "Shaposhnikov received the surname on July 10, 1816." In acquiring surnames, the merchants were moved away from the nobility in Moscow by more than 100 years.

The composition of Moscow surnames is very diverse. A third of them have not been deciphered etymologically. The largest group among those deciphered (20%) were those formed from church names: Ivanov, Vasiliev, Dmitriev and others (for example, from derivative forms from the same name Dmitry: Dmitrienkov, Mitkov, Mityushin, Mityagov). By the end of the XIX century. only a few surnames survived from the names of non-church Tretyakovs, Nezhdanovs); but one of them turned out to be the most common Moscow merchant surname - Smirnov (from the archaic form Smirnaya).

counting showed a surprising difference in the prevailing Russian surnames in four vast areas. In the north and northeast of the European part (Arkhangelsk, Veliky Ustyug, Perm), the most common surname is the Popovs; in the Northern Volga region and adjacent areas (Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kineshma, Vologda, Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Shuya, Gorky, Kirov) - Smirnovs; in the north-west (Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Velikiye Luki) and around Moscow from the west and south (Kaluga, Kolomna, Ryazan) - Ivanovs; to the south and east (Tula, Gorky, Penza, Arzamas, Ulyanovsk and further east) - the Kuznetsovs. At the same time, points with the same most frequent surname were placed on the map not at random, but strictly areal. But behind each number of the frequency of the surname are many thousands of inhabitants, even with the now considerable mobility of the population.

And how is the situation in Moscow? As elsewhere, the center incorporates the features of the territories being united, plus some preference for the former features of the area. Nowadays, the most common surnames of Muscovites are just these four areal "leaders": Ivanovs, Kuznetsovs, Smirnovs, Popovs, followed by Sokolovs, Volkovs.

Surnames turned out to be wonderful, precious evidence of the history of the Russian people. These are traces of four transitional communities from feudal fragmentation to centralized Russia: the lands of Rostov-Suzdal Rus', Novgorod and Pskov, the North Dvina lands, and the later acquisitions of Moscow in the south and east - in the Volga region and the Don basin. In this historical period of time, the beginning of the formation of Russian surnames was laid. Of course, family areas did not remain static: from the middle of the 16th century. northerners rushed to populate the "Wild Field" - the vast steppe spaces south and southeast of Tula and Ryazan. So the Popovs in some places turned out to be the predominant surname in the territory of the modern southeast of the European part (Tambov, Lipetsk, Volgograd, Astrakhan, etc.). So did the Smirnovs - a small "Timsky Island" of them survived in the Kursk region.

The highest frequency of the Russian surname Ivanov is easily explained: in the "saints" (the list of "saints" of the Orthodox Church, which was a mandatory list of names) there are 64 saints with this name - so many times [p. 13] in the year it was celebrated. In documents, this name is recorded earlier in Novgorod than in Moscow. However, this does not prove that it was brought to Moscow from Novgorod and Pskov, but could have come directly from the emperors of Byzantium, who became a favorite from the 20th century. The successes of Ivan Kalita on the throne of Moscow and the subsequent Ivanovs up to Ivan IV the Terrible made this name the most frequent among Russians for several centuries. Hence the frequency of the surname.

You can give the most common surnames of Muscovites. According to the address bureau, in 1964, 90 thousand Ivanovs, 78 thousand Kuznetsovs, 58 thousand Smirnovs, and approximately 30 thousand Popovs, Sokolovs, Volkovs, Gusevs, and Dmitrievs lived in Moscow.

The vast majority of Russian Muscovites have surnames in -ov, -ev; a little less than a quarter -in. These two forms together cover about 80% of all Russians in Moscow. In the rural Russian population of the country, they cover 9/10. But the surnames -sky Muscovites are three times more likely than rural residents. Fewer last names in Moscow -ich(predominant among Belarusians) and on -enko And -To(common among Ukrainians). Rare in Moscow and Russian surnames on -them, -th(Blue, Petrov, Cheap, Pogorelsky), which are abundant in the Northern Dvina basin and the central black earth regions. Archaic forms are single - Oblique, Black, Naked, Khitrovo and others.

There are strange surnames in Moscow, including undoubtedly Russian ones - from the most understandable words, but unexpected in the role of surnames. Here are a few examples from the list of telephone subscribers: Nose, Sun, Polutorny, Sinebabnov, Skoropupov, Predvechnov, Ubeyvolkov, Ubeykon and others. And very many do not lend themselves to etymological analysis: their foundations are clear - Meridian, Natural, Sineshapov, Petlin - the names are inexplicable. And in the surnames Mishkaruznikov or Ronzupkin, with their Russian appearance, you can’t guess a single element of the foundations.

The reasons for the mystery of such surnames are different, but there are three main ones. Firstly, the bases could be foreign, and the surname was completed by Russian formants; in what language now to look for the basics is unknown. Secondly, the words from which the surnames arose died off, and the surnames came down to us, becoming "rootless". Before our eyes, the loss of foundations occurred with many surnames (Arkhireev, Fabrikantov, etc.). And in the past, many words that were not recorded in written sources disappeared without a trace. Finally, thirdly, [p. 14] recording distortion. This may be the most common problem. In Moscow, different dialects from all over the country came across; the same word was pronounced in many ways. And by no means everyone was literate in uniting - in Russia, even in 1897, 77% of the population were illiterate. It is surprising not that a lot of surnames are distorted, but that, nevertheless, a lot survived. In the list of Moscow personal telephones of 1973, 24 people have the surname Agaltsov, 25 Ogoltsov and another Ogoltsev, and there is only one surname.

There is nothing to be surprised that hundreds of surnames have been unrecognizably mutilated over the course of three hundred years. The ancestor of a man named Larkov did not trade in a stall; his ancestors: Hilarion → Larion → Larek. The surname Finagin in the telephone book of Moscow belongs to 12 subscribers. It is mutilated from the spiritual family of Athenogenes (ancient Greek name Afinogen - "descendant of Athena"). 38 subscribers of the Moscow telephone have the surname Dorozhkin: it would seem from the stem "road", and they are certainly Doroshkins from the personal name Dorofey (like the Timoshkins from Timofey, the Eroshkins from Ierofey, etc.). Volume III of the telephone book of Moscow (1973) contains 679 Rodionov subscribers. Initially, it was a patronymic from the name Rodion, which in ancient Greece meant an inhabitant of the famous island of Rhodes (named for the abundance of roses). But 27 more Radionovs broke away separately from them. The name Rodion thinned out for a long time, then went to nothing, and the radio became a sign of culture, and the surname is pronounced according to the literary Moscow aking dialect not in O, and on A.

One more trouble cannot be avoided: insulting surnames are not uncommon in Moscow. In the phone books we meet 94 Negodyaevs, 25 Zhulins, 22 Durnevs, 2 Durakovs, as well as Glupyshkin, Dryanin, Lentyaev, Pakostin, Paskudin, Perebeinos, Proschalygin, Trifle, Urodov and the like. In vain they are called discordant: they are sonorous, but dissonant. But people around pronounce the "ugly" surname with respect, deserved by the deeds of the one who bears it. It is not the surname that paints or spoils a person, but he does it!

Appendix: LIST OF THE 100 MOST COMMON RUSSIAN SURNAME IN MOSCOW

Compiled by counting personal subscribers of the Moscow telephone. The list is built in alphabetical order without specifying quantitative indicators of frequencies: after all, the number of telephones for any family [p. 15] liu only remotely echoes the order of the real number of its carriers. For an approximate comparison of the frequency of surnames, their rank number is sufficient.

Abramov - 71, Aleksandrov - 42, Alekseev - 26, Andreev - 29, Antonov - 57, Afanasiev - 70, Baranov - 48, Belov - 43, Belyaev - 9, Borisov - 31, Vasiliev - 9, Vinogradov - 10, Vlasov - 79, Volkov - 16, Vorobyov - 40, Gavrilov - 90, Gerasimov - 74, Grishin - 87, Grigoriev - 56, Gusev - 37, Davydov - 93, Danilov - 100, Denisov - 77, Dmitriev - 47, Egorov - 19, Ermakov - 83, Efimov - 2, Zhukov - 53, Zhuravlev - 82, Zaitsev - 33, Zakharov - 34, Ivanov - 1, Ilyin - 62, Isaev - 98, Kazakov - 91, Kalinin - 73, Karpov - 4, Kiselev - 46, Kovalev - 76, Kozlov - 55, Komarov - 52, Korolev - 38, Krylov - 60, Kryukov - 96, Kudryavtsev - 94, Kuznetsov - 3, Kuzmin - 35, Kulikov - 50, Lebedev - 13, Leonov - 78, Makarov -: 3, Maksimov - 41, Markov - 85, Martynov - 69, Matveev - 51, Medvedev - 64, Melnikov - 72, Mironov - 49, Mikhailov - 21, Morozov - 8, Nazarov - 67, Nikitin - 22, Nikolaev - 20, Novikov - 7, Orlov - 15, Osipov - 61, Pavlov - 12, Petrov - 6, Polyakov - 32, Popov - 5, Potapov - 86, Prokhorov - 65, Rod ions - 81, Romanov - 25, Saveliev - 66, Savin - 95, Semenov - 18, Sergeev - 14, Sidorov - 58, Smirnov - 2, Sobolev - 99, Sokolov - 4, Solovyov - 28, Sorokin -16, Stepanov - 17, Tarasov - 27, Timofeev - 75, Titov - 44, Tikhomirov - 97, Fedorov - 11, Fedotov - 54, Filatov - 68, Filippov - 39, Fomin - 63, Frolov - 30, Tsvetkov - 88, Chernov - 80, Chernyshev - 59, Shcherbakov - 45, Yakovlev - 24.

Russian merchants have always been special. Merchants and industrialists were recognized as the wealthiest class in the Russian Empire. They were brave, talented, generous and inventive people, patrons and connoisseurs of art.

Bakhrushins
They come from the merchants of the city of Zaraisk, Ryazan province, where their family can be traced through scribe books until 1722. By profession, the Bakhrushins were “prasols”: they drove cattle from the Volga region to big cities in a herd. Cattle sometimes died along the way, skinned, taken to the city and sold to tanneries - this is how the history of their own business began.

Alexei Fedorovich Bakhrushin moved to Moscow from Zaraysk in the thirties of the nineteenth century. The family moved in carts, with all the belongings, and the 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, the collectors Sergei and Alexei Alexandrovich, and the grandfather of Professor Sergei Vladimirovich.

Speaking of collectors, this well-known passion for “gathering” was a hallmark of the Bakhrushins family. The collections of Alexei Petrovich and Alexei 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, because "he goes every Sunday to Sukharevka and bargains like a Jew." But it is hardly possible to judge him for this, because every collector knows that the most pleasant thing is to find yourself a truly valuable thing, the merits of which others did not suspect.

The second, Alexei Alexandrovich, was a great lover of the theatre, chaired the Theater Society for a long time 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 firms in Moscow is considered the Trading House of the Bakhrushin brothers. They have leather and cloth business. The owners are still young people with higher education, well-known philanthropists who donate hundreds of thousands. They conduct their business, although on new beginnings - that is, using the latest words of science, but according to old Moscow customs. For example, their offices and reception rooms make one wish for a lot. " "New time".

Mammoth
The Mamontov clan originates from the Zvenigorod merchant Ivan Mamontov, about whom practically nothing is known, except perhaps the year of birth - 1730, and the fact that he had a son, Fedor Ivanovich (1760). Most likely, Ivan Mamontov was engaged in farming and made a good fortune for himself, so that his sons were already rich people. One can guess about his charitable activities: a monument on his grave in Zvenigorod was erected by grateful residents for the services rendered to him in 1812.

Fedor Ivanovich had three sons - Ivan, Mikhail and Nikolai. Mikhail, apparently, was not married, in any case, he did not leave offspring. The other two brothers were the ancestors of two branches of the respectable and numerous Mammoth family.

Quote: “The brothers Ivan and Nikolai Fedorovich Mamontov came to Moscow rich people. Nikolai Fedorovich bought a large and beautiful house with a vast garden on Razgulay. By this time he had a large family.” ("P. M. Tretyakov". A. Botkin).

The Mammoth youth, the children of Ivan Fedorovich and Nikolai Fedorovich, were well educated and gifted in various ways. The natural musicality of Savva Mamontov stood out especially, which played a big role in his adult life.

Savva Ivanovich will nominate Chaliapin; make popular Mussorgsky, rejected by many connoisseurs; will create in his theater a huge success for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko. He will be not only a philanthropist, but an adviser: the artists received valuable instructions from him on issues of make-up, 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 Mammoths became famous in a wide variety of fields: both in the field of industry, 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 a farmer's trade, which brought them closer to the notorious Kokorev. Therefore, when they appeared in Moscow, they immediately entered the rich merchant environment. " ("Dark Kingdom", N. Ostrovsky).

Schukins
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. In the late seventies of the 18th century, Vasily Petrovich established a trade in manufactured goods in Moscow and continued it for fifty years. His son, Ivan Vasilyevich, founded the Trading House "I. V. Schukin with his sons "The sons are Nikolai, Peter, Sergey and Dmitry Ivanovichi.
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 chintz, scarves, underwear, clothing and paper fabrics, but also woolen, silk and linen products.

The Shchukin brothers are known as great connoisseurs of art. Nikolai Ivanovich was a lover of antiquity: in his collection there were many old manuscripts, lace, and various fabrics. For the collected items on Malaya Gruzinskaya, he built a beautiful building in the Russian style. According to his will, his entire collection, together with the house, became the property of the Historical Museum.

Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin occupies a special place among Russian nugget collectors. It can be said that all French painting of the beginning of the current century: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, some of their predecessors, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Degas - was in the Shchukin collection.

Ridicule, rejection, misunderstanding by the society of the works of this or that master - did not have the slightest meaning for him. 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
In 1802, Mikhail Yakovlev “arrived” to the Moscow merchants from the settlement of the Rebushinskaya Pafnutyevo-Borovsky Monastery in the Kaluga province. He traded in the Canvas Row of Gostiny Dvor. But he went bankrupt during the Patriotic War of 1812, like many merchants. His revival as an entrepreneur was facilitated by the transition to the “split”. In 1820, the founder of the business joined the community of the Rogozhsky cemetery - the Moscow stronghold of the Old Believers of the "priestly sense", to which the richest merchant families of the capital belonged.

Mikhail Yakovlevich takes the surname Rebushinsky (that's how it was written then) in honor of his native settlement and joins the merchant class. He now trades in "paper goods", starts several weaving factories in Moscow and the Kaluga province, and leaves the children a capital of more than 2 million rubles. So the stern and devout Old Believer, who wore a common people's caftan and worked as a "master" at his manufactories, laid the foundation for the future prosperity of the family.

Quote: "I was always struck by one feature - perhaps a characteristic feature of the whole family - this is internal family discipline. Not only in banking, but also in public affairs, everyone was assigned their own place according to the established rank, and in the first place was the elder brother, with whom others were considered 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 life's career. An extravagant lover of living "on a grand scale" entered the history of Russian art as the editor-publisher of the luxurious literary and artistic almanac "Golden Fleece", published in 1906-1909. Almanac under the flag of "pure art" managed to gather the best forces of the Russian "Silver Age": A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Bryusov, among the "seekers of the Golden Fleece" were the artists M. Dobuzhinsky, P. Kuznetsov, E. Lansere and many other. A. Benois, who collaborated in the magazine, assessed its publisher as "a most curious figure, not mediocre, at least special."

Demidovs
The ancestor of the dynasty of merchants Demidovs - Nikita Demidovich Antufiev, better known by the surname Demidov (1656-1725) was a Tula blacksmith and advanced under Peter I, having received 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 owed their discovery to Akinfiy Demidov, in 1736, the richest ore in terms of gold and silver content, native silver and horn silver ore, were found.

His eldest son Prokopy Akinfievich paid little attention to the management of his factories, which, in addition to his intervention, brought in huge income. He lived in Moscow, and surprised the townspeople with his eccentricities and costly undertakings. Prokopy Demidov also spent a lot on charity: 20,000 rubles for the establishment of a hospital for poor puerperas at the St. Petersburg Orphanage, 20,000 rubles for Moscow University on scholarships for the poorest students, 5,000 rubles for the main public school in Moscow.

Tretyakovs
They came from an old but not rich merchant family. Elisey Martynovich Tretyakov, the great-grandfather of Sergei and Pavel Mikhailovich, arrived in Moscow in 1774 from Maloyaroslavets as a seventy-year-old man with his wife and two sons, Zakhar and Osip. In Maloyaroslavets, the merchant family of the Tretyakovs 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 true kindred love and friendship. After their death, they will forever be 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 a native Russian product. Slavophile economists (like Kokorev) have 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 a lot of money on creating his famous gallery and collecting a collection, sometimes to the detriment of the well-being of his own family.

Quote: "With a guide and a map in hand, 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 painting". ("Russian antiquity").

Soltadenkovs
They come from the peasants of the village of Prokunino, Kolomna district, Moscow province. The ancestor of the Soldatenkov family, Yegor Vasilyevich, has been in the Moscow merchant class since 1797. But this family became famous only in the middle of the 19th century, thanks to Kuzma Terentyevich.

He rented a shop in the old Gostiny Dvor, traded in paper yarn, and was engaged in a discount. 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 compilation and the most remarkable in terms of its excellent and long existence.

But Soldatenkov's main contribution to Russian culture is considered publishing. His closest collaborator in this area was Mitrofan Shchepkin, a well-known city figure in Moscow. Under the leadership of Shchepkin, many issues devoted to the classics of economic science were published, for which special translations were made. This series of publications, called "Shchepkinskaya Library", was a valuable guide for students, but already in my time - the beginning of this century - many books have become a bibliographic rarity.

Russian Old Believers [Traditions, History, Culture] Urushev Dmitry Aleksandrovich

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

In the Russian Empire, the merchant class consisted not only of people engaged in buying and selling, but also industrialists and bankers. The prosperity and well-being of the country depended on them.

The largest entrepreneurs were Old Believers. The main wealth of Russia was concentrated in their hands. At the beginning of the 20th century, their names were widely known: the owners of porcelain production, the Kuznetsovs, textile manufacturers, the Morozovs, industrialists and bankers, the Ryabushinskys.

To belong to the merchant class, one had to enroll in one of the three guilds. Merchants who had a capital of 8 thousand rubles were assigned to the third guild. From 20 thousand rubles - to the second guild. Over 50 thousand rubles - to the first guild.

Entire branches of industry and trade were completely dependent on the Old Believers: the production of fabric, the manufacture of dishes, the trade in bread and timber.

Railways, shipping on the Volga, oil fields on the Caspian Sea - all this belonged to the Old Believers. Not a single major fair, not a single industrial exhibition was held without their participation.

Old Believer industrialists never shied away from technical innovations. They used modern machines in their factories. In 1904, the Old Believer Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky (1882-1962) founded the world's first institute of aircraft construction. And in 1916, the Ryabushinsky family began the construction of a plant of the Moscow Automobile Society (AMO).

Old Believer merchants always remembered the words of Christ: “Do not lay up treasures for yourself on earth, where worms and aphids destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither worm nor aphids destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Even having become rich, the merchants remained faithful children of the Old Orthodox Church. Wealth was not an end in itself for them. They willingly spent money on charity - on almshouses, hospitals, maternity hospitals, orphanages and educational institutions.

For example, the Moscow merchant of the first guild, Kozma Terentyevich Soldatenkov (1818–1901), was not only a zealous parishioner of the churches of the Rogozhsky cemetery, but also a patron of the arts, a disinterested book publisher, and a generous benefactor.

He not only collected paintings by Russian artists and ancient icons, but also built hospitals and almshouses in Moscow. Soldatenkovskaya free hospital for the poor has survived to this day. Now it is called Botkinskaya.

The merchants kept the pious customs of their ancestors in their household. The book by Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev "Summer of the Lord" remarkably tells about the old testamentary life of a Moscow merchant family.

The great-grandmother of the writer, the merchant Ustinya Vasilievna Shmeleva, was an Old Believer, but during the time of the persecution of Nicholas I, she moved to the Synodal Church. However, much of the strict Old Believer life was preserved in the family.

On the pages of the book, Shmelev lovingly resurrects the image of his great-grandmother. Ustinya Vasilievna had not eaten meat for forty years, prayed day and night with a leather ladder according to a holy book in front of a very old reddish icon of the crucifixion...

Those merchants who did not renounce the true faith were a reliable stronghold of Orthodoxy. Old Believer churches, monasteries and schools were maintained at their expense. Almost every merchant's house had a chapel, in which a clergyman sometimes secretly lived.

A description of a prayer room in the house of a Moscow merchant of the first guild, Ivan Petrovich Butikov (1800–1874), has been preserved. It was set up in the attic and had all the accessories befitting a temple.

Archbishop Anthony often served liturgy here. And he served not for one merchant family, but for all the Old Believers. The entrance to the house church during the performance of divine services in it was freely open to everyone.

There were three windows on the western wall of the prayer room. The eastern wall was decorated with icons. Stepping back a little from the wall, a camp church was set up - a tent made of pink damask fabric with a cross at the top, with royal doors and a northern diaconal door made of gilded brocade with pink flowers.

Bryansk merchant Nikola Afanasyevich Dobychin with his wife. Photograph 1901

Several small icons were hung on hooks on the sides of the royal doors. Banners stood on the right and left sides of the tent. In the middle of the tent stood a throne covered with a pink damask cloth.

However, the merchants, no matter how wealthy they were, did not have the opportunity to openly support the Old Believers. In matters of spiritual life, the rich were just as powerless as their simple brothers in faith, deprived of many freedoms.

The police and officials could at any time raid the merchant's house, break into the prayer room, ruin and desecrate it, seize the clergy and send them to prison.

For example, here is what happened on Sunday, September 5, 1865, in the house of the merchant Tolstikova in Cheremshan.

Liturgy was performed in the house church. The Gospel had already been read, when suddenly there was a terrible crack of breaking shutters and windows. Vinogradov, an official with five policemen, climbed into the prayer room through a broken window.

The official was drunk. With a dirty curse, he stopped mass. The priest begged to be allowed to finish the liturgy, but Vinogradov entered the altar, grabbed a cup of wine for communion, drank and began to eat prosphora.

The priest and the faithful were horrified by such blasphemy and did not know what to do. Meanwhile, Vinogradov sat down on the throne and, continuing to speak foul language, lit a cigarette from church candles.

The official ordered the priest and all those praying to be seized and taken to prison. The priest was not allowed to take off his liturgical vestments, so in robes he was sent to a dungeon. Prayer Tolstikova was ravaged by the police.

The only way to avoid blasphemy and disgrace was a bribe - a forced but inevitable evil.

It is known, for example, that it was precisely with a bribe at the end of the 18th century that the Moscow Fedoseyevites saved the Preobrazhenskoe cemetery from ruin. They brought a pie stuffed with 10,000 gold rubles to the chief of the metropolitan police.

However, bribes did not always help. You can't buy everything with money! For no amount of millions, the Old Believers could buy the freedom to worship according to pre-Nikon books, build churches, ring bells, publish newspapers and magazines, and legally open schools.

The Old Believers gained the desired freedom only after the revolution of 1905.

About salvation in the world

(from a letter from the monk Arseniy to the priest Stefan Labzin)

Most honest priest Stefan Fedorovich!

I received your letter - a question for Anna Dmitrievna - just now, on July 13th. You asked for an answer by the 11th, but you didn't give the number when you sent it. I now remain in doubt that my answer was not ripe in time and, perhaps, will no longer be needed. However, I will answer just in case.

If Anna Dmitrievna was announced by such a sermon that no one in the world, let's say, a girl this time, cannot be saved, then I am this announcement, no matter who said it, and no matter what book it was written in, I can't take it for granted...

If, on the contrary, they tell me that in the world you cannot escape temptations, I will answer these: you will not escape them even in the desert. If there, perhaps, you will meet them less, but they are more painful. But still, the struggle against temptations, both in the world and in the wilderness, until our very death, must be relentless. And if they lure anyone here or there into some kind of pool, then with hope in the mercy of God there is a reliable boat of repentance to get out of here.

So, in my opinion, salvation for every person in every place cannot be denied. Adam was in paradise and sinned before God. And Lot in Sodom, a sinful city before God, remained righteous. Although it is not useless to look for a quieter place, salvation cannot be denied in every place of the Lord's dominion.

And if Anna Dmitrievna made a vow to go to Tomsk only because she recognized that she could not be saved here, then this vow is reckless. And if she decides to agree with this and wishes to remain in her former residence again, then read her a prayer of permission for her reckless vow and appoint several bows to the Mother of God for some time. And God will not exact this vow from her.

But if she wishes to find a more comfortable life for her salvation, then let it remain at her discretion. And you don’t hamper a lot of her freedom, no matter how useful she is to you. If you are worthy, then maybe God will time another servant, no worse ...

This text is an introductory piece. From the book Moscow and Muscovites author

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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 for 1818 or even 1618.

There can be no doubt: the Russians would occupy a prominent place in it. The conquest of Siberia, the victory in the Northern War, beef stroganoff, tea with honey and the Tretyakov Gallery - at the expense of Russian oligarchs of the distant past.

1. Stroganov, Anika Fedorovich

Place and time: Northern Urals, XVI century

What made me rich: mining and supply of salt

... Somehow, at the end of the 15th century, the Novgorod merchant Fyodor Stroganov settled on Vychegda near Veliky Ustyug, and his son Anika started a salt works there in 1515. Salt, or rather brine, in those days was pumped from wells like oil, and evaporated in huge frying pans - hard work, but necessary. By 1558, Anika had succeeded so much that Ivan the Terrible granted him vast lands on the Kama, where the first industrial giant in Russia, Solikamsk, was already flourishing. Anika became richer than the tsar himself, and when the Tatars plundered his possessions, he decided not to stand on ceremony: he summoned the most fierce thugs and the most dashing chieftain from the Volga, armed him and sent him to Siberia to sort it out. That chieftain was called Ermak, and when the news of his campaign reached the king, who did not want a new war at all, it was already impossible to stop the conquest of Siberia. The Stroganovs, even after Anika, remained the richest people in Russia, a kind of aristocrats from industry, owners of crafts, guest houses, trade routes ... In the 18th century they received the nobility. The Stroganov-barons' hobby was the search for talents among their serfs: one of these "finds" was Andrei Voronikhin, who studied in St. Petersburg and built the Kazan Cathedral there. Sergei Stroganov opened an art school in 1825, where even peasant children were admitted - and who does not know Stroganovka now? 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 not called so by chance: one of the Stroganovs served this dish to guests in his Odessa salon.

1. - All Siberia.


2. - Architectural ensembles of Usolye and Ilyinsky (Perm Territory) - the "capitals" of the Stroganov Empire.


3. - Churches in the style of "Stroganov's baroque" in Solvychegodsk, Ustyuzhna, Nizhny Novgorod, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.


4. - Icons of the "Stroganov school" in many churches and museums.


5. - Stroganov Palace and Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt.


6. - Moscow State Academy of Art and Industry. S.G. Stroganov.


7. - 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 the Middle Urals, XVIII century

How did you get 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 metal 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 of 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 the production of iron and, accordingly, had the strongest army. Serfs worked at the Ural factories, machines were powered by water wheels, metal was transported along the rivers. Part of the Demidovs succumbed to the classical aristocracy: for example, Grigory Demidov planted the first botanical garden in Russia in Solikamsk, and Nikolai Demidov also became the Italian Count of San Donato.

What is left of Russia as a legacy:

1. - Victory in the Northern War, St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea.


2. - Gornozavodskoy Ural - the main industrial region of the USSR and Russia.


3. - Rudny Altai is the main supplier of silver in the Russian Empire, the "ancestor" of the coal Kuzbass.


4. - Nevyansk - the "capital" of the Demidov Empire. For the first time in the world reinforcement, a lightning rod and a truss roof were used in the Nevyansk Leaning Tower.


5. - Nizhny Tagil has been an industrial giant for three hundred years of its history, where the Cherepanov brothers built the first Russian steam locomotive.


6. - Nikolo-Zaretskaya Church in Tula - the family necropolis of the Demidovs.


7. - Botanical Garden in Solikamsk - the first in Russia, was created on the advice of Carl Linnaeus.

3. Perlov, Vasily Alekseevich

What made me rich: tea import

Why do they say "chai" in Russian and "ti" in English? The British entered China from the south, and the Russians from the north, and so the pronunciation of the same hieroglyph differed at different ends of the Celestial Empire. In addition to the Great Silk Road, there was also the Great Tea Road, which from 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 became rich in the tea trade - such as the Gribushins in Kungur. But the Moscow merchants Perlovs brought the tea business to a completely different level: the founder of the dynasty, the 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, expanded into a real empire. He had dozens of shops all over the country, he built the famous Tea House on Myasnitskaya, but most importantly, having established imports by sea and clinging to railways in time, he made tea accessible to all segments of the population, including peasants.

What is left of Russia as a legacy:

1. - Tea culture, which has become an integral part of Russian everyday life.


2. - As a result - Russian samovar and Russian porcelain.


3. - 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

What made me rich: metallurgy and heavy engineering

As without the Hermitage and Isaac, Petersburg cannot be imagined without the Putilov (Kirov) plant. The largest plant in the Russian Empire. It all started with the fact that during the 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 for the next navigation at St. Petersburg shipyards. Russia did not have such ships then, and the only possible "teacher" - Britain - smashed Russia to smithereens in the Crimea. But Putilov performed a miracle worse than the Soviet 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 another level, reducing the import of steel, alloys, rails and heavy machinery at times. His factory built machine tools, ships, cannons, steam locomotives, wagons. His last project was the new St. Petersburg port on Gutuevsky Island, until the completion of which he did not live.

What is left of Russia as a legacy:

1. - Kirov Plant and Northern Shipyard in St. Petersburg.


2. - Petersburg Seaport in its current form.

5. Tretyakov, Pavel Mikhailovich

Place and time: Moscow, XIX century

What made me rich: textile industry

Everyone knows this story from the school curriculum: a wealthy Moscow merchant with an unhappy family fate collected Russian art, which in those days was of little interest to anyone, and 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: everything was like a selection - from old merchants, and even wealthy peasants; half are Old Believers; all owned textile factories; many patrons, and no less famous here are Savva Mamontov with his creative evenings in Abramtsevo, the Morozov dynasty, another collector of paintings (though not Russian) Sergey Shchukin and others ... Most likely, the fact is that they came to high society straight from people.

What is left of Russia as a legacy:

1. - Tretyakov Gallery.


2. - Numerous old factories in Moscow and Moscow region.

6. Nobels, Ludwig Emmanuilovich, Robert Emmanuilovich and Alfred Emmanuilovich

ill. Nobel Ludwig Emmanuilovich

Place and time: Baku, XIX century

How did you get rich: explosives production, oil extraction

Nobels - the characters are not entirely "Russian": this family came to St. Petersburg from Sweden. But they changed Russia, and the whole world through it: after all, oil became the main business of the Nobels. People knew about oil for a long time, they extracted it in wells, but they didn’t really know what to do with this muck and burned it in furnaces 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 got rich in the production of weapons and explosives, came to Baku in 1873 - then the Baku crafts lagged behind the Austrian and American ones because of their inaccessibility. In order to compete with the Americans on an equal footing, 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 Zaroaster tanker (1877), an oil pipeline and an oil storage facility (1878), the Vandal motor ship » (1902). Nobel oil refineries made so much kerosene that it became a consumer product. The gift of 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 Oil Production Association") was not much different from the oil companies of our time and led the world into a new - oil - era. Alfred Nobel, on the other hand, was tormented by 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 of Russia and the world as a legacy:

1. - The oil age with all its pluses, minuses and features


2. - Pipelines, oil storage facilities, tankers.


3. - Motor ships and diesel-electric ships.


4. - Industrial (rather than consumer) heat and power industry.


5. - Dynamite (invented by Alfred Nobel, 1868)


6. - Nobel Prize - she owes 12% of her capital to Branobel

7. Vtorovs, Alexander Fedorovich and Nikolai Alexandrovich

ill. Vtorov Nikolai Alexandrovich

Place and time: Siberia, turn of the XIX-XX centuries

How did you get rich: services sector

... In 1862, the Kostroma man Vtorov arrived in merchant Irkutsk, and almost immediately he suddenly acquired a good capital: some say he got married successfully, others - he robbed someone or beat at cards. With this money, he opened a store and began to supply manufactured goods to Irkutsk from the Nizhny Novgorod fair. Nothing foreshadowed that the largest fortune in Tsarist Russia would grow out of this - about 660 million dollars at the current 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" in dozens of Siberian and then not only Siberian cities, huge stores equipped with the latest technology appeared with a single device, assortment and prices. The next step is the creation of a chain of hotels "Europe", again made to a single standard. After thinking a little more, Vtorov decided to promote the business in the outback - and now the project of a store with an inn for villages is ready. From trade, Vtorov moved on to industry, founding a plant with the futuristic name Elektrostal in the Moscow region and buying up metallurgical and chemical plants almost in bulk. And his son Nikolai, who founded the first business center in Russia (Delovoi Dvor), most likely would have increased his father's capital ... but a revolution happened. The richest man in Russia was shot dead by an unknown person in his office, and Lenin personally blessed his funeral as "the last meeting of the bourgeoisie."

What is left of Russia as a legacy:

1. - Supermarkets, business centers and network establishments.


2. - Dozens of "passages of Vtorov", which are the most beautiful buildings in many cities.


3. - Business yard on Kitay-gorod.

Russian merchants are now a part of our history, left in the last century, and we are gradually starting to forget about the contribution made by representatives of some eminent dynasties. Meanwhile, in tsarist Russia the word "philanthropy" was closely associated with the names of successful merchants. Many of these most educated people, art historians and philanthropists with a capital letter, had a huge impact on the development of Russian education and culture.

Bakhrushins

The successful Zaraysk merchant Alexei Fedorovich Bakhrushin moved to the capital in the 30s of the 19th century with his huge family. All things were carried on carts. Among the numerous belongings in the basket, little Sasha slept peacefully, who later became an honorary citizen of Moscow and a philanthropist, as well as the father of famous collectors. His son, Alexei Alexandrovich Bakhrushin, was fond of theater and was even chairman of the Theater Society. The Theater Museum created by him, thanks to its extensive collection, had no analogues in the world. The second son, Sergei, collected Russian paintings, icons, books, looking for and buying them on Sukharevka. Before his death, he bequeathed his library to the Rumyantsev Museum, and porcelain items and antiques to the Historical Museum.

As for their father, Alexander Alekseevich, he, along with his brothers, built a hospital with a shelter for the terminally ill (in fact, the first Russian hospice) on Sokolniki Field, and a house with free apartments for the needy on Sofiyskaya Embankment. In addition, the Bakhrushins opened several orphanages and educational institutions in Moscow, and also allocated large sums for scholarships to students. Almost every shelter or hospital built by the Bakhrushins erected a temple.

Mammoth

This merchant dynasty originates from the merchant Ivan Mamontov, who did business in Zvenigorod, where he was known as a philanthropist. Two of his grandchildren, Ivan and Nikolai, came to the Mother See of the very wealthy people.

Their children received a good education and had a variety of talents. For example, the merchant Savva Mamontov, known to this day, was himself a gifted person (he took singing lessons in Milan, participated in the theater circle of the writer-playwright Ostrovsky, etc.), and was able to notice and appreciate the talents of others. It was he who helped the musical career of Chaliapin, Mussorgsky, contributed to the triumph of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko. Actors, artists, composers came to their merchant friend for advice in any field of art - from applying makeup and selecting scenery to vocal techniques. And, I must say, his recommendations have always been very true and accurate.

Artists I. Repin, V. Surikov, K. Korovin, V. Serov and sculptor M. Antopolsky visiting a merchant-philanthropist. At the piano - the owner himself, S. Mamontov. /Photo: putdor.ru

The real island of culture of that time was the Abramtsevo estate, which Mamontov acquired from the writer Sergei Aksakov and transformed in the full sense of the word. His wife, Elizaveta Grigorievna, opened a hospital and a school in the district, at which handicraft workshops began to work. This was done to prevent rural youth from leaving for the city.

Writers, architects, musicians came to Abramtsevo. Repin, Serov, Vrubel and other famous artists painted their creations in the picturesque estate of Savva Mamontov. For example, in the dining room of a merchant in Abramtsevo, the famous painting “Girl with Peaches” hung, which Valentin Serov painted in this estate (the Mamontovs’ daughter Vera posed) and presented it to the owner’s wife, Elizaveta Grigorievna.

Schukins

This merchant family, whose founder is considered to be Vasily Petrovich Shchukin, who came to Moscow from the Kaluga province, not only delivered goods to remote cities of Russia and abroad, but also became famous as collectors. For example, the brothers Nikolai Ivanovich and Sergey Ivanovich were great lovers and connoisseurs of art. The first collected ancient fabrics, lace products and manuscripts, which after his death became the property of the Historical Museum. And the second became famous for immediately appreciating the genius of such incomprehensible Muscovites of that time as Degas, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Van Gogh.

Despite the ridicule of others, Sergei Ivanovich bought (sometimes for symbolic money) and carefully kept the masterpieces of these painters, predicting great fame for them. For example, in the merchant's dining room there were 16 paintings by Gauguin, 11 of which he bought abroad in bulk. Most of the paintings from his collection can now be seen in the Hermitage.

Another brother, Pyotr Shchukin, was known as an eccentric due to his “gathering mania”. He bought up antiques with great passion (books, utensils, paintings, etc.) and even opened the Museum of Russian Antiquities. Some of its exhibits were indeed of great artistic and historical value. After the death of Pyotr Ivanovich, part of his collection ended up in the Historical Museum, something ended up in other well-known museums, and the paintings went to the Tretyakov Gallery.

Demidovs

The Demidov dynasty dates back to the times of Peter the Great, when Nikita Demidov, a former blacksmith and gunsmith under Peter I, managed to move forward and received large plots of land in the Urals for the construction of factories. Having become rich, he became one of the main assistants to the tsar in the construction of St. Petersburg and donated large sums of money and metal to the construction of the future city.

Subsequently, in the mines that passed to his sons, large reserves of gold, silver and ore were found.

The grandson of Nikita Demidov, Procopius, became famous as one of the most active benefactors in Russia. He allocated huge sums of money to help educational institutions, hospitals and scholarships for students from poor families.

Tretyakovs

The great-grandfather of the future founders of the Tretyakov Gallery, Sergei Mikhailovich and Pavel Mikhailovich, came to Moscow from Maloyaroslavets with his wife and children, being a poor merchant from an ancient but not very famous family. Although the commercial and industrial affairs of his descendants were doing well in the capital, this merchant dynasty was never among the richest. However, thanks to their sincere and disinterested love for art, the Tretyakov brothers became famous, perhaps more than all the other merchant patrons.

Pavel Mikhailovich spent almost everything he earned on creating his gallery, and this seriously affected the well-being of his family. Visiting museums and galleries in Europe, he became an incredibly subtle and professional connoisseur of painting. Muscovites and guests of the city can appreciate the results of this hobby to this day.

Each merchant family has its own history, and some well-known names in Moscow have even given rise to urban legends. For example, the family of the merchant Filatov has a mysterious story related to the construction in the capital very strange building.

The Morozovs, the Ryabushinskys, the Soldatenkovs, the Prokhorovs, the Eliseevs, the Khludovs, the Putilovs, the Chichkins...they have no number. They were not only generous benefactors, but also excellent organizers of production (business) or, as they say now, creative managers who influenced the creation of new industries and the growth of the Russian economy as a whole.