Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists Rukavishnikovs. Nizhny Novgorod – Pocket of Russia

I won’t be mistaken if I say that all Nizhny Novgorod residents know who the Rukavishnikovs are. Everyone knows about the Rukavishnikov Palace on Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment and about their bank on Rozhdestvenskaya.
But behind this, by all accounts, unprecedented wealth, there was also unprecedented generosity. This is good known fact that the Russian merchants were famous for their habit of helping the poor, and in Nizhny, the birthplace of the Fair, this reached unprecedented proportions. Here merchants greedily bargained for their goods, and then could give thousands to charity.
The Rukavishnikov dynasty has rightfully earned the fame of the most generous Nizhny Novgorod patrons of the arts. I would like to talk about the good deeds they did that I was able to learn about (I am sure this is not a complete list).
To make the further story more or less understandable, you need to tell us a little about this family. The beginning of this dynasty was laid by Grigory Rukavishnkov, who, being an ordinary blacksmith, came to Nizhny Novgorod in 1812 following the Fair. Within a few years, he became a major merchant, and then the owner of a steel mill that supplied products even to Persia. His son Mikhail continued his father’s work and created a real commercial and industrial empire. Mikhail Grigorievich, who was popularly called the “iron old man,” became the first philanthropist in the Rukavishikov family. His motto was “I sacrifice and care.” Mikhail Rukavishnikov had as many as nine children, and all of them became famous philanthropists, following in the footsteps of their father.

So I'll start the storyMikhail Grigorievich. (1811-1875)

Mikhail Grigorievich, a merchant of the first guild, that same “iron old man” was a member of the provincial prison trustee committee and annually made donations in favor of Nizhny Novgorod prisoners. For his philanthropy, he became a hereditary honorary citizen and was a manufacturing advisor. He left a huge fortune to his family, which at the time of his death consisted of a wife, seven sons, two daughters and a sister, approximately four million rubles each. His wife, Lyubov Aleksandrovna, built an almshouse and a children's hospital in memory of her husband, and the House of Diligence, built later by the Rukavishnikovs, was named after Mikhail and Lyubov Rukavishnikov.

Mikhail Grigorievich supported the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium (I believe that this is the same as the Mariinsky Institute of Noble Maidens, since both names are related to the wife of Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna) and orphanages.

(The original building of the Mariinsky Institute)

(As a result, the Mariinsky Institute was located here)

If anyone can enlighten me on the question of whether there is a difference between the Mariinsky Gymnasium and the Mariinsky Institute for Noble Maidens, I would be very grateful.

Heirs of Mikhail Grigorievich.

Ivan Mikhailovich, son of Mikhail Grigoryechia, was one of the most famous public figures Nizhny Novgorod: a member of the City Duma, an honorary justice of the peace, a full member of the Nizhny Novgorod Encouragement Society higher education and the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers - this is not a complete list of his social “loads”, which required from him not only time, but also significant material resources.

In 1906, Ivan Mikhailovich donated 75 thousand rubles for the Widow's House of Bugrov and Blinov (the one on Lyadov Square) and 25 thousand for the education of widows' children. The fact is that in the Widow's House children were given only primary education, and with Rukavishnikov's money they built a school with workshops: a shoemaker's and a tailor's shop for boys, a sewing shop for girls. Now this is the old building of the Ton company, a former factory named after. Clara Zetkin).


(The same Widow’s House. It seems to have been completely preserved, but for some reason it doesn’t make the same impression)

Can you imagine the Orlyonok cinema building? So, it once also belonged to the Rukavishnikovs. Ivan Mikhailovich did not build it, but bought it. After his death, this building, according to Rukavishnikov’s will, was transferred to the Public Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod, where its meetings were held. In addition, the building became the center cultural life, in particular, musical concerts were held here.

Sergey Mikhailovich 1852-1914) became famous not for his charitable activities, but for his construction. The well-known Rukavishnikov house on the Verkhne-Volzhskaya embankment was built by Sergei Rukavishnikov. He also purchased an estate in Podvyazye, not far from Nizhny Novgorod, and created an exemplary farm from it. In addition, in 1908, on Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod, by order of Sergei Mikhailovich, the famous architect Shekhtel erected a huge complex, which included the Rukavishnikov Bank and apartment building.

Another interesting fact: in 1868, the Rukavishnikovs bought another estate, in Lazarev, Bogorodsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, from the Nizhny Novgorod Sheremetevs. This estate is less known than Podvyazye and is less well preserved. In addition, the estate (a cultural heritage site of regional importance) is now threatened by the construction of a landfill for solid waste disposal. Like this.

(Lazarevo. Everything looks sad, but it’s a pity. Photos taken from here http://poligon-lazarevo.ru/ )

Mitrofan Mikhailovich 1864-1911

(Mitrofan Mikhailovich is the only one whose portrait I could find)

During his life, Mitrofan Mikhailovich accumulated a large collection of paintings, including Vasnetsov’s “Flying Carpet” and Kramskoy’s “Lady under an Umbrella,” which now adorn the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. He donated money for Blagoveshchensky monastery, the Verkhne Posad Trinity Church (the same one that was located on the site of the NGLU and whose construction his father took part in), the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Somewhere between Alekseevskaya and Osharskaya streets, the building of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, a charitable society, of which he was chairman for several years, was built at his expense. The brotherhood of Cyril and Methodius contributed to the religious and moral education and education of the poorest students of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial gymnasium. The brotherhood provided students with housing in its dormitory and in selected apartments, paid for training, provided them with free textbooks, clothes and shoes, and paid medical benefits. Students were given an allowance of 5.6 rubles per month.

(Annunciation Monastery)

(Trinity Church, the new building of the NGLU stands right on this spot)

In 1908, an honorary hereditary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod, Mitrofan Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, donated an estate plot of land on the Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment to the Russian Red Cross Society, and a hospital was built at the merchant’s expense. On November 14, 1913, the Nizhny Novgorod surgical hospital of the Russian Red Cross Society admitted its first patients.


(Surgical Hospital of the Russian Red Cross Society, now City Clinical Hospital No. 3)

Mitrofan Mikhailovich, like his brother Ivan, was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial prison trustee committee and helped juvenile offenders released from prison.

In 1887, at a meeting of the City Duma, a call was made “to open a House of Diligence in Nizhny for the homeless poor and beggars to engage in labor.” The construction idea was brought to life only thanks to the selfless help of the Rukavishnikovs. Brothers Ivan, Mitrofan, Sergei, Nikolai Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov and their sisters Varvara Mikhailovna (married Burmistrova) and Yulia Mikhailovna (married Nikolaeva) at their own expense equipped and provided the society with three two-story stone buildings, a three-story stone outbuilding, services and a large plot land. The House of Diligence, opened on the corner of Varvarskaya and Mistrovskaya streets, was named after Mikhail and Lyubov Rukavishnikov, the parents of the donors. The family’s help, of course, was not limited to this: the Rukavishnikovs regularly donated significant cash for the maintenance of the House of Diligence, took part in improving production activities, in organizing the education of children (largely at their expense, a parochial school was opened here) and in organizing a library. The results were immediate: at the XVI All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition held in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896, products from the House of Diligence received diplomas corresponding to gold and bronze medals. Evidence of public recognition of the usefulness and merits of the new institution was the visit of the House of Industry by Emperor Nicholas II and his wife in 1896. After this visit, which gave rise to a series of subsequent visits by dignitaries, charitable donations began to flow in in very significant quantities. This made it possible to equip a new building of the House by 1905 (in the 20s of the last century a printing house was opened in it, and in the 60s two upper floors), increase the number of guests (usually there were 500-550 people here, and, for example, in 1903, 63,594 people dined) and expand production (mats, mops, tow, lifebuoys, etc., which took part in the exhibition at the Paris Exhibition in 1900).


(House of Diligence named after Mikhail and Lyubov Rukavishnikov)

Also, the children of Mikhail Rukavishnikov used their own money to repair the Zhivonosovskaya Church, which was located opposite the now restored Conception Tower of the Kremlin (where the square is now). The church, unfortunately, has not survived to this day: it was dismantled in 1928.

Brothers Ivan Nikolai Mitrofan Rukavishnikovs also took part in the construction of a colony for the mentally ill in the village of Lyakhovo Nizhny Novgorod region(such complexes had not been built in Russia before). The project of the famous psychiatrist Pyotr Petrovich Kashchenko to build such a hospital would have been impossible without the private investments of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants, including the Rukavishnikov brothers, in the total amount of 57 thousand rubles. In 1895, Ivan Rukavishnikov, guided by Kashchenko’s instructions, acquired 50 acres of land for a colony - part former estate writer P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky in the village of Lyakhovo not far from the city. Construction eventually began in 1899. The pavilion of the hospital for men was named in honor of Ivan Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov.

(Colony for the mentally ill)

Known in the city Rukavishnikov Vladimir Mikhailovich, on whose funds there was a well-known choir chapel outside the city (built at the same Trinity Church, in the construction of which his father took part). Several soloists of this choir later became singers of the Bolshoi Theater.

Varvara Mikhailovna Burmistrova-Rukavishnikova, the daughter of an iron old man, also left a memory of herself by purchasing land for city ​​cemetery, placing a church and service buildings there and surrounding the Nizhny Novgorod necropolis with a fence with turrets and gates (just in case, the cemetery area is 16 hectares!). After the death of her father, Varvara Mikhailovna Burmistrova-Rukavishnikova invested part of her inheritance (namely one and a half million rubles) in the construction of a house on Zhukovskaya Street (modern Minin Street). Architect Grigoriev built a mansion with a greenhouse and a large garden, decorated the interiors with wood painting, tapestries and draperies. In this house (only part of the ensemble has survived) today there is a literary museum: in 1917, Varvara Mikhailovna of her own free will gave away her magnificent, rich house along with a collection of artistic values

Varvara Mikhailovna did not have her own children, so she devoted all her attention to the students from the Mariinsky Gymnasium, warmly welcomed them into the house (during the holidays, 6-7 students from the Mariinsky Institute lived with her), taught two girls at her own expense, and cared about their future. Varvara Mikhailovna more than once participated in the financing of Nizhny Novgorod educational institutions. So, in 1916, after the death of her husband, she contributed 50,000 rubles for the improvement of the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, which was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod, which after the revolution was reorganized into the Nizhny Novgorod Polytechnic Institute.

PS. I think there may be inaccuracies in my text, so I would be grateful for remarks.

In the traditions of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants it was: “Profit is above all, but honor is above profit.” These traditions have deep roots. Since ancient times, it was customary for the best enterprising people to fulfill four main commandments: the first is to make good in righteous ways, the second is to use what you get wisely, the third is not to spare a share for those in need, the fourth is not to tempt fate in vain. Long before the famous “Domostroy,” Russian merchants put morality first and did not undertake any serious business without prayer. This is how it went for centuries.

In the 16th or 17th century, not to mention the earlier centuries, merchant names were famous throughout Rus', and among them Nizhny Novgorod. And how could the people of Nizhny Novgorod not become famous? One of the most ancient trade routes, the blue Volga itself, passed by their houses. And was it not from the Nizhny Novgorod piers that the most famous of the famous merchants, Afanasy Nikitin, once set sail with luggage and supplies, heading to fabulous India? And Nizhny Novgorod merchants traveled to all directions of the world. And, perhaps, the path to the transcendental Mangazeya was paved more than once.

Goods were sometimes lost, but honor was never lost. And it was not the merchant’s birth that raised him up—his beneficence. Everyone knew that a good merchant would never compromise his conscience: truth is bought, but untruth is stolen. If someone is dishonest, he will not escape shame, he will not escape worldly judgment, and where there is shame, there is ruin.

It is not without reason that whole generations began to look up to the merchant Kuzma Minin, who raised honest people to liberate Russia from a foreign enemy and from their traitors, as a moral example.

In the “Scribe Books”, among the townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod, the “best people” are called, who along the Volga “go up and down in ships and who trade in large quantities with all sorts of goods.” Semyon Zadorin, a merchant of the living room of the hundred, was well known, engaged in the trade of salt and fish.

The famous Stroganovs in Nizhny knew that the banks of the Oka were lined with salt barns.

Entrepreneurship and talent created fame for the Nizhny Novgorod merchants Olisov, Bolotov, Pushnikov, Shchepetilnikov, Olovyannikov. Favorable conditions, and sometimes, on the contrary, the most difficult obstacles accompanied the advancement of the most capable and persistent people from the people into the merchant class, into the first ranks of industrialists and financiers.

Especially many talents appeared among merchants in Russia during the post-reform era. The strongest turned out to be those from Old Believer families, where their upbringing was very harsh. They became the backbone of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants. If someone ever made it to the top, it was often not by chance. And as for the scoundrels, tyrants and burnt-outs from among the merchants, the same Ryabushinsky mentioned above spoke beautifully about them: “It’s true, there were such people, and quite a few, and I know the names of some, but I won’t reproach them. And besides, in many there was not only bad, but also good; who has intelligence, who has talent, who has scope, who has generosity. I will not shame or dishonor them or my hometown, but I will pray to God for those I know.”

PEREPLETCHIKOV Fedor Petrovich

In 1816, its member Fyodor Petrovich Perepletchikov was elected chairman of the City Duma, who played an outstanding role in the history of the development and improvement of Nizhny Novgorod. Perepletchikov came from a merchant family engaged in the rope industry, which was very common in Nizhny during the times of sailing navigation (at that time there were numerous rope spinning mills in the area of ​​modern Korolenko, Novaya and Gorky streets). Fyodor Petrovich achieved great skill in the matter of inheritance. Perepletchikovsky ropes were valued throughout the Volga. But Fyodor Petrovich’s greatest fame was brought not by entrepreneurship, but by his activities in the field of city government. He was elected mayor three times and became famous as a prudent business executive and generous philanthropist.
Both contemporaries and descendants assessed his activities only in superlatives: the most generous philanthropist (city officials benefited from the income of Plebpletchikov’s capital even in 1918!); the most charming (the ability to convince listeners and be an interesting interlocutor aroused the envy of his contemporaries; Perepletchikov managed to charm even the All-Russian autocrat Nicholas I); the most far-sighted (it is to this mayor that Nizhny owes many buildings and initiatives); the most remarkable and famous (a city street was named after him, and on January 10 every year in the churches of Nizhny they served eternal remembrance for F.P. Perepletchikov).
At the time of his election, Perepletchikov was only 31 years old, but he was already respected in the city. No wonder he was entrusted with the city treasury with all financial records. As the main city financier, Fyodor Petrovich in 1812 took an active part in raising funds for the needs of the people's militia. He also showed an example of selfless care for refugees from Moscow, and tried with all his might to alleviate the needs of Muscovites. He sheltered some of them in his own home.

In 1816, when Perepletchikov was elected chairman of the City Duma, a terrible fire destroyed the Makaryevskaya Fair. Perepletchikov acted as a convinced supporter of the resumption of this fair not in its original place, near the walls of the monastery, but in Nizhny. He understood the benefits this would bring to the city, and did everything to make this transfer happen. And I was not mistaken in my calculations. Since 1817, Nizhny Novgorod began to grow rich, improve and expand before our eyes.
Information about outstanding citizens of Nizhny Novgorod from the merchant class is taken from various sources.
In 1831, F.P.’s two daughters died of cholera. Perepletchikova. He was deeply affected by the bitterness of his loss and decided to donate part of his fortune to help the poor. On January 15, 1832, the City Duma considered a letter from Perepletchikov, in which he donated the 8 buildings of the Nikolsky Market that he owned to the city, so that the income from the rental of these premises would go to the poor.

Another significant gift from Perepletchikov to the city was a stone house with two wings and a plot of land, bequeathed by him in favor of the City Duma (now Rozhdestvenskaya St., 6). In his will, Fyodor Petrovich indicated that after his death, the income from this house should go to the mayor for the benefit of “charitable institutions and poor residents of Nizhny Novgorod.” According to Perepletchikov’s will, the mayor had to personally manage this money, without reporting to anyone, since, as Fyodor Petrovich especially emphasized in his will, “honest, prudent and well-disposed people towards their fellow men are always elected to this position,” who will not use this income in for their own benefit, but will use it “to help the poor.”
In 1834-1836. the City Duma was again chaired by F.P. Perepletchikov, who held the position of mayor for the third time. This three-year period passed under the sign of two visits of Emperor Nicholas I, as a result of which Nizhny Novgorod was completely transformed.
For the third year now, the Tsar had been touring Russian cities and everywhere he gave impetus to the construction of roads and improvement. This happened in Nizhny Novgorod. By this time, it became completely clear that the city could not cope with the influx of cargo and visitors during the summer fair season. Carts with goods went from the Murom and Kazan tracts to the fair through the Kremlin. However, the gates of the Dmitrievskaya and Ivanovskaya towers turned out to be too small for their flow, which caused many hours of congestion. The streets were not suitable for such a number of carts. They were narrow and rather haphazardly built up with wooden manor-type houses.

Tsar Nicholas was knowledgeable in engineering and architecture, so all the shortcomings in the layout of Nizhny Novgorod immediately caught his eye. During his stay in Nizhny (October 10-12, 1834), he ordered a radical reconstruction of the city, giving architects and officials a number of detailed instructions. The mayor also received them.
Fyodor Petrovich was called to the Tsar's office (Nicholas was staying in the house of the military governor on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya). Before the sovereign lay the old plan of the city (1824), which, according to the royal will, had to change radically. The Emperor informed Perepletchikov and other representatives of local authorities in detail about his plans. The most important thing was to make exits for transport bypassing the Kremlin. Nikolai himself drew their direction on the plan. In total, the list of royal orders for the improvement of the city consisted of 33 points. The Emperor, in particular, ordered the purchase of all private houses in the Kremlin, the construction of a boulevard along its wall, the construction of the Upper Volga and Nizhnevolzhskaya embankments, a garden along the banks of the Volga, the straightening of the streets, the construction of new barracks and a number of other buildings.
Nikolai also personally discussed the issue of building barracks on the future Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment with the Chairman of the Duma, Perepletchikov. Their construction was supposed to finally rid the townspeople of the presence of soldiers (the Kremlin barracks could not accommodate all the military personnel of the garrison). The City Duma collected funds for construction by introducing a special tax on the “real estate” of Nizhny Novgorod residents.


Other work on the improvement of the city was carried out at public expense. To finance them, on January 5, 1836, a tax was introduced on ships bringing goods to the fair. However, the townspeople had to bear high costs of moving their own houses to new locations due to the redevelopment of streets. But here too the state came to their aid. The so-called public charity order (the provincial institution in charge of the “social sphere” and at the same time having the right to conduct credit and financial activities) was placed in the Nizhny Novgorod order of public charity. "auxiliary capital". In 1836, the City Duma considered the issue of borrowing from it to provide loans to residents for the construction of houses.
On August 15-17, 1836, Nicholas I visited Nizhny Novgorod again. He checked the progress of work and gave another 54 instructions for the improvement of the city.
On August 16, a ceremonial reception for city officials and the nobility took place at the Main Fair House. There, the emperor especially singled out the mayor F.P. Perepletchikov, addressing him as a representative of Nizhny Novgorod merchants, “fellow citizens of the most famous of this class, Kozma Minin.”
It must be said that Nicholas the First had deep respect for the memory of the savior of Moscow and even wanted to find out if there were any of his descendants left in Nizhny. Perepletchikov took this desire of the sovereign to heart and began to explore Minin’s family tree. Interest in Minin’s personality gave impetus to another charitable initiative of Perepletchikov. In 1836, the City Duma considered the case “about the construction in Nizhny Novgorod of a house called Mininsky for charity for poor citizens and retired honored soldiers.” Perepletchikov gave 1,000 rubles of personal money for this and collected another 4,500 rubles from other donors. But this initiative was realized only 30 years later.

BLINOV Fedor Andreevich, Aristarkh Andreevich, Nikolai Andreevich

One of the prominent representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant elite was Fyodor Blinov. He started out trading bread and salt. He acquired six steamers (“Lion”, “Dove”, “Voevoda”, “Blinov”, “Assistant”, “North”). With their help, the resourceful merchant transported grain cargoes along the Volga, and also delivered salt from Astrakhan and Perm to Rybinsk (only Astrakhan sedimentary salt - “Eltonka” - up to 350 thousand poods per season). Blinov grinded salt in Nizhny Novgorod at a horse-drawn mill, which he built on Sofronovskaya Square (now Markin Square).
The salt business was very profitable, but it was fraught with many dangerous temptations. In 1869, for participating “thoughtlessly” in the waste of government salt and for violating the established rules for maintaining trade books, Blinov was sentenced to arrest in prison for seven days and compensation for government damage in the amount of 150,096 rubles 70 kopecks. After that, he was engaged only in the grain business. Together with younger brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai Fedor Andreevich owned mills in the Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan provinces, traded in grain, flour and cereals in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Blinov was a generous benefactor and did a lot for the city. At his own expense, he paved Sofronovskaya Square and the Assumption Congress to the Oka River (1861), and made a large donation for the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod City Public Bank. He gave a thousand rubles for the construction of a temporary hospital for cholera patients (1872), 6 thousand rubles for the establishment of craft classes at the First Children's Shelter (1874), 5 thousand for the construction of a laundry in the Second Children's Shelter (1876) , 3 thousand rubles - for the renovation of orphanage buildings (1877). Finally, with his brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai, he donated a gigantic sum of 125 thousand rubles for the installation of a water supply system in Nizhny Novgorod (1878).
In 1871, the City Duma formed a special commission that prepared a plan for the construction of a new water supply system and cost estimates. It turned out that no more than 450 thousand rubles would be required. Tenders were then announced to carry out this work. They were won by the English company Malisson, which undertook to complete the project for 417 thousand.


To pay the contractor, the Duma prepared to take out a loan of 450 thousand rubles at 5% per annum for a period of 50 years. To pay it off, it was planned to increase the tax on homeowners. It was here that the Nizhny Novgorod Duma received a statement from the brothers Fyodor, Aristarkh and Nikolai Blinov, merchants A.P. and N.A. Bugrovykh and merchant U.S. Kurbatova. To save the city from the loan, and homeowners from the increase in taxes, they donated 250 thousand of their personal money (Blinovs - 125 thousand, Bugrovs - 75 thousand, Kurbatov - 50 thousand). At the same time, the benefactors set the condition: “The use of water from the new water supply system should be free for all classes of Nizhny Novgorod forever.”

Aristarkh Andreevich and Nikolai Andreevich Blinov owned flour mills and cereal factories in the Volga region. Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Nizhny is still decorated with the arcade building built by the Blinovs.

BUGROV Petr Egorovich, Alexander Petrovich and Nikolai Alexandrovich

The founder of the most famous merchant dynasty in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Peter Egorovich Bugrov, was noticed by Vladimir Ivanovich Dal. He came to admire the resourcefulness and enterprise of an appanage peasant from the village of Popovo, Semenovsky district. In an essay about him, the writer reports how, through honest work and intelligence, Petrukha the balalaika player achieved wealth and turned from a stocky barge hauler into the largest grain merchant, setting up mills on the Linda River. In addition, Bugrov contracted the construction of government buildings and completed orders in the shortest possible time. At the Lower City Fair, bridges across canals were built under his supervision. No one managed to strengthen the slope sliding into the Volga near the Kremlin until the savvy contractor Bugrov took up the task. When, during the Crimean War, Nizhny Novgorod residents assembled a militia from recruits, Bugrov equipped a convoy for it. In the book by A.V. Sedov “The Nizhny Novgorod Feat of V.I. Dahl” (Nizhny Novgorod, 1993) the following review of the writer about Bugrov is given, included by Dahl in a letter to the Minister of Destinies: “Your Excellency! I dare to introduce the most wonderful man on the entire Nizhny family estate, Pyotr Egorovich Bugrov. This is one of those smart minds who, from a crowbar hooker, achieved the title of the first contractor in Nizhny.”

Pyotr Yegorovich's grandson Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov managed to wisely manage the millions of dollars of capital acquired by his grandfather and father, maximizing them. This was already an all-powerful master who held the fates of many people in his hands and who was called the uncrowned king of Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to this powerful man, production arose and developed, trade flourished, and unprecedented construction took place. And in the Ker women's calm, in Old Believer hermitages They prayed to him as a benefactor and patron.

In M. Gorky's description, the younger Bugrov appears as a rather gloomy character. Even appearance Bugrova makes a repulsive impression.

“I often met this man on the shopping streets of the city: big, heavy, in a long frock coat, similar to a jacket, in brightly polished boots and in a cloth cap, he walked with a heavy gait, with his hands in his pockets, he walked to meet people, as if he didn’t see them, and they gave way to him not only with respect, but almost with fear.”

The fact that Bugrov did not forget about his conscience, that he tried to observe the code of honor verified over centuries, and that his moral obligations were dear to him, has been preserved in both documents and legends. After the fire in 1853, when the theater on Bolshaya Pecherka burned down, Nikolai Alexandrovich’s grandfather rented out his apartment building on Blagoveshchenskaya Square to the theater. Noisy performances, where, as the younger Bugrov believed, “naked women jump over naked men,” did not fit in with moral principles a devout Old Believer, and he turned to the city duma with a request to sell him his grandfather’s house. The Duma respected the request of the venerable entrepreneur. Having purchased the building, Bugrov donated it to the Duma free of charge, setting only the condition that “in future, no theater or entertainment establishment will ever be allowed to be established in this building.”

Nikolai Alexandrovich himself, with enormous capital, was content with little; He didn’t drink or smoke alcoholic drinks, his usual food was cabbage soup and porridge with black bread, he dressed simply - a sheepskin coat, a frock coat, boots...

And he had dozens of steamships, steam mills, warehouses, piers, hundreds of acres of forest, entire villages. In 1896, Bugrov received the right to supply grain to the entire Russian army. He had representation in twenty largest cities Russia. Bugrov's partnership processed 4,600 pounds of grain per day in 1908.

At the stock exchange, where the eminent Nizhny Novgorod merchants discussed transactions, arranging separate room ritual tea parties, Bugrov was invariably revered as the main and foremost. Here each table was nicknamed with a meaning: “insurance”, “supply”, “oil”, “trusted table”, “millionth”. Naturally, according to custom, Bugrov, who came to the stock exchange at noon, sat down at the “millionth” table along with the richest merchants.

And in the Duma, and at the stock exchange, and at the fair, and in commercial offices, the first word was with Bugrov. He conducted his affairs with brilliance, skill and efficiency. Knowing his worth, he did not lose his dignity when meeting with the tsar, and addressed Finance Minister Witte, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod governor Baranov, on a first-name basis.

Nizhny Novgorod merchants had a tradition of so-called “alms days,” during which each of the moneybags was obliged to give generous alms to the poor, no matter how many of them came to the gate. Good entrepreneurs did not want to hear the offensive saying about themselves: “Minin’s beard, but his conscience is clay.” They tried not only to be known, but also to be philanthropists. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov did not skimp on alms.

On the days of memory of his illustrious ancestor, he organized “funeral tables”. They were placed on Gorodets Square, stocked with bread and jugs of kvass. Poor brethren from all over the area came here, receiving free food and silver ten-kopeck pieces. It was Bugrov who built the famous shelter for the homeless, a shelter for widows and orphans, and spared no expense in the construction of churches, hospitals and schools. The foundations of Bugrovsky buildings are still strong, and its houses themselves still serve people flawlessly.

Bugrov acquired a lot and gave a lot away. Having lived for more than seventy years (1837-1911), he proved by his deeds how active, enterprising, prudent, and at the same time magnanimous and generous a Russian person can be.

When Nikolai Alexandrovich was buried, the whole city followed the coffin. The steamships hummed incessantly on the spring Volga, paying their last respects to the owner. In a newspaper obituary he was called first of all a “major philanthropist” and then a “representative of the grain business.”

Shamshurin V.A. Return to Nizhny Novgorod. Historical studies (2009):

Father and son Bugrov built the famous Nochlezhny House for the city. The initiator of its creation, Alexander Petrovich, was not destined to see the doors of this institution open. In May 1883 he passed away. The building was ready by October 10, 1883. The son of the deceased, Nikolai Alexandrovich, solemnly transferred the house into city ownership, pledging to maintain it at his own expense in memory of his father. There was a memorial plaque on the wall: “A.P. Night Shelter.” Bugrova".

450 men and 45 women could receive shelter there. However, they were not asked for any documents. They were allowed here in the evening and only for the night. During the day, the doors of the shelter were closed to restore order. Drunk people were not accepted into the shelter. It was forbidden to take alcohol with you, smoke or sing songs (this could disturb the sleep of others). The guards kept order.
In 1887, the city acquired another large charitable institution. This was the so-called "Widow's House". It was built at their own expense and handed over to the city by Nikolai Bugrov and the brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai Blinov.


The building was located on city land near the Holy Cross Monastery (now Lyadova Square, 2). On October 23, 1887, the Duma approved the charter of the Widow's House. It opened on October 30. It provided free one- or two-room apartments to widows with children. The kitchens were shared. There was a bathhouse, a laundry, a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic with a hospital room for two departments: adults and children. There was a doctor, a paramedic and a nurse in the hospital.
Since 1888, a teacher and a law teacher taught the children. The staff of the Widow's House also included a caretaker, a warden, a doorman, bellhops, a bathhouse attendant, two stokers and five watchmen. The City Duma gave them all their salaries. She also paid all other expenses. The money for this was allocated in advance by N.A. Bugrov and Blinov.
The Blinovs donated 75 thousand rubles, placing them in the city Nikolaev bank. Interest from this huge capital was allocated to the needs of the Widow's House. In turn, N.A. Bugrov donated his houses to the city on the corner of Alekseevskaya Street and Gruzinsky Lane. The city leased them to the military department, which erected a barracks building there (the so-called “Georgian barracks”). Rental income also contributed to the maintenance of the Widow's House.


Another manifestation civic position Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov received the new building of the City Duma, which he donated to the city. The house of P.E. previously stood on this site. Bugrov, founder of the famous merchant dynasty. Then the Bugrovs sold it, and a theater was located there. Then the house was transferred to the Alexander Noble Bank for debts. Nikolai Bugrov bought it and in 1897 donated it to the city, with the condition, however, that the establishment of a theater or entertainment establishment in general should never be allowed in it, and the proceeds should be distributed to the poor.
They began to repair the house, but in 1898 it burned down. And according to the project of V.P. Zeidler here in 1901-1904. A completely new building was erected.

Moreover, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov paid over 70% of construction costs. On April 18, 1904, the grand opening of the “Bugrovsky Charity Building” took place (now Minin and Pozharsky Square, no. 1). It should be noted that its interior decoration was done using the exquisite decoration of the Imperial Pavilion of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, donated by the Tsar to Nizhny Novgorod. Now these luxurious apartments house the City Council, which has moved to a new location. Some of the premises were rented out for shops. The Duma spent the income, as Bugrov wished, on charitable purposes.

RUKAVISHNIKOVS

Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov was distinguished by the same strong nature that Bugrov had. Continuing the path of his father, who back in 1817 opened three shops at the Nizhny Novgorod fair and began selling iron, he managed to give the business real scope. The chimneys of his metallurgical plant did not stop smoking over Kunavin. Rukavishnikov was engaged in the production of excellent steel.

In the “Gazette on the state of factories and plants in the Nizhny Novgorod province for 1843” it was noted: steel “at this plant ... is produced up to 50,000 pounds. A total of 90,500 rubles. silver." The steel was sold at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and to Persia.

Manufacturer-adviser, merchant Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov, the first guild, becomes one of the most influential persons in the city. The only Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, he subscribes to the magazine “Manu Invoices and Trade” and the newspaper “Manufactory and Mining News”, adopting the best experience. Business came first for him; he could not tolerate laxity and laziness, he controlled himself, and by the end of his life he was nicknamed the “iron old man.”

Rukavishnikov’s wealth increased every year, and he donated a significant share of it to charity. A large sum was allocated by him to the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, where he was a member of the board of trustees. Together with local historian Gatsisky, composer Balakirev, artist and photographer Karelin, entering the “Brotherhood of Cyril and Methodius”, Rukavishnikov provided assistance to children from low-income families. And the brotherhood itself was created precisely in order to take on the costs of maintaining poor students of the gymnasium, supply them with clothes and books, and contribute money for education.


“I sacrifice and care” - these words could become the motto of the entire Rukavishnikov family. The descendants continued the charitable activities of the “iron old man.” One of his sons, Ivan Mikhailovich, together with his brothers and sisters, built the famous House of Diligence on Varvarka in Nizhny (now this is the old building of Nizhpoligraf), annually donated a thousand rubles in favor of poor Nizhny Novgorod brides, did not refuse to help the zemstvo, took care of Kulibinsky vocational school.

Another of the sons, Vladimir Mikhailovich, was famous for maintaining a boys’ choir at his own expense; some of its students became soloists in the capital opera houses. The life of Mitrofan Mikhailovich, an honorary member of the Red Cross Society, who built a gymnasium dormitory on Gruzinsky Lane and a surgical hospital (now one of the buildings of the gerontological center), was decorated with good deeds.

So it turns out that the Rukavishnikovs took care of all the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, leaving visible material evidence of their affection and love for the city. But their most magnificent gift is a unique palace on the Escarpment, which belonged to Sergei Mikhailovich and was built by him in the spring of 1877. There is in the beauty, splendor and harmony of this building the same spirituality that we find in the works of the best architects, whose aspirations are not everyday life, but eternity. This was well captured and conveyed in heartfelt prose by the son of the owner of a luxurious palace, writer Ivan Sergeevich Rukavishnikov.

“Early in spring, the scaffolding surrounding the palace was felled. And powerful, heavy and slender, it appeared to the spring-flooded Volga River... They built it so that for many, many years there would be no house equal to that in the city. No one has enough audacity or capital... Everything in that palace is without deception. Where you see marble, it is real marble and an inch thick, not like they cut it in the foreign style now, like cardboard sheets. The eye sees a stone column, believe it, don’t try it with your hand - it won’t ring, it’s not empty. And believe in the capital of the column too: bronze, not gilded cardboard. And in the bronze of that copper and tin there is as much as is said in the old lists. And if in a hundred years there is a war in that city, and a cast-iron cannonball hits that slender arch over there, and the cannonball knocks off the grinning face of the old satyr, no one’s eye will see either rotten beams or rusty crutches in that place. And he will see the correct circular masonry, and the moderately calcined brick will crumble earlier than the layer of correct cement will give way...”


Ivan Sergeevich wrote about the strength of a skillful creation, at the same time revealing the flaws of the closed, ossified merchant life, from which he renounced and with which he broke, throwing down, like a glove, a reproach to his past in the novel “The Cursed Family.” God will be his judge. But it is impossible not to connect this act, generated by denial, with another, prompted by the high spirit of the soul and, of course, corresponding to the family tradition of doing good. Together with his brother Mitrofan Sergeevich, Ivan Sergeevich, after the crushing seventeenth year, began to create in the family mansion folk museum. More than seventy works of art, mostly paintings, were donated to the city by the Rukavishnikovs even before the revolution, sparing no expense with their collections. These works became the basis of the museum.

It seemed that Russia was perishing in the fire of civil war, churches were collapsing, libraries were burning - and nothing could be saved. But still there were people who knew: preserving spiritual wealth means preserving their homeland. And among these selfless people, some of the most active were the descendants of the old merchant family that emerged from the Balakhna lower classes. By the way, it will be said that the son of Mitrofan Sergeevich Iulian and grandson Alexander - famous sculptors, in 1987, a monument to the glorious Russian pilot Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov, the work of father and son Rukavishnikov, was erected in our city.

BASHKIROV Emelyan Grigorievich, Yakov Emelyanovich, Matvey Emelyanovich,
Nikolay Emelyanovich

Everyone has information Nizhny Novgorod merchant It was customary to celebrate any successful transaction not only in the tavern, but also to light a candle in the church and give it to the poor. Entrepreneurs invested a lot of money in the construction of churches.

In Nizhny Novgorod there were certain days when assistance to the poor was mandatory. For example, this day was the closing day of the fair. Having taken part in the procession and prayer service, the merchants, as usual, returned to their shops, having prepared generous alms. Nizhny Novgorod newspapers published the names of those who donated to orphanages, helped fire victims, and poor families. And lists of donors appeared constantly. But if someone was stingy, the rumor did not spare him.

A wealthy steamboat operator and flour miller, the founder of the trading house “Emelyan Bashkirov and his sons” was incredibly stingy and became an anecdotal figure. They say that Emelyan Grigorievich was returning from his mill to the upper part of the city. A cab was driving along the exit.

- Sit down, your lordship, I’ll take you there. I'll take it inexpensively - ten kopecks.

- Fear God! I overcharged him. Give me a nickel.

They move around and argue and bargain. Finally, the cab driver gives in.

- Well, for your sake, your lordship, I agree. Sit down for a nickel and let's go.

- No, brother. Now I won’t sit down. Look, while talking to you, I didn’t even notice how I walked halfway up the mountain.

Another case. Bashkirov was awarded the Eagle sign for the high quality of flour. The employees gathered to congratulate Emelyan Grigorievich, hoping for a treat.

- Why did you come? - asks Bashkirov.

– We would like to congratulate you on the royal favor.

Emelyan Grigorievich wrinkled his brow, reached into his pocket, and took out his wallet.

I fumbled around in it for a long time. Finally, he pulled out a two-kopeck piece and handed it over.

- Here you go. Yes, look, don't drink it.

Adrianov Yu.A., Shamshurin V.A. Old Nizhny: Historical and literary essays. (1994)

After the death of the elder Bashkirov in 1891, all his millions of capital passed to his sons. The sons turned out to be worthy successors. Nizhny Novgorod residents pronounced the names of Yakov and Matvey Bashkirov with respect. Their fame spread throughout Russia. Bashkirov-milled flour was considered the best, it was asked for in all parts of the province, and it became famous abroad. For days on end, grain carts continuously stretched from the Nizhny Novgorod piers to the mills. At the mill alone, over 12,000 pounds of grain were ground daily. The enterprise of Matvey Emelyanovich was located near the Romodanovsky station, Yakov Emelyanovich - in Kunavin.

The Bashkirovs knew a lot about work. No wonder Yakov Emelyanovich declared that his family came from barge haulers. And Yakov Emelyanovich also boasted that the cunning character in Gorky’s novel “Foma Gordeev” Mayakin is exactly like himself:

- Mayakin? It's me! It's been written off from me, look how smart I am.

Yakov Emelyanovich behaved independently, proudly, did not grovel before dignitaries, but was withdrawn and overly arrogant. And yet, despite human weaknesses, strong, real masters were the Bashkirovs. The mills they built still stand in Nizhny Novgorod. And what benefits they bring!


An honest business was never done for the sake of profit alone. Intelligence, agility, risk - and even with daring, and even with enthusiasm - were approved on the Volga. There was only no praise for those who cheated beyond measure, cheated, and stole. It is known that Fyodor Blinov’s father, like the Bashkirovs, a millionaire flour miller, gave his son, who had served time in prison for fraud with salt, a pair of cast-iron galoshes. He had to wear them for half an hour on each anniversary of the trial. Like, don’t lose your merchant’s honor, don’t lose your dignity.

Volga entrepreneurs loved to compete most of all in innovations. Thus, the well-known Alexander Alfonsovich Zeveke was the first to build an American-type steamship with a shallow draft in Nizhny Novgorod. His ship “Amazon” appeared on the Volga during the navigation of 1882, striking everyone with its huge wheels behind the stern. And then a whole series of such ships appeared.

The skillful entrepreneur Markel Aleksandrovich Degtyarev was famous on the Volga, and the thorough Mikhail Ivanovich Shipov was held in high esteem. The Volga residents knew well the plant of Ustin Savvich Kurbatov, where ships were assembled, and his company, which operated towing and passenger ships with a distinctive sign - a white stripe on the pipes.

MOROZOV Savva Timofeevich

It is impossible to separate from the Nizhny Novgorod merchants such a brilliant figure as Savva Timofeevich Morozov, who for several years headed the fair committee and, on behalf of the commercial and industrial class of Russia, presented bread and salt to the Emperor in 1896. The influence of the European-educated, intelligent and energetic committee chairman on the business community was truly enormous.

One characteristic incident stuck in the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents. Finance Minister Witte refused the fair committee's request to increase the terms of loans from the state bank. The only entrepreneur who was not embarrassed by the refusal was the chairman of the committee himself. As presented by M. Gorky, who was present at the committee meeting, Morozov’s speech boiled down to the following:

– We care a lot about bread, but little about iron, and now the state must be built on iron beams... Our straw kingdom is not tenable... When officials talk about the state of the factory business, about the situation of the workers, you all know what it is - "entombment..."

He suggested sending a sharp telegram to the minister. The next day a response was received: Witte agreed with the committee’s arguments and granted the petition.

Having become known as a business man, Savva Timofeevich entered another world - the world of art. He loved theater and painting, read entire chapters from “Eugene Onegin” by heart, admiring the genius of Pushkin, and knew the works of Balmont and Bryusov well. Morozov was haunted by the idea of ​​Europeanization of Russia, which, in his opinion, could only be realized through revolution. At the same time, he never doubted the talent of his people and financially supported bright talents. The example of philanthropy of such major authorities in the business world as Savva Timofeevich Morozov and Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, who created all the conditions for the flourishing of the talent of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, captivated many of the younger generation of entrepreneurs. This corresponded not only to new trends, but also to the age-old folk wisdom about the superiority of spiritual wealth over material wealth: “The soul is the measure of everything.”

SIROTKIN Dmitry Vasilievich

In the conditions of rethinking traditions, at a turning point in the rapid development of capitalism, it was not easy to become such a large-scale and popular figure among Nizhny Novgorod citizens of a new formation, as the millionaire Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin seems to us now. This personality was original, and Sirotkin’s whimsical fate was also unique.

...The Great Patriotic War was coming to an end. The battles were already taking place outside the borders of our Motherland. In the fall of 1944, Marshal Tolbukhin's troops reached the Danube, intending to liberate Belgrade. But first it was necessary to cross the Danube. Wide river I was depressingly deserted - not a boat anywhere. And there was an urgent need to cross. Regimental commanders puzzled over this task.

Early in the morning, the sentries saw a boat through a foggy veil on the river. She silently glided towards the shore, overgrown with dense bushes. Fearing to break the silence, the fighters called out to the boatman only at the moment when he left the boat and began to make his way through the thickets. He was a strong, dignified old man with a wide, clean forehead and a short white beard. He had an impressive appearance, his gestures were decisive and authoritative.

“Take me to the commander,” he said in Russian and looked with such a firm, confident look that the experienced soldiers did not dare to disobey.

He was brought to the command post. He wasted no time and suggested to the general:

- I know you need a crossing. I have my own flotilla on the Danube: boats, tugs, barges. All this is not far from here, in a secluded place. You can use it.

- Who are you? - the general was amazed, unable to believe the unexpected help.

– Local entrepreneur. And in the past - the last Nizhny Novgorod mayor, Dmitry Sirotkin.

Like this amazing story. And it was told by soldiers who returned from the front. Looks like a legend. But legends are not born out of the blue.

And therefore there is a reason to turn to the memories of one of the Volga residents - Ivan Aleksandrovich Shubin, who met with Sirotkin at the beginning of the century.

“I saw Sirotkin without knowing him at all. At his invitation I came to the office... He was of average height, significantly shorter than me. Attracted attention inner strength. He was impulsively restrained, and if he lost his temper, then with some impetuosity he would allow himself a few harsh words and only quickly pull himself together again. There was not so much severity in him as efficiency. His eyes were gray and lively. Hands are confident, small, light, fast gait. He loved music very much and attended concerts. He organized many concerts himself and did a lot for the public who could pay. At the Lower Bazaar he organized literary and musical meetings for the poor. He selected the repertoire himself, the artistic repertoire was compiled by the artist Yakovleva, and the dramatic repertoire was composed by Volkov and Kapralov. They gathered every holiday, and I personally had to attend, they always listened with great attention and interest. They read our classics, poems, and the music was mainly by Russian composers...”

It is probably already possible to form a general idea of ​​a person whose spiritual interests are fully consistent with the act committed by Sirotkin at the end of his life.

He came from an Old Believer family. His father Vasily Ivanovich was a peasant in the village of Ostapovo, Purekhovsky volost, Balakhninsky district - this is next to the former patrimonial estate of the unforgettable Prince Pozharsky.

Vasily Ivanovich traded in wood chips, transported them on ordered barks down the Volga - to Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan, and sold them in bulk. Things were going briskly. In a matter of years, the resourceful peasant became rich and became the owner of the tugboat Volya. On Volya, after graduating from primary school, the younger Sirotkii worked from a young age - as a cook, sailor, waterman, helmsman. The time comes when Dmitry Vasilyevich himself takes the helm of his ship, also named “Volya”. This ship was already more powerful than my father’s, with an iron hull and a steam engine, designed by the mechanic Kalashnikov, famous throughout the Volga. It must be said that the design of the Volya machine was soon awarded a prize at the All-Russian exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. The ambitious Sirotkin achieved his first great success - his ship was recognized as one of the best on the river.

Perseverance, intensive self-education, passion for engineering and design, a thirst to improve every business - all this distinguished Sirotkin among entrepreneurs. Taking on the task of transporting oil along the Volga, he created his own type of ships: according to Sirotkin’s drawings, the oil-loading metal barge “Marfa Posadnitsa” was built in 1907. The Nobel partnership, which competed with Sirotkin’s company, urgently began building ships of this type.

Sirotkin was recognized as the leader among shipowners. He was elected chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Imperial Shipping Society, head of the coordinating committee of all exchanges in the Volga region, chairman of the permanent council of congresses of shipowners of the Volga basin.


Knowing how to work with full dedication, he naturally could not stand any laxity, disorder, or dishonesty. Out of spite, someone composed a biting ditty about him:

Like on the Volga, on the river

Mitrius has everything in his hand.

With his left hand he will beckon,

The right hefty vein is pulling.

Was this really the case? The same Shubin recalls Sirotkin: “He knew how to select people and work with them. But, without interfering with his work, Sirotkin, unlike Bugrov, was not based on personal charity, but attracted the public, organized city guardianship for the poor... He called people not by “you”, but by “you”. He had libraries compiled on barges... Sirotkin organized insurance for workers against unfortunate events, many of the merchants had a negative attitude towards this. In addition, he did the following thing: he appointed a representative from the workers to the council of merchant congresses.”

In the spring of 1910, the Volga Commercial, Industrial and Shipping Company was created in Nizhny Novgorod. The managing director was the merchant of the 1st Guild of Commerce, Advisor Sirotkin, in whose hands enormous funds were concentrated at that time. Volga's fixed capital was increased to 10 million rubles. And the society's vessels appeared on the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei and Danube. Near the village of Bor, an active entrepreneur is building a large plant for the production of motor ships. This plant still operates under the name “Motor Ship”.

1913 Nizhny Novgorod residents held elections for a new city mayor. Of several candidates, Sirotkin was preferred.

“I promise to serve the city not for honors, but according to my conscience,” Dmitry Vasilyevich said when taking office. He asked to transfer his salary to the city budget. And he shared his plans: to build a permanent bridge across the Oka, improve the outskirts, and begin electrification work.

But these plans were not destined to come true. A long war with Germany began. And it was no longer peaceful concerns that burdened the city’s head. However, he can be credited with the fact that under his leadership the concession tram was purchased by the council, the Peasant Land Bank was built, and the transition to universal primary education was carried out.


There are many good deeds to the credit of Sirotkin, who is undoubtedly an exceptional person. But the bureaucrats were dissatisfied with Sirotkin, whom he prevented from being arbitrary in the distribution of military orders, looking after the interests of entrepreneurs.

The head of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial gendarme department, Colonel Mazurin, reported on October 9, 1915 to the director of the police department that the mayor Sirotkin “was known only as a good and clever businessman, who did not forget his personal self and who made up quite a substantial fortune out of nothing.” Already from this phrase it is clear that the gendarme, to put it mildly, is being dishonest.

Dmitry Vasilievich recognized the benefit February Revolution, began wearing a red bow on his coat and headed the city executive committee of the Provisional Government. Like many active people, it probably seemed to him that Russia, freed from the shackles of autocracy, would move even faster along the path of progress. However, optimism soon gave way to anxiety. The time has come for unrest and chaos. And, no longer hoping for the best, foreseeing inevitable cataclysms, Sirotkin decides to go abroad, since he had his own ships on the Danube.

He left Nizhny, leaving a good memory of himself. In his beautiful mansion on the Volga Escarpment, created by the talented architects the Vesnin brothers in 1916, there is now Art Museum. In addition, the city owes Sirotkin unique collections of porcelain, shawls and scarves, Russian folk costume, gold embroidery. In emigration, he had to learn that the works of art he left in his homeland were carefully preserved, becoming the property of the people of Nizhny Novgorod, and this pleased him. He lived a great life, passing away in the early fifties. They say that after the war he wanted to return to Russia, but did not receive permission.

It is difficult to imagine what a seedy city Nizhny would look like, how meager its history would be, if the merchants had not participated in its formation. But is it really only Nizhny that we’re talking about!

One cannot but agree with the deep thought of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin that “in the half century preceding the revolution, Russian merchants played a leading role in everyday life the whole country." But Shalyapin didn’t know this when his talent reached unprecedented greatness thanks to merchant patronage. Reflecting on a domestic merchant who started his business by peddling a simple home-made friend, Fyodor Ivanovich says about him: “... He eats tripe in a cheap tavern, drinks tea and black bread as a bite. He gets cold and cold, but he is always cheerful, does not complain and hopes for the future. He is not embarrassed by what goods he has to trade, trading in different ones. Today with icons, tomorrow with stockings, the day after tomorrow with amber, or even little books. Thus he becomes an "economist". And there, lo and behold, he already has a shop or a factory. And then, guess what, he’s already a merchant of the 1st guild. Wait - his eldest son is the first to buy a Gauguin, the first to buy a Picasso, the first to bring a Matisse to Moscow. And we, the enlightened ones, look with disgusting mouths agape at all the Matisses, Manets and Renoirs that we have not yet understood and say nasally and critically: “Tyrant...” Meanwhile, the tyrants have quietly accumulated wonderful treasures of art, created galleries, museums, first-class theaters, they set up hospitals and shelters...” And here’s something else that the world-famous singer credits to the merchants: they “defeated poverty and obscurity, the violent discord of official uniforms and the inflated swagger of cheap, lisping and burring aristocracy.”

No matter what obstacles arose, the Nizhny Novgorod merchants remembered the Old Testament commandment - to do good for the fatherland - and believed that the costs of good deeds would eventually pay off a hundredfold. And it was not mistaken: the good names of venerable entrepreneurs are now resurrected in memory and they are pronounced along with the names of famous public figures and scientists, architects and artists.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov(1839-1911) - the largest Nizhny Novgorod merchant, grain merchant, financier, homeowner, philanthropist and philanthropist, donated 45% of his net income to charity.

With all that, Bugrov the merchant
He was a resourceful businessman -
In the evenings, maddened by fat,
He did not turn into a spender,
Knew: he has income,
No matter what you drink or eat,
His whim will not ruin him,
Where did the income come from?
From those closets and corners,
Where they lived from labor and sweat.
That's where the merchant's catch was
And a real hunt!
From here he made profits,
Hence the copper pennies
Flowed into merchant backwaters
And turned into millions
No, not pennies, but rubles,
Merchants' faithful profits.
Enriched the big merchant
Poor people who did not live in paradise,
Thus turning money into power,
In someone else's strength - not in your own.

Demyan Bedny

“A millionaire, a large grain merchant, the owner of steam mills, a dozen steamships, a flotilla of barges, and huge forests,” N. A. Bugrov played the role of an appanage prince in Nizhny and the province.
An Old Believer of “non-priest consent”, he built in a field, a mile from Nizhny, a vast cemetery, surrounded by a high brick fence, in the cemetery - a church and a “monastery” - and the village men were punished with a year in prison under Article 103 of the “Criminal Punishment Code” “for the fact that they set up secret “prayer houses” in their huts. In the village of Popovka, Bugrov erected a huge building, an almshouse for the Old Believers - it was widely known that sectarian “readers” were brought up in this almshouse. He openly supported secret sectarian hermitages in the forests of Kerzhenets and on the Irgiz and in general was not only an active defender of sectarianism, but also a strong pillar on which the “ancient piety” of the Volga region, the Urals and even some part of Siberia rested.
The head of the state church, a nihilist and cynic, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, wrote - it seems in 1901 - a report to the tsar about Bugrov’s hostile, anti-church activities, but this did not stop the millionaire from stubbornly doing his job. He said “you” to the eccentric governor Baranov, and I saw how, in 1996, at the All-Russian exhibition, he patted Witte on the stomach in a friendly manner and, stamping his foot, shouted at the Minister of the Court Vorontsov.
He was a generous philanthropist: he built a good lodging house in Nizhny, a huge building for widows and orphans with 300 apartments, perfectly equipped a school in it, installed a city water supply system, built and donated a building for the city council to the city, gave gifts to the zemstvo with forests for rural schools and generally did not spare money for “charity” causes. "

Maksim Gorky

In the rooming house of N.A. Bugrov. Photo by Maxim Dmitriev

At Bugrov's lodging house. photo by Maxim Dmitriev

Back in the 1880s, the Bugrovs, father Alexander Petrovich and son Nikolai Alexandrovich, built at their own expense a shelter for 840 people, a widow's house for 160 widows with children, and also participated in the construction of the city water supply. In memory of this, there was a The "Fountain of Philanthropists" was erected with the inscription: " This fountain was built in memory of honorary citizens of the mountains. Nizhny Novgorod: F.A., A.A., N.A. Blinovykh, A.P. and N.A. Bugrovykh and U.S. Kurbatov, who with their donations gave the city the opportunity to build a water supply system in 1880, subject to free forever use of it by the residents of Nizhny Novgorod".

Dorms and libraries were opened for these tramps
Nizhny Novgorod tramps. Photo by Maxim Dmitriev

The prudent N.A. Bugrov did not have the habit of donating cash to charity - the source of funds for it was both income from real estate and interest from the “eternal” deposit. The houses and estates owned by Bugrov in Nizhny Novgorod served not only his personal interests. The income from the real estate that he donated to the city was used to help the poor and needy. So, in 1884, Bugrov donated an estate on Gruzinskaya Street and capital in the amount of 40 thousand rubles to the city for the construction of a public building that would generate an annual income of at least 2,000 rubles. This money was intended" annually, in perpetuity, as a benefit to fire victims of Semenovsky district".

Fist fight at Bugrov's rooming house. Photo by Maxim Dmitriev

The same principle was used by Bugrov when financing the famous Widow's House, opened in Nizhny in 1887. In addition to interest on large capital (65,000 rubles) in the Nikolaevsky Bank, the shelter’s budget was replenished from income (2,000 rubles per year) brought in by Bugrov’s two houses on the street. Alekseevskaya and Gruzinsky lanes, which the merchant donated to the city. According to the proposal of Governor N.M. Baranov dated January 30, 1888, the Highest Imperial permission was given to assign the name " Nizhny Novgorod city public named after Blinov and Bugrov Widow's House" .

N.A. Bugrov’s help to the starving people in the disastrous years of 1891-1892 looks large-scale and expressive, especially against the backdrop of the general, often formal, approach. He agreed to sell all purchased bread to the provincial Food Commission at the procurement price of 1 ruble. 28 kopecks per pood, i.e. completely giving up profit (at that time Nizhny Novgorod landowners kept bread prices at 1 ruble 60 kopecks)

The Bugrovs paid special attention to the education of talented children. In particular, a scholarship was established in the city of Semenov for “a peasant boy with outstanding abilities” - the first to receive it was a student from the village. Khakhaly Nikolai Vorobiev in 1912

“Give me power,” he said, squinting his good eye to the thinness of a knife blade, “I would have upset the whole people, both the Germans and the British would have gasped! I would have given crosses and orders for their work - to carpenters, machinists, laborers, to black people. If you succeed in your business - that's honor and glory for you! Compete further. And if, along the way, you step on someone's head - that's nothing! We don't live in the desert, without pushing you won't get through! When we lift the whole earth, yes "We'll push you into work - then we'll have more space to live. Our people are good, with such people you can overturn mountains, plow up the Caucasus. You just have to remember one thing: after all, you yourself won't take your son to a slutty woman in the calling hour of the flesh - no? So do the people You can’t immediately plunge our head into the vanity - he will choke, suffocate in our acrid smoke! We must be careful.”
Maxim Gorky “N.A.Bugrov”

Presidium of the Congress of Old Believers with N.A. Bugrov in the center

Introduction

In the ancient “Scribe Books” the “best people” are named among the townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod, who along the Volga “go up and down in ships and who trade in large quantities with all sorts of goods.” Resourcefulness and ability to conduct business created fame for Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Favorable conditions, and sometimes, on the contrary, the most difficult obstacles, contributed to the advancement of the most capable and persistent people from the people into the merchant class, the first ranks of industrialists and financiers. Especially a lot of talents appeared in Russia in the last century during the post-reform era. The strongest turned out to be those from Old Believer families, where their upbringing was very harsh. Such immigrants became the backbone of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants.

They were strong and tenaciousmerchants Bugrovy . The Bugrovs are an eminent merchant family, and its entire history is inseparable from the Nizhny Novgorod fair. This connection went along two main lines: work at the fair and trade at it. The founder of the Bugrovsk company, Pyotr Egorovich, had already begun working for the fair. In his youth, he surfed the Volga and worked a lot for the benefit of the fair, pulling merchant ships to Macarius. When he “made it into the people” and became a transport contractor, he helped build a fair in Nizhny Novgorod, supplying rubble stone and other building materials. P.E. Bugrov began the main trade of his company at the fair - grain. Since 1829, he was the first in the Nizhny Novgorod province to establish a commercial flour milling industry, installing four large mills on his native Linda River, became the largest flour miller and developed a wide grain trade, primarily at the fair. Countrymen P.E. Bugrova, who inhabited the area around the villages of Kantaurovo, Tolokontsevo and Sitniki, rolled excellent felt boots and poyarka hats (made from the delicate wool of a young poyarka sheep). But they had serious difficulties in selling their products, which the buyers cleverly took advantage of by robbing artisans. Peter Egorovich helped his fellow countrymen: in 1832 he organized the sale of felted products at the fair on favorable terms for them. The greatest fame of P.E. Bugrov acquired as a skilled construction contractor. Construction work at the fair was considered the most profitable because it was stable and well paid. The fair construction contract consisted of two parts. The first is to build, maintain, dismantle, repair and store bridges until the next season. And there were a lot of them. The main one is the pontoon bridge across the Oka River. Then two bridges to Grebnevsky sands, 12 bridges across the bypass canal: four road bridges and eight pedestrian ones. The second part - temporary wooden structures, which included eight premises for the police, Cossack barracks with officer rooms, bunks, a kitchen, a stable, a shed, pike machines, a manger for food and a sentry box; 23 Cossack pickets with sheds for horses; two fire sheds with watchtowers, rooms for teams and horses; five guardhouses: three general, one for non-commissioned officers and one Cossack; premises for lamplighters and the sweeping crew (janitors). These are only mandatory buildings, and besides them, many others were required, the construction of which arose due to unforeseen needs. Fair construction contract for a long time the venerable Nizhny Novgorod merchants Pyatov and Michurin alternately held it in their hands. At first the peasant Bugrov was unable to compete with them. But his credibility in business circles helped. The fair construction contract was so extensive that V.K. In 1847, Michurin himself recruited Pyotr Yegorovich to become his subcontractor. In this work, Bugrov delved into the contents of the contract in detail and at the next auction in 1850 he threw down the gauntlet of a challenge to all competitors from the merchant class. A large deposit was required to participate in the auction. Pyotr Egorovich took a big risk by mortgaging his house on the Lower Volga embankment, valued at 11,754 rubles, and in a stubborn struggle snatched this prestigious contract from the hands of the merchants. The merchant A.M. bargained with him most persistently. Gubin. Bugrov defeated him with just one ruble: Gubin agreed to perform the contract for 81,601 rubles, and Bugrov took the contract for 81,600 rubles in silver (in banknotes the amount is 3.5 times more). This prestigious contract p.E. Bugrov held it tenaciously in his hands until his death in 1859, each time at the next auction held four years later, beating competitors with a reasonable price and high quality workmanship. Unfortunately, his heir, son Alexander, was unable to retain this profitable contract. But he found his place at the fair. Owning vast forests, Alexander Petrovich became the main supplier of building materials to the fair, supplying it with all kinds of timber. A.P. Bugrov significantly expanded flour-grinding production by installing two powerful mills in a new location, on the Seima River. As a result, the role of the Nizhny Novgorod fair in the sale of grocery products from the Bugrovsky company increased. In 1870, the Bugrovs rented 10 trading places at the fair, mainly in the flour row. But the fair, which was empty for ten months of the year, was often devastated by fires, especially its wooden part. After the great fire of 1872, the fair office sold out everything shopping places outside the main house and the guest courtyard into private hands. The merchants willingly agreed to this, but new construction was only allowed in stone. The Bugrovs skillfully took advantage of this. They did not restore all their previous trading positions, but in a busy place, at the beginning of Moscow (now Soviet) street, they erected three stone two-story trading buildings. The location turned out to be very good, next to the train station. It was possible to trade here not only during the fair season, but all year round. These houses were built so well that they still carry out their trading mission (Soviet, 20). Pyotr Yegorovich's grandson, Nikolai Alexandrovich, took an active part in the improvement of the fair. By the 80s 19th century the main fair house with its two outbuildings was so dilapidated that the commission for its reconstruction came to a disappointing conclusion: “no amount of repairs can ensure that the house and outbuildings are adapted to the modern requirements of the fair.” Therefore, the commission members “considered it more rational to dismantle the existing buildings to the ground and build one common new building.” Was announced All-Russian competition for the project, the best one was selected and received first prize. To oversee the quality of construction, an authoritative commission of the most respected merchants was formed, which included N.A. Bugrov. As a result, the monumental building of the main fair house was erected in just one year and consecrated on June 15, 1890. For his active participation in the reconstruction of this beauty of Nizhny Novgorod, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov was awarded a high government award - the Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd degree. Nikolai Alexandrovich himself was content with little: his usual food was cabbage soup and porridge with black bread, he dressed in the usual merchant attire - a sheepskin coat, a frock coat, boots, and slept on the stove or blankets. He had dozens of steamships, steam mills, warehouses, piers, hundreds of acres of forest, entire villages. He built the famous night shelter for the homeless, a shelter for widows and orphans, and spared no expense on the construction of churches, hospitals and schools. Apparently, the whole life of the Bugromovs, from the founder of the company, Pyotr Yegorovich, to his grandson, Nikolai Alexandrovich, is inextricably linked with the Nizhny Novgorod fair. They invested a lot of effort into it, they multiplied their capital on it.

No less significantmerchants Rukavishnikovs . In 1812, merchant Grigory Rukavishnikov arrived from Balakhna to Nizhny Novgorod. The then unknown entrepreneur was not going to waste time on trifles and knew exactly why he was going to the capital of the province. He rode so that decades later his descendants would proudly bear the title of “steel kings.” Within five years, Gregory managed to firmly establish himself in the city. By 1817, Rukavishnikov already had three shops at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and wholesale trade in iron. In 1822, the merchant built his own steel plant. Grigory Rukavishnikov made sure that his son would continue his work with dignity and competence. At the age of 19, Mikhail Rukavishnikov became the head of his father’s plant. For over 40 years, Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov was engaged in the manufacture of high-quality steel, traded it and gave his business real scope. Rukavishnikov's steel was traded in St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Transcaucasia and was even supplied to Persia. Manufactory-adviser, merchant Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov, the first guild, became one of the most influential persons in the city, but did not lose his quickness of mind and desire for change. He was constantly aware of all the innovations and adopted the best experience. The only Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, he subscribed to the magazine "Manufacturers and Trade" and the newspaper "Manufacture and Mining News". For his severity and rigidity in business, workers and office employees respectfully called Rukavishnikov the iron old man. Although they could well be called a “golden old man”. Mikhail Grigorievich amassed a huge fortune - after his death, he left his sons five million rubles each (incredible money at that time). Nizhny Novgorod should be grateful to Rukavishnikov for his extensive charitable activities. The merchant, who knew how to count money, spared no expense in helping those who really needed it. Rukavishnikov’s funds supported the Mariinsky Women’s Gymnasium and orphanages. One of Rukavishnikov’s sons, Ivan Mikhailovich, was a member of the board of trustees of the Kulibinsky Vocational School, a member of the board of the House of Diligence, and a member of the committee of the Widow’s House. In 1908, with donations from Ivan Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, a stone house was built - a dormitory for boys leaving the Widow's House (according to the charter of the house, boys who were 15 years old were deprived of the right to live there). He also built a school where children of widows learned crafts. Together with his brothers and sisters, Ivan Mikhailovich built the House of Diligence (now this is the old building of Nizhpoligraf). The building housed more than 200 beggars, who, for pinching oakum and scratching bast, received a small daily wage, lodging for the night and food twice a day. Every year Ivan Mikhailovich allocated a thousand rubles in favor of poor Nizhny Novgorod brides. He donated to zemstvo barracks in the colony of the mentally ill in Lyakhov (until recently there was a “Rukavishnikov barracks” there) and for contagious patients in Dalniy Konstantinov. In 1900, he donated two thousand rubles for juvenile delinquents in the colonies. After the death of Ivan Mikhailovich, a will was left: about 200 thousand rubles - for churches, various charitable and educational institutions; 75 thousand rubles - to set up a shelter for boys at the Widow's House. One of the sons of M. G. Rukavishnikov - Vladimir Mikhailovich - was a juror of the City Duma. Since 1875, he maintained at his own expense a school for 40 boys and a chapel, spending up to 40 thousand rubles a year. The school recruited capable children from all over the country and provided them with full support: clothing, feeding, and education (general and musical). After school, the boys became singers in the choir of the Trinity Church, the money for the construction of which was also given by the Rukavishnikovs. The most talented students became soloists in the capital's opera houses. A graduate of this school, Pavel Koshits, sang at the Bolshoi Theater, and Alexei Maximovich Gorky’s cousin Alexander Kashirin served in the famous Rukavishnikov church choir. One of the most picturesque houses in Nizhny Novgorod (now it belongs to the historical and architectural museum-reserve), located on a slope, belonged to Sergei Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov. The house was intended only for the family of Sergei Mikhailovich; a tax was taken from the owner to the city treasury annually - 1933 rubles, the most significant amount in the city. In 1903, electricity was installed in it - the first of the private houses in Nizhny Novgorod. Sergei Mikhailovich also generously donated money to charity, mainly to the needs of monasteries and churches. After his death, a dinner for the poor for a thousand people was organized in the House of Diligence, and visitors to the shelter were given money. IN late XIX century, the Rukavishnikovs built a huge two-building bank building, the main facade facing Rozhdestvenskaya Street (now the Volga River Shipping Company is located there), and the other facing the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. So the memory of the glorious family of Nizhny Novgorod merchants is worthily imprinted in the architecture of our city.

Another clan of merchants of the Nizhny Novgorod land -Bashkirovs . Their trading house “Emelyan Bashkirov and Sons” became widely known. Emelyan Bashkirov began his “business” by trading hay at bazaars. Having earned good money, he moved his family to Nizhny Novgorod and expanded the scale of the business - he began to trade in everyday goods outside his native province, traveling along the Volga to Astrakhan. A few years later, having increased his capital to 10 thousand rubles, he enrolled in the Nizhny Novgorod 1st Guild of Merchants and in 1871, together with his sons Nikol, Yakov and Matvey, opened his trading and flour milling enterprise - the Nizhny Novgorod trading house "Emelyan Bashkirov and Sons " The entrepreneur himself was illiterate: he could not sign the constituent documents, asking his friend, the Nizhny Novgorod 2nd guild merchant Pupkov, to do it for himself, but Bashkirov’s sons signed with their own hands. The main achievement of the Bashkirov trading house was that just a few years after its founding, it was awarded the right to constantly supply flour to the “main baker” of the country, entrepreneur Filippov, who had a bakery and the most popular bakery in Moscow on Tverskaya. In an effort to modernize flour milling production, the Bashkirovs equipped the mill in Blagoveshchenskaya Sloboda with a new powerful elevator, on the construction of which they spent almost 100 thousand rubles. They invested in the development of their cargo fleet, as well as in the expansion of retail networks through which they sold their own products. In 1891, after the death of their father, the Bashkirov brothers decided to divide the family capital, which at that time amounted to 9.5 million rubles, into three equal parts. Having received more than three million, they founded their own flour-grinding and trading companies: Nikolai - in Samara, Yakov and Matvey - in Nizhny Novgorod. The mill in Kunavinskaya Sloboda went to the middle brother, Yakov. The high quality of the Bashkirovs' flour (it was considered the best in the country) was repeatedly noted at exhibitions and fairs, including gold medals in Vienna, Paris and London. At the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in 1896, the Bashkirovs' flour received the highest award and entrepreneurs were granted the right to mark their products with the State Emblem. Over time, Yakov Bashkirov’s “Flour Milling Partnership” became a supplier to the Romanov imperial court, and he himself was awarded the title of nobility and the title “Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod.”

Following Bugrov, they established an 8-hour working day at their enterprises, provided workers with free space in barracks at mills, were the first in Nizhny Novgorod to introduce maternity benefits, and took care of increasing universal literacy and qualifications of workers. In 1912, the first “health insurance fund” appeared in Nizhny Novgorod, which was organized by Matvey Bashkirov at his mill. Children of deceased workers were given a one-time allowance of 30 rubles, for the funeral of family members of workers - 6 rubles, and women in labor - 4 rubles. When the Polytechnic Institute, evacuated from Warsaw, moved to Nizhny Novgorod, Matvey presented its rector with a check for half a million rubles - the most generous donation among Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Matvey Emelyanovich was considered the uncrowned king of Nizhny, but this man, who had enormous wealth and significant financial power, always tried to remain in the shadows. Yakov Bashkirov was also a generous philanthropist: he donated for the construction of churches, helped the city theater and a real school with funds, and built women's and men's vocational schools. The latter, located in Kunavin, later began to be called Bashkirovsky. In 1908, flour millers of the Volga region opened a school in Nizhny to train qualified specialists - grain workers, fitters, and millers - on the basis of the flour millers' school, which had long been successfully operating at one of Yakov Bashkirov's mills. There were only four such schools in Russia: in Nizhny, Odessa, Warsaw and Minsk. Now in the building of the former Bashkirovsky School (on Priokskaya Street, building No. 6) the Prioksky branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation is located. Almost 100 years later, the work of the Bashkirov flour millers in our city is continued by OJSC Nizhny Novgorod Flour Mill, the largest flour producer in the region, occupying the buildings of the former Bashkirov mill in Kunavin. They are listed at numbers 96, 96 A and 94 on the street. International and are among the oldest industrial buildings in Nizhny Novgorod.

In the conditions of rethinking traditions, at a turning point in the rapid development of capitalism, it was not easy to become such a large-scale and popular figure among Nizhny Novgorod citizens of his formation, as a millionaire seems to beDmitry Vasilievich Sirotkin.

Sirotkin, Dmitry Vasilyevich (1865-1946) - a major figure in the Old Believers, chairman of the council of the All-Russian Congresses of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky Consent, chairman of the council of the Nizhny Novgorod community. One of the richest shipowners in Russia and a stockbroker. Born in the village of Ostapovo (Astapovo), near the village of Purekh, Balakhninsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. His parents - Vasily Ivanovich and Vera Mikhailovna - were peasants of this village. Having started with the trade in “wood chips” and handicrafts, my father then started two small ships; on the ship “Volya” Dmitry Vasilyevich worked as a cook as a child. Having married in 1890 the daughter of the Kazan merchant-steamboat owner Kuzma Sidorovich Chetvergov, with the help of his father-in-law, in 1895 he bought his first tugboat. Then he acquired the ownership of the oil transportation business of S.M. Shibaev’s company (4 tugboats). In 1907, the “Commercial, Industrial and Shipping Partnership of Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin” was formed with a capital of 1.5 million rubles (15 steamships, about 50 non-steam vessels, including more than 20 barges). In 1910, D.V. Sirotkin became the managing director of the large shipping company Volga. Since 1907 - Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Exchange Committee. Since 1908 - Chairman of the Council of Congresses of Shipowners of the Volga Basin. By 1913, Sirotkin became the chairman of the joint-stock shipping company "Along the Volga". To build the board building, he bought a plot of land on the corner of the Nizhny Novgorod Escarpment and Seminarskaya Square, and ordered the construction project to the Vesnin brothers. This building has been preserved; it is located on Verkhne-Volzhskaya embankment, 1, and now houses a medical institute. According to the project of the Vesnins (with the participation of S.A. Novikov), construction of a residential building began next to the government building in 1913, in which Sirotkin intended to “live for four years” and then donate it to the city to house the Art Museum (which is now located there) . Sirotkin was a significant church benefactor. He financed the construction of an Old Believer church in his native village in 1913, designed by the architects Vesnin brothers. He was one of the donors to the magazine "Church". The Nizhny Novgorod community existed on his donations; the prayer house where services were held also belonged to Sirotkin. Since 1899 - Chairman of the Council of All-Russian Congresses of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. In 1908, advocating increasing the rights of the laity in the Church, he came into conflict with Bishop Innocent of Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma. After a long struggle, a general meeting of community members on September 12, 1910 forced Sirotkin to resign as chairman. Following this, in 1910, Sirotkin resigned from the post of chairman of the Council of Old Believer Congresses. The delegates of the 10th Congress by a majority vote asked him to stay. Being the mayor of the city, he suggested that Gorky organize a daytime shelter for the unemployed, the famous “Pillars”. Money for the device was allocated by the Duma and the famous philanthropist N.A. Bugrov. In 1917, Sirotkin built an Old Believer almshouse with a temple in memory of his deceased mother on the street. Zhukovskaya (now Minin Street), in which he supported at his own expense church choir. On March 29, 1913, Sirotkin was elected mayor of Nizhny Novgorod for a four-year term. Refused the salary of the mayor. Soon it started major scandal, associated with Sirotkin’s belonging to the Old Believers. In Nizhny Novgorod, on May 7, 1913, at the celebrations on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the royal dynasty, a prayer service was held in the presence of the tsar. Since New Believer priests were serving, the mayor pointedly did not get baptized. He was elected mayor for the second time in 1917-1920. The elections took place on February 7, 1917, and already in early September D.V. Sirotkin was replaced by the mayor of the Provisional Government. During his tenure as city mayor, sewerage construction began in Nizhny Novgorod, tram and electrical facilities were purchased into city ownership, and a city bakery was opened. D.V. Sirotkin took part in the opening of the People's University in 1915. In the fall of 1917, from the “Political Union of Old Believer Accords,” he became a member of the Provisional Council of the Republic (“Pre-Parliament”). In November 1917, he ran for deputy of the Constituent Assembly on the list of the Union of Old Believers, but was not elected. In 1918-1919 he was in the White South, mainly in Rostov-on-Don. He played an important role in local business circles. At the end of 1919 he left for France. In the 1920s, he settled in Yugoslavia with his family, where he lived on income from the operation of two small ships. Almost nothing is known about the last years of his life.

Became no less famousmerchants Blinovs . The “clan” of the Blinovs - Nizhny Novgorod merchants of the 19th - early 20th centuries - is known throughout Russia. And for good reason. Former serfs, the Blinovs, were able to become the largest entrepreneurs in the Russian state in a short time and prove themselves as successful industrialists and generous philanthropists.

Who would have thought that the famous Blinov merchant dynasty came from serfdom. However, still at the beginning XIX century The Blinov peasant family from the Balakhninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province belonged to the Nizhny Novgorod prince Repnin. The first mention of the founder of the merchant dynasty in Nizhny Novgorod is found in the list of persons who were issued a certificate for the right to trade in 1846. The document reads: “Nizhny Novgorod province of Balakhninsky district to the peasant Fyodor Andreevich Blinov, freed from Prince Repnin.” Apparently, already in that distant time the former serf was a fairly wealthy man. He became one of the first shipowners to use steam traction in his enterprise instead of burlatsky webbing. It is known that in the 50s of the 19th century, the entrepreneur Blinov owned three steamships: the tugboat “Voevoda”, the capstan “Lev” and the runaway steamship “Golub”. A little later, Fedor Blinov acquired three more iron tugs: the owner’s “namesake” – “Blinov”, as well as “Assistant” and “Sever”. In addition, Blinov’s merchant fleet had a considerable number of iron and wooden barges. How could a man who until recently was a simple peasant be able to acquire such a huge fortune in a short period of time? Most researchers believe that Fyodor Andreevich made his main capital primarily from contracts related to the transportation and sale of salt. On Blinov's barges, salt was delivered from the lower reaches of the Volga and from Perm to Rybinsk and further along the Sheksna and Mariinsky system to St. Petersburg. By modern standards, the volume of transportation was significant. For example, in just one season in 1870, 350 thousand poods of Astrakhan sedimentary salt (eltonka) were exported on Blinov’s ships. Even at the Perm saltworks at that time, less salt was produced than was involved in the trade turnover of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant. In contracts for the transportation of salt and bread, Fedor Blinov was helped by his brother Nikolai. The third of the brothers, Aristarchus, was also involved in salt trading. The Balakhna peasant settled thoroughly in the “pocket of Russia”. Back in the early 50s of the 19th century, Fyodor Blinov built a complex of stone buildings on Sofronovskaya Square in Nizhny Novgorod. In addition to a residential building, there were shops here, as well as a horse-drawn mill for grinding salt. Blinov's straw mill, by the way, was the only one in the Nizhny Novgorod province at that time. It employed eight hundred workers and produced salt worth 42 thousand rubles annually. The only thing that somewhat hindered the merchant in his affairs was true faith in God - a faith according to which only the pre-Nikon postulates of Orthodoxy were respected. Being an Old Believer, Blinov often experienced harassment from the authorities. But no religious difficulties could prevent the Blinovs from becoming one of the richest people in the Nizhny Novgorod region. And they left a memory of themselves not at all because of their attachment to “Plyushkinsky” hoarding, as the Old Believer habit of all schismatic merchants to save their earned money was often interpreted. The name of the Blinov merchants forever associated itself with high-profile philanthropic affairs.

Nizhny Novgorod philanthropy is more than one century old. The houses donated to the city by merchants or industrialists are still alive. Enterprising businessmen knew how to count money, but never spared thousands to help those in need and their hometown.

Genius Sponsor

The name thundered throughout Russia folk craftsman- self-taught by Ivan Kulibin. As you know, he created and presented to Empress Catherine the Great an outlandish clock in which little people put on a whole performance. The queen was amazed at such a gift and immediately gave the inventor the opportunity to head the mechanical workshop of the Academy of Sciences.

And few people know thanks to whom Russia learned about Kulibin’s talent! The merchant of the first guild, Mikhail Andreevich Kostromin, invited the master to make a watch for the Empress’s arrival in Nizhny Novgorod; moreover, he paid for all the materials and supported the family of the legendary self-taught man for the entire time of work. The merchant himself asked for an audience with Catherine's favorite Count Orlov. It was then that Kulibin presented the watch to the empress.

The empress did not forget the generous merchant - she presented the patron with a thousand rubles, a silver mug with her own portrait and a dedicatory inscription.

The merchant Kostromin was from a peasant background and earned his fortune through ingenuity and enterprise. He had amazing instincts and generosity. The memory of the merchant Kostromin remains in the city - a mansion with columns on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 4. Now there is an educational theater there.

Caring for tramps

The noble deed of Nikolai Bugrov, a representative of the famous Old Believer merchant family, is still reminiscent of the city council building, now the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 1.

Bugrov bought the theater building on Blagoveshchenskaya Square (now Minin and Pozharsky Square) Photo: Public Domain

Bugrov, a philanthropist and philanthropist, donated the palace to his hometown, albeit under amusing circumstances. The merchant bought the theater building on Blagoveshchenskaya Square (now Minin and Pozharsky Square) and... a week later presented it to the city government. He explained that his late parents lived in this place - they say, it’s not good when instead of your father’s house there is a theater. Bugrov partially sponsored the construction of a pompous tower-palace here, where the city council was located.

The merchant did not skimp on direct financial assistance. Rumor has it that he gave away 10 million rubles in alms alone during his life.

The Bugrov family came up with the idea of ​​creating a shelter for 500-800 people at the foot of the Kremlin. Every wanderer could find here an overnight stay, a pound of free bread and a mug of boiling water. It was strict in the shelter: “Don’t drink vodka, don’t sing songs, be quiet.” Maxim Gorky sang this house in his play “At the Lower Depths”.

Nochlezhka Bugrova Photo: Administration of Nizhny Novgorod

Nowadays, various departments have been located in the shelter building for a long time. Now the historic house has been bought by a Nizhny Novgorod businessman.

And next to this building is the legendary Stolby teahouse. Merchant Dmitry Sirotkin invited the writer Maxim Gorky to set up a house on the street. The tannery is a daytime shelter for tramps and the unemployed. The fact is that tramps were expelled from the nearby Bugrovskaya shelter in the morning, and were allowed back only in the evening - for the sake of order. And during the day they could warm up in a teahouse and eat for 3 kopecks. A library and a free outpatient clinic were opened in Stolby...

Not for the pocket - for the heart

Helping the suffering, donating considerable sums to help the disadvantaged was the norm for the Nizhny Novgorod merchants. With the money of entrepreneurs on the street. The first orphanage appeared on Ilyinskaya, and on the square. Lyadov built a “Widow’s House” for widowed poor women and orphans - by the way, with the help of the same Nikolai Bugrov, who also involved the relatives of the Blinov merchants in the business.

Widow's house on Lyadov Square. Photo from the early 20th century Photo: Public Domain

The merchants opened educational institutions, built churches, and installed water supply systems. One of the gifts to the city is the 18th-century Nativity Church, built by the Stroganov merchants (its architectural style was called “Stroganov Baroque”).