Nizhny Novgorod is the Pocket of Russia. Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists Rukavishnikovs. Charity. Merchant Bugrov - history in photographs

From the history of charity in the Nizhny Novgorod province

in the period XIX - early. XX centuries

(based on materials from the Central Archives of the Nizhny Novgorod Region)

Dictionaries and reference books pre-revolutionary Russia determined "charity" as “showing compassion for one’s neighbor and the moral duty of the possessed to rush to the aid of the poor,” and also as “doing good, caring for the decrepit, crippled, sick, and poor.” All the basic concepts of the phenomenon under consideration are laid down here: firstly, the understanding of charity as a cause good and, moreover, responsibilities moral; secondly, the care of philanthropists should surround poor or sick people (that is, to put it modern language, socially disadvantaged sections of society). Behind this understanding is a certain historical tradition of charity in Rus'. Caring for the poor has always been one of the most important commandments of Christianity, and the clergy were given the opportunity to conduct active charitable activities by significant cash, consisting of the “tithe” allocated to the church (a tenth of all income) and contributions “for the commemoration of the soul.” Wealthy laity also tried to follow the example of the clergy.

The Nizhny Novgorod region was no exception. On the pages of the Nizhny Novgorod Chronicler we find references to the trade guest Taras Petrov, who, at his own expense, repeatedly ransomed many fellow countrymen from Horde captivity, helping them return to their homeland. Handwritten synodics of the 16th-17th centuries of the Annunciation, Pechersk, Makaryevsky and other monasteries of our region indicate in detail how and on what days to “provide food for church orphans” and give alms to commemorate the souls of deceased church rulers and secular rulers. The monastery almshouses are also mentioned here, in which elderly and crippled warriors, or even simply “poor people of male and female gender,” found shelter and food. At the same time, charity in the Nizhny Novgorod region had its own characteristics, the reason for which was the commercial and industrial nature of our region.

The rapid economic development of the Nizhny Novgorod region constantly attracted thousands of working people to the region. Every year crowds of artisans arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, Balakhna, Gorbatov, Makaryev. Not everyone found work right away; Families who went to work often lived in poverty, without help from breadwinners; inevitable industrial injuries led to the appearance of more and more “crippled” people, whom the monastery almshouses could no longer support. These processes were aggravated in the 18th century, when the first large industrial enterprises-manufactories arose in the Nizhny Novgorod province, in particular, iron and rope production. In such a situation, private charity turned out to be ineffective, which led to certain social upheavals (the peasant wars of St. Razin and E. Pugachev, city uprisings and the actions of bandits on the Volga until the end of the 18th century, etc.). In other words, the economic development of the region led to population growth, among which the number of poor people became larger and larger.

Adopted in 1775, the “Establishment on the Provinces”, among other things, tried to outline ways to solve social security problems. First, private individuals were officially granted the right to establish charitable institutions. Secondly, the state took on part of the responsibility for social security of the population. Thus, on the basis of the “Institution on Governorates” in the Nizhny Novgorod province in 1779, a Order of public charity, which was entrusted with the responsibility for organizing almshouses, orphanages, workhouses and straithouses, as well as public schools, pharmacies and hospitals. The Order was headed by the governor (ex officio), and the leadership included prominent provincial officials. Similar Orders were established in other provinces of Russia. The creation of the Order of Public Charity was the first step towards the emergence of a system of trustee bodies, which a century later were already widespread in Russian society.

Concept "guardianship"(Old Russian “pechisya” - to take care) has a centuries-old history in Russia, but by the beginning of the 19th century it expanded its meaning - from caring for the fate of a specific person to caring for entire sectors of society. According to the plan of the ruling circles of the Russian Empire, trustees were intended to become a connecting link between philanthropists and administrative governing bodies. This determined the status, goals and objectives, as well as the composition of trustee bodies both in the Nizhny Novgorod province and throughout the country. Operating from the beginning of the 19th century, trustee committees (less often councils) were created primarily as advisory bodies to the governor. The purpose of their creation was to improve administrative management in the humanitarian sphere, that is, in education, social security, etc. Therefore, usually the highest officials of the province were included in the composition of the provincial trustee committees, and with the right of an advisory vote or as honorary members - representatives of the public, specialists in the field of education and health care. The structure of the county trustee committees was similar, which were always headed (ex officio) by the administrative head of the county, and also included representatives of the public and merchants, known for their charitable activities. By creating guardianship bodies, provincial and district administrations received effective remedy directing and distributing charitable assistance precisely to those sectors where this assistance, in the opinion of the authorities, was needed above all. And the personal participation of senior officials of the province and district in the trustee committees not only ensured control over the receipt and expenditure of funds, but was also intended to stimulate wider participation of ordinary people of various classes (nobles, merchants, burghers, commoners, wealthy peasants) in charitable activities.

It was in this spirit that Russian legislation on charitable institutions, adopted in the second half of the 19th century, was maintained. As is known, before the abolition of serfdom (1861), which marked the beginning of the era of “great reforms” of Alexander II, charitable societies existed only in 8 cities of Russia. The liberation of peasants from serfdom led, among other things, to the emergence of a large number of socially unprotected people - former courtyard servants who became unnecessary in the deserted manor household, “temporarily obliged”, who were unable to quickly find income and pay arrears, and even the bankrupt and impoverished nobles themselves, mainly from small landowners who quickly squandered the redemption certificates and drank “bitter” out of grief. And along with this, the reforms ensured the rapid growth of Russian industry, which again and again attracted thousands of workers to the Nizhny Novgorod province. Our region was rapidly changing its appearance, becoming from a commercial region to a developed industrial one.

Population growth became increasingly significant: according to official statistics, in 1866, 1,257,601 people lived in the Nizhny Novgorod province, in 1878 - 1,347,708 people, and by 1900 the number of residents exceeded 1,650,000 people. Add to this seasonal workers, people not registered, but permanently residing in the province... And all people needed housing (at least temporary), food (at least the most modest), work (even the hardest!), and also the opportunity if necessary, receive medical care, teach children crafts and literacy, which became more and more in demand. Economic successes of the region and the emergence of a noticeable social group successful entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to generously allocate funds for charitable purposes, and the trustee bodies in force at that time made it possible to quickly allocate funds for social needs. The legislative basis here was the decree of 1862, which gave the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) the right to authorize the creation of charitable societies, and the Highest Order of 1869, given in its development, which gave the Ministry of Internal Affairs the right to independently establish these societies. At the same time, the created charitable society, the charter of which was approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs (after 1905 - by the governor), was obliged to regularly submit reports to the provincial government on its actions, capital, income and expenses, institutions and the number of people supported in them. Thus, the administrative authorities of provinces and districts (all of them were part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1917) determined priorities in charitable activities and organized the investment of funds, constantly monitoring this process. Of course, not everything that was planned was possible (and in the end it was not possible - this is evidenced by social conflicts the beginning of the 20th century, culminating in a revolution that led to the collapse of the Russian Empire), but there was also a rational grain in the chain of relations “administrator - trustee committee - philanthropists”. Let's try to extract this useful historical experience by analyzing specific areas of trusteeship and charity in the Nizhny Novgorod province.

Guardianship in the field of education

Chronologically, the earliest (1803) was guardianship in the field of education . The territory of Nizhny Novgorod and a number of other provinces was initially part of the Kazan, then the Moscow educational district, which was headed by a trustee - a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Public Education (MPE). At the provincial level, Nizhny Novgorod was subordinate to the trustee provincial school council, also belonging to the department of the MNP and headed (by position) by the provincial leader of the nobility and the director of the public schools of the province. The council included representatives from the MPP (usually the director of the gymnasium), from the spiritual department (rector cathedral), from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (adviser to the provincial government), one or two representatives from the zemstvo. Judging by the surviving archival documents, the council controlled financial and economic issues of activity educational institutions, monitored compliance with general standards of trustworthiness of teaching staff and students, resolved controversial issues of appointment and dismissal of teachers, and petitioned the trustee for incentives for teachers. In its activities, the provincial school council relied on a network district school councils.

In addition, each secondary educational institution (gymnasium, Noble Institute) had its own board of trustees- an advisory body under the director, which had some analogy with modern parent committees. The board of trustees included (by position) the governor or vice-governor, several high-ranking officials whose children studied at this gymnasium, as well as representatives of the public (usually from the zemstvo); in women's gymnasiums, the council also included the wives of these persons. Judging by the surviving “presence logs” (minutes of meetings), the board of trustees decided on issues of exemption from tuition fees and considered the possibility of introducing additional lessons, coordinated the appointment of teachers. The council's competence also included the coordination of reports on the educational and economic state of the educational institution, petitions for incentives for teachers, and consideration of petitions from various individuals for the admission of their children to study outside the general framework. In addition, in the affairs of the board of trustees of the Nizhny Novgorod Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium for the years 1900-1908, there are examples of council decisions on organizing the teaching of the Law of God for students of non-Orthodox religions, and on conflict situations between the class and the teacher, but such issues rarely arose in the activities of the council.

In general, in the field of public education, charity was a noticeable phenomenon. Thus, the famous Nizhny Novgorod figure, merchant Ya.E. Bashkirov, entirely at his own expense, expanded the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Kulibinsky vocational school and the boarding school attached to it, for which he was expressed gratitude by the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma on October 13, 1906. The documents mention that the widow of the hereditary honorary citizen Ermolaev in February 1912 bequeathed all her property in favor of the People's University opening in Nizhny Novgorod.

Knyagininsky 2nd guild merchant P.I. Karpov, at his own expense, opened and maintained a school for 70 students at the Stroganov Church in Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, he donated 25 thousand rubles for the construction of a number of schools in the districts of the Nizhny Novgorod province. Nizhny Novgorod merchant F.A. Blinov donated his own house with outbuildings on the corner of Ilyinskaya and Sergievskaya streets for the real school. The Nizhny Novgorod Exchange Society, at the expense of its members, approves the Mininsk Exchange Charitable Society for benefits for underserved students of Nizhny Novgorod. The society gave funds to needy schoolchildren in Nizhny Novgorod educational institutions for renting an apartment, food, clothing, and textbooks; Used its capital to organize school holidays, excursions, and trips for students. Each member of the society contributed at least 1000 rubles to the cash register. Societies for the benefit of poor students in Nizhny Novgorod also operated at the Nizhny Novgorod girls' gymnasium Gerken, at the Khrenovskaya and Torsuevskaya gymnasiums, and at the Milov real school. The Society for Assistance to Needy Students of the Varnavinsky Women's Gymnasium and the Varnavinsky City School has existed in Varnavino since 1910, funded by local philanthropists. A number of educational institutions in the province had scholarships for students named after the benefactors of the educational institution.

In addition to the educational process itself, the trustee bodies in the field of education also encouraged charity aimed at supporting the teaching staff of educational institutions of the Nizhny Novgorod province. The trustee committees of gymnasiums and colleges almost always exempted teachers from paying tuition fees for their children. To help improve the well-being of teachers, the provincial government in 1894 supported the initiative of the intelligentsia to create "Societies for mutual assistance to teachers and female teachers of the Nizhny Novgorod province". By January 1, 1903, the Society united 1,262 members and had branches in Arzamas, Gorbatovsky, Makaryevsky and Nizhny Novgorod districts. The best representatives of the local community served on the board; among them are the outstanding Russian statistician Nikolai Fedorovich Annensky (founder of the Society), Pavel Arkadyevich Demidov (chairman of the provincial zemstvo government, long years- Chairman of the Board of the Company), as well as G.R. Kilevein, A.A. Savelyeva and others. The authority of the Society’s leadership and the support of the provincial authorities made it possible, despite the obvious lack of funds from the treasury, to actively attract private donations. Thus, when completing the construction of a dormitory for children of teachers, MNP was able to allocate only 300 rubles out of the required 5,000 rubles. The missing funds were provided by collections from concerts and lectures held in favor of the Society, and from books and brochures published for charitable purposes. Among those who helped Nizhny Novgorod teachers with their labors were outstanding people of that time: historian professor (later academician) S.F. Platonov, artist
V. Petrova-Zvantseva, writers A.I. Kuprin, T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, L.N. Andreev and, of course, the idols of local youth - Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Chaliapin. There were other, non-monetary forms of assistance to teachers and their families, including free medical care (almost all doctors in Nizhny Novgorod provided it to members of the community), the provision of medicines from pharmacies at discounted prices and apartments for teachers who came on holidays and vacations, the maintenance of libraries and replenishing them with periodicals and special editions. Wealthy residents of Nizhny Novgorod considered it very prestigious for themselves to transfer considerable sums to the Society’s account to pay scholarships to the children of low-income teachers (in 1912 - 62 people at 11 rubles per month), to organize meals for them (“Lunch consists of two courses: the first is always meat ..."). Representatives of the administration regularly attended meetings of the Society and monitored the reports of the board.

Interestingly, not all types of education received active support from the authorities. The provincial administration took care primarily of primary, classical and real (including technical) education. It was in educational institutions of this profile - public schools, gymnasiums and real schools - that trustee committees were first created. And, for example, music education in Nizhny Novgorod and the province did not have guardianship bodies, probably because it was considered not as priority as the general education of the population. Of course, the lack of official care from the authorities does not mean that there was no charity in this area. On the contrary, thanks to the generous help of patrons, musical life in Nizhny Novgorod flourished at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, giving Russia a number of famous musicians.

Orphanages

From the mid-19th century, documents from Nizhny Novgorod have been preserved provincial guardianship of orphanages, belonging to the department of institutions of Empress Maria, which later became part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The ex officio chairman of this body was the governor; The guardianship also included the vice-governor, the provincial leader of the nobility, the director of public schools, the chairman of the provincial zemstvo government, the mayor, directors of shelters, and also usually the wives of senior provincial officials. Provincial guardianship relied on a network of district guardians of orphanages. The composition of the county bodies was similar: the county marshal of the nobility, the police chief, the mayor and other officials. The trustees included representatives of the merchants and intelligentsia as “honorary members”, with the payment of an annual fee and after approval by their superiors.

The jurisdiction of the provincial guardianship included the Aleksandrovsky shelters (opened on April 21, 1845), Mariinsky (opened on November 20, 1851), a vocational school at the Alexander shelter, as well as an almshouse in the village. Klyuchishchi (opened April 23, 1905). The number of pupils in them was relatively small: for example, in 1914 (the beginning of the First World War) there were 45 boys in the Alexander orphanage, 114 girls in the Mariinsky, 14 pupils in the Klyuchishchenskaya almshouse. At the same time, these charitable institutions had very significant real estate, including stone buildings. The budget for the care of orphanages was formed mainly from the treasury, and partly from charitable activities (for some years, for example, the documents recorded a ratio of 5/1, respectively). There are cases where some government agencies took part of the costs of maintaining shelters themselves (for example, the provincial administration of excise taxes). Typically, the membership fee was 200 rubles per year; some members of the board of trustees who were not involved in business provided assistance to the shelters in a different form (for example, medical care for the inmates was free). In addition, many Nizhny Novgorod businessmen, even without being members of trustees, donated food, delicacies, holiday gifts to shelters for free, paid for children to attend entertainment events, etc.

The example of the provincial guardianship of orphanages was followed by many private philanthropists. Makaryevsky 2nd guild merchant A.S. Kalinin-Shushlyaev donated his dacha worth 10 thousand rubles for an orphanage. At the expense of hereditary honorary citizen M.V. Since 1911, Bochkareva operated a school for blind children in Nizhny Novgorod, located on Ilyinskaya Street in the charity’s own estate. In 1892 it opened in Nizhny Novgorod Shelter for poor children at the city Society for Relief of the Poor, designed for 100 pupils of both sexes aged 4 to 12 years. Nizhny Novgorod City Orphanage named after M.F. and E.P. Sukharev's (operated together with the women's almshouse of the same name) numbered 59 children of both sexes by 1905. To provide charity for poor children, “Millionka” (an area inhabited by the urban poor and tramps) operated since 1906 an orphanage under the Zhivonosnovsky parish trusteeship, which since 1911 has been named after Archbishop Nazariy. This orphanage raised 48 children of both sexes from 2 to 13 years old. Shelter trustee A.N. Zaitseva (the wife of a famous merchant in the city), with her personal donations and the attraction of benefactors, not only contributed to the material well-being of the shelter, but also helped organize Christmas trees, sent toys and gifts for the children. It is interesting to note that the entire Zaitsev family took part in the charity: the young children of the trustee, Manya, Kolya and Olya, also made annual contributions to the shelter for their little scholarship recipients. Finally, even the foundling shelter of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial zemstvo, which was in the most difficult conditions, was not ignored by benefactors. The names of the trustees of this shelter were preserved in the reports: merchants Palkin, Ermolaev, as well as Agniya Nikolaevna Markova provided great assistance with food, but no less help came from unknown donors.

In general, the guardianship of children's shelters primarily resolved issues of financial and economic maintenance of shelters (heating, lighting, clothing and food for children), and also considered applications for placement in shelters, and incentives for shelter workers and donors. Forms of encouragement usually included gratitude “with publication”, promotion, a medal (for example, in 1912, honorary member of the Semenovsky district trusteeship P.S. Stroinsky was awarded a gold medal “to be worn on the Annensky ribbon”).

The most striking example of child care was the history of the Nizhny Novgorod city named after Countess O.V. Kutaisova shelter for minors. In 1874, Olga Vasilievna Kutaisova, the wife of the then Nizhny Novgorod governor Count P.I. Kutaisova, donated capital of 25 thousand rubles to create and finance a shelter for little orphans. High social status The trustees ensured her initiative the support of not only the governor, but also Emperor Alexander II, who ordered in 1877 to name the orphanage after Countess Kutaisova. When viewing archival documents, one gets the impression that after the Highest “good”, private donors seemed to compete with each other to see who would do more for the shelter. So, homeowner M.N. For the first three years, Kolchigin maintained a shelter in his house free of charge. Then, when laying the foundation for his own orphanage building, which included the placement of a school and an infirmary there, the merchant Ya.E. Bashkirov donated significant funds to the shelter and was elected an honorary member of its board of trustees. In 1880 (the year P.I. Kutaisov completed his service as Nizhny Novgorod governor), the founder of the shelter and her husband were elected honorary trustees of the institution for life. And besides them, the richest Nizhny Novgorod industrialists Ustin Savvich Kurbatov, Fedor Andreevich Blinov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov, merchants Andrei Evlampievich Zaitsev, Nikolai Nikitich Zhadovsky, as well as the mayor Alexey Maksimovich Gubin were elected to the trustee committee. During their time, the size of donations for the orphanage amazed even the capital’s benefactors: there were years when up to 60 thousand rubles were transferred to the institution - in money (personal scholarships were especially prestigious), bank notes, building materials for repairs, products... People were invited to teach at the orphanage school the best teachers, for whom the committee of trustees established a special salary increase. Within the walls of the orphanage, designed for 300 pupils, over the years of its existence, thousands of orphans grew up and studied - boys and girls, offended by fate at the very beginning of life, but warmed by the warmth of the hearts of benefactors and again returned to society.

The success of charitable activities in orphanages was so obvious that this form of guardianship was maintained under Soviet rule. After 1917, boards of trustees at orphanages were public bodies whose goal was to provide assistance in the upbringing, education and maintenance of orphans. The council also exercised control over the quality of children's nutrition, the distribution of clothing and its safety, and the expenditure of funds allocated by the state for the maintenance of orphanages.

Social Security

Charity in the field of social security for the elderly and the poor was based on centuries-old traditions Ancient Rus'. And in the 19th - early 20th centuries, as before, caring for the poor and infirm fellow countrymen was extremely important for Nizhny Novgorod residents. Since 1779, these issues in the province were centrally dealt with by the Order of Public Charity, mentioned above, but in 1866 it was abolished in connection with the creation of a system of local government bodies. From that time on, social security came under the jurisdiction of zemstvo and city councils, and a centralized administrative and advisory body for control (the provincial trustee committee) was not created.

The decentralization of charity in the field of social security did not at all mean a weakening of attention to this problem. After the transfer of social sector institutions from the jurisdiction of the Order of Public Charity to the Zemstvo Administration, the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Zemstvo continued to actively attract funds from private philanthropists for the maintenance of hospitals, almshouses, maternity institutions, etc. At the same time, such public charitable organizations remained and operated successfully, such as, for example, Nizhny Novgorod Society for Relief of the Poor. As a result, in the second half - end of the 19th century, a whole network of almshouses and societies for helping the poor emerged in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Almost all of these institutions were supported by private benefactors, and in order to attract and control the correct expenditure of funds, the institutions created their own committees of trustees. The trustee committees included representatives of local government (city and zemstvo government) and philanthropists themselves, who, as a rule, established this almshouse. It was on this principle that the activities of the largest social security institutions in Nizhny Novgorod - the “Widow's House” and the “House of Diligence” - were organized. A lot has been written about these institutions, but it is still worth briefly recalling the main stages of their history and the merits of their founders.

The building on Lyadov Square (formerly Monastyrskaya) still impresses with its size and thoughtful forms. It is not difficult to imagine how much respect this house aroused with its design and implementation a hundred years ago: probably not everyone believed that such an impressive building would house not government offices or even an institute, but just an almshouse, for which previously wooden surpluses were usually given away. wrecks. Meanwhile, the Charter city ​​public named after Blinov and Bugrov Widow's House in Nizhny Novgorod"(1887) stated: “The purpose of the Widow’s House is to provide comfortable free apartments to indigent widows with their young children.” The building was designed for 160 apartments (in reality, over 600 people lived in it), a hospital (with a children's department) and a pharmacy were created within it. Later, in 1907-1908, a vocational school was built at the Widow's House, designed to give a profession to children living here with widowed mothers. And this entire institution, which required capital investments unheard of at that time, was built entirely with funds from private donors - the Nizhny Novgorod merchant families of Blinov and Bugrov. The importance of charity was enshrined in the Regulations on the committee that was supposed to manage the Widow's House: general control was assigned to the city duma (the mayor was ex-officio chairman of the trustee committee), and “citizen philanthropists, through whose care and funds the Widow's House was established,” became lifelong members of the committee. The Regulations stipulated that members of the committee (except for the founders - the Bugrovs and Blinovs) could become, in particular, “those persons who make significant donations worth at least one thousand rubles for the maintenance of the House.” And donations were made annually - both in the form of cash “from different persons, for distribution in person” (note the modesty of the donors who did not consider it necessary to indicate their names!), and in the form of interest payments on capital deposited in the bank and bequeathed Widow's House (the documents mention the Goryachevsky, Blinovsky, etc. foundations). Of course, there were other forms of gratuitous assistance to those in the House: events for children on the occasion of holidays, supplies of food supplies (and again the Zaitsev family is mentioned here among the most generous benefactors), free repairs of premises, etc. Philanthropists took care of preparations for independent life younger inhabitants of the Widow's House, paying for their education not only in primary schools, but also in secondary educational institutions (gymnasium, real school, Noble Institute). The thoughtfulness of the architectural appearance, layout and internal equipment ensured the building a long life: the Widow's House, which became a student dormitory, remains a remarkable historical and cultural monument of Nizhny Novgorod to this day. Once upon a time, in the lobby of the building, guests were greeted by “portraits of the donors and builders of the Widow’s House, hereditary honored guests of Nizhny Novgorod citizens Aristarkh and Nikolai Andreevich Blinov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov - on a marble plaque under glass.” Isn’t it time to once again pay this tribute to the great benefactors of Nizhny Novgorod?..

In their works and plans for the benefit of their poor fellow countrymen, Bugrov and the Blinov brothers were not alone. In 1893, the Nizhny Novgorod Poor Relief Society took the initiative to “establish a shelter for beggar children for 100 people.” As a result, it was decided to open "House of Diligence", the purpose of which is to give “to all those in need in Nizhny Novgorod short-term assistance by providing them with labor, food and shelter until a more lasting arrangement of their fate is determined to permanent employment or placement on permanent charity.” The idea was brought to life only thanks to the selfless help of the Rukavishnikov merchant family. Hereditary honorary citizens 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 piece of 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 funds for the maintenance of the House of Diligence and took an active part in improving production activities, in organizing the education of children (a parochial school was opened here largely at their expense), in organizing a library, etc. 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 Diligence by Emperor Nicholas II and his wife on July 19, 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 by 1905 to equip a new building of the House (it has survived to this day in a slightly rebuilt form), to increase the number of people attending (usually there were 500-550 people here, and, for example, in 1903, 63,594 people dined) and to expand production (mats, mops, tow, lifebuoys, etc., also exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1900). There were so many donors that it is possible to cite only a few names: in addition to the Rukavishnikovs, whose donations amounted to tens of thousands of rubles, assistance to the House of Diligence was provided by the merchants Kurepin and Ermolaev, the steamship man Kamensky, Archbishop Macarius, the Merchant Bank of Nizhny Novgorod, the senior stockbroker Lelkov, the Bashkirovs' company, Zhuravlevykh, Pole and even... a Chinese troupe! In general, using the chronological list of members of the Trustee Society of the House of Diligence, one can study the history of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants.

With private donations, a number of almshouses were opened for lonely, sick, elderly and crippled women. Among them: the Nikolaev-Mininsk public almshouse (maintained through the contributions of merchants Vyalov and Perepletchikov), the Aleksandrovsk city public women's almshouse (existed on deductions from the profits of the Nikolaev public bank and on the collection from the merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds, established by the verdict merchant society, as well as zemstvo benefits). The Alexander Noble Bank, by decision of the board, donated 1,500 rubles annually for the maintenance of the shelter. The Nizhny Novgorod petty bourgeois society maintained a charity house for poor townspeople, the funds of which were made up of donations and income from the society's events. Small almshouses are well known in the districts of the Nizhny Novgorod province: in Balakhninsky (the village of Gorodets - at the expense of the merchant of the 2nd guild Lazutin), Semenovsky (the village of Filippovo - at the expense of N.A. Bugrova), etc. So, for the creation of the Filippovskaya women's almshouse (1894) Bugrov contributed a capital of 80 thousand rubles to state credit institutions, on the interest from which the almshouse existed. At the same time, taking advantage of the right of a benefactor, Bugrov stipulated in the charter the confessional nature of the institution: “The almshouse ... is designated for the care of forty elderly or crippled female persons from the Old Believers who accept the priesthood”; the establishment of a church or chapel in its building was not allowed. The history of the establishment founded in 1902 is also interesting. Societies for the care of the poor in the village. Sormovo Balakhninsky district (at that time Sormovo was not part of Nizhny Novgorod). Industrial development c. Sormovo made it possible for its wealthy residents to provide regular assistance to their poor fellow countrymen. Income of the Company headed by V.N. Meshcherskaya (on her initiative it was created) and representatives of the intelligentsia (mainly factory employees), was usually calculated at 2-3 thousand rubles a year and consisted of donations from individuals, charity performances and concerts, as well as organized “collection of unnecessary papers” (the only mention of the collection of waste paper found in documents of this kind!). Assistance was provided, as a rule, in the form of cash benefits for food and treatment, and the supply of clothing and shoes; In addition, financial assistance was provided to students from poor families. But at the same time, the Society’s board paid attention to the cause of poverty (for example, illness or lack of work for the head of the family) and refused to help drunkards.

Of course, not always living conditions in the almshouses were as good as in the Widow's House or the House of Industry. An example is the “Night Shelter in Nizhny Novgorod”, which became widely known thanks to the work of M. Gorky, established by the City Duma on May 30, 1880. Designed to provide an opportunity to “spend the night not in the open air” and intended “for all comers without distinction of condition, sex or age,” the shelter was designed for 450 men and 45 women. The meager funds of the city budget were not enough to maintain it, and again it was necessary to resort to charitable assistance. Only donations from N.A. helped make ends meet. Bugrova, in honor of whose father the shelter was named “after A.P. Bugrova" ("Bugrovskaya dosshouse"). Raising additional funds turned out to be extremely difficult for the trustees - famous Nizhny Novgorod merchants Akifiev, Frolov and Chernov.

Donations were usually made in two forms: either a targeted transfer of some amount (I.M. Rukavishnikov donated 2 thousand rubles to pay arrears from the property of poor homeowners), or the money was placed in a bank, and the percentage of the deposit was used specifically for the maintenance of an orphanage or almshouse etc. (for example, the Widow's House and the House of Diligence were supported, among other things, by a fixed percentage of capital placed in banking institutions). A characteristic and remarkable fact is that not only very wealthy citizens, but also people of average income were involved in charity. For example, collegiate registrar P.O. Troitsky in 1911, in an appeal addressed to the trustee of the Moscow educational district, stated that he was ready to support financially disadvantaged students and the educational institution itself, opened in Nizhny Novgorod by his son V.P. Troitsky.

Healthcare

In the healthcare sector, examples of charity are as frequent as in the social welfare sector, although here there has never been a provincial committee of trustees. Apparently, there was simply no need for such an administrative and advisory body to attract donations to healthcare. A fairly generous gift is known from a Nizhny Novgorod landowner, retired Colonel S. Martynov, who in the first half of the 19th century donated the land that belonged to him to the Order of Public Charity for the organization of a hospital. After this, for many years the Nizhny Novgorod provincial hospital was called “Martynovskaya”, as, indeed, was the street on which it was located (now Semashko Street). The rapid development of medicine in the second half - the end of the 19th century led to the opening of new hospitals, the need for which was very high. And here the role of private donations became even more clear. Thus, a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma, merchant of the 1st guild D.N. Babushkin donated buildings, land and 20 thousand rubles for the construction of a city hospital in the Makaryevskaya part of his own home. After the death of D.N. His grandmother's memory was immortalized by the installation of a memorial plaque on the building of his hospital and the introduction of a personalized bed in one of the wards. Knyagininsky 2nd guild merchant P.I. Karpov maintained an infirmary and a shelter for refugees in Reshetikh until his death. Nizhny Novgorod 1st guild merchant A.I. Kostromin donated 4 thousand rubles for the repair of the 1st City Hospital.

To understand the role of private and public charity in healthcare, let's look at history Mariinsky maternity institution. It was established in memory of the visit to Nizhny Novgorod in 1869 by the heir to the throne Alexander Alexandrovich (future Tsar Alexander III) with his wife Maria Feodorovna (the establishment bore her name). In those days, the urgent need was to “provide women in labor with shelter during childbirth, with free maintenance and obstetric benefits,” and to ensure “the continued existence of orphaned babies.” The trustee committee managing the institution, headed by the city mayor (ex officio), tried to attract not only private but also public donations. As a result, the income of the Mariinsky maternity institution and the orphanage department founded in 1878 consisted mainly of deductions from the city budget and donations from the Nikolaev Public Bank. In 1873, merchant Yakov Makarovich Korolev bequeathed 20 thousand rubles for the construction of a home at the Mariinsky Maternity Institution for infants who had lost their mother. The interest on this capital, invested in the public bank, provided a significant portion of the establishment's expenses. At the same time, the annual increase in the number of patients at the Mariinsky Institution (from 800 in the 1890s to 1800 in the 1900s) led to a significant increase in costs, which made private charity clearly insufficient.

And yet, the traditions of private donations in the field of healthcare were in demand in the extreme conditions of military operations waged by the Russian Empire. Reception from military hospitals and medical care for the sick and wounded required significant efforts not only from the state, but also from the public. Leafing through the archived reports of the Nizhny Novgorod local administration and the ladies' committee of the Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers (1878), hospitals of the period of the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905) and the First World War (1914-1918), we again find familiar names of benefactors on their pages : merchants Bugrov, Zaitsev, Markova, Khlebnikov, representatives of the intelligentsia Karelin, Oliger, Torsueva...

Faith-based philanthropy

The Russian Orthodox Church was a constant subject of charity for citizens, regardless of the size of their capital: the most famous people of the city donated to the temple (the Zhivonosovskaya Church on Rozhdestvenskaya Street was repaired and equipped with funds from the Rukavishnikov family, Spasskaya - from the Bashkirov family), but also ordinary citizens, names which history has not preserved.

For the period from the second half of the 19th century century in the Nizhny Novgorod province, documents have been preserved about diocesan guardianship. Thus, during the spiritual consistory there was diocesan care for the poor clergy, subordinate to the spiritual department and headed (by position) by a bishop - bishop (archbishop). The guardianship included representatives of the spiritual consistory (the governing body of the diocese). The duty of this body was to care (“charity”) for the families of poor clergy, pay them material benefits, place their children in educational institutions on preferential terms, etc. The guardianship budget was formed through deductions from the treasury for the maintenance of the ecclesiastical department, as well as through private donations (the relationship between these two parts of the budget is not traceable in the documents).

For the purposes of religious and moral education and enlightenment, a number of brotherhoods were established in the Nizhny Novgorod province, whose members were actively involved in charity work. Nizhny Novgorod Orthodox Brotherhood in the name of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Georgy Vsevolodovich, established in 1883 “for the purpose of maintaining existing and opening new parochial schools” and governed by a council primarily consisting of clergy, managed to attract and direct material assistance to the needs of schools from many landowners in the districts of the province. Thus, according to the report for 1889-1890, Count A.D. is mentioned among the donors. Sheremetev, N.E. Stogov, L.I. Turchaninova, who provided premises and building materials for schools; financial donations were made by merchants A.F. Sapozhnikov, P.A. Soklov, A.I. Nikolaev; Bourgeois, rural priests, and retired military personnel provided all possible financial assistance to schools through the brotherhood. Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, created “to promote the religious and moral education of poor students of the Nizhny Novgorod gymnasium” and provided them with cash benefits, clothing and shoes, free medical care, etc., also attracted generous philanthropists to cooperate. Large subsidies were provided by the above-mentioned Rukavishnikov family, each member of which paid a personal scholarship to high school students who lived in the fraternity dormitory. MM. Rukavishnikov, who assumed the duties of chairman of the Brotherhood Council, made the main contribution of 17 thousand rubles, the interest from which went to support the brotherhood; He also built a house for a fraternal hostel at his own expense. Monetary donations were made by representatives of the local clergy, intelligentsia, and merchants. The influx of donations was also boosted by the fact that the Nizhny Novgorod bishop and governor officially adopted the name “patrons of the brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius.” The goals were similar Minin Brotherhood, who maintained a city primary school, a vocational school, and a shelter for the poorest students in Nizhny Novgorod. The most prominent benefactors here were the merchant A.A. Zaitsev (chairman of the brotherhood council and caretaker of the vocational school) and D.A. Obryadchikov, who bequeathed capital to the brotherhood, from which over 1.5 thousand rubles in interest payments were received annually. A considerable part of the income came from annual contributions from members of the brotherhood - officials, teachers, and wealthy townspeople. In addition, the brotherhood received subsidies from city and estate self-government.

In the province they also acted parish guardianship, consisting of local clergy and volost elders as “permanent members” (that is, ex officio), as well as parishioners elected for a certain number of years. These trustees served as an advisory body on parish management and resolved issues of financing and economic maintenance of churches, transferring money to almshouses, and monitoring parochial schools. Judging by the documents, private donations played a role in the budget of these trustees. significant role. An example of parochial charity can be, for example, the activities guardianship at the Nizhny Novgorod Trinity Verkhne Posad Church. According to the report for 1913-1914, the guardianship, which consisted mainly of clergy, using their authority, managed to collect 1,351 rubles 99 kopecks in one year (the last pre-war year). In addition to large contributions from merchants D.G. Morozov and V.M. Burmistrova, as well as rental income, small donations (up to 10 rubles) from less wealthy parishioners were not uncommon. The money collected was spent on helping poor parishioners and the poor, burying the poor, as well as on repairing the church, purchasing liturgical literature, etc. Both income and expenses were public: annual reports were necessarily published (this was general rule). Of course, parish trustees in the districts acted in exactly the same way (it is curious that in some of them, among the benefactors, Father John Ilyich Sergeev - John of Kronstadt, who usually donated 100 rubles at a time, is listed).

In the Nizhny Novgorod province, until 1917, confessional charity was widespread not only among parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also in all national-religious communities that existed at that time in our region. And this is no coincidence: after all, in all religions of the world, helping poor fellow believers is the first commandment. And this commandment was sacredly observed by the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers - zealots of ancient Orthodox piety. Here again there is reason to remember the Bugrov and Blinov families, who allocated large amounts of money both for the common good (“Widow’s House”) and for the benefit of the Old Believers (temples and chapels, almshouses in Semyonovsky district, schools for teaching icon painting and book writing, skillful embroidery, liturgical singing according to the ancient canon). And how many generous donors, who preferred to remain anonymous, annually sent funds and supplies to the Trans-Volga monasteries “to feed the elders and old women”! Today, only the ancient monastery synodics preserve the names of those benefactors for whom prayers were offered for many years in the Kerzhen hermitages...

The commandment of helping those in need was always observed by Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod province - mainly Mishar Tatars, usually called “Sergach Tatars” in documents of those years (before 1917, their number was about 70-80 thousand people with a noticeable predominance of the rural population). With funds collected annually from successful traders at the fair and wealthy peasants, mosques and madrassas were opened in the villages of the Sergach district and in Nizhny Novgorod itself, and assistance was provided to needy families. Archival documents preserved the name of the akhun of the Nizhny Novgorod mosque Sokolov - the spiritual mentor who contributed huge contribution in organizing charity among Muslims. In Nizhny Novgorod, relatively small but very influential communities of Catholics and Lutherans had their own parish charitable societies (their total number did not exceed 1.5-2 thousand people; the ethnic composition was Poles, Lithuanians, and Germans, respectively). And although among the parishioners of the church and church there were many people with material wealth (nobles, officials, officers), donations were always collected here - for the maintenance of the temple, to help families who have lost their breadwinner, to pay scholarships to low-income students, for dowries for brides and etc. The organizers of parish charity were almost always representatives of the clergy. Today, in an old, inferior photograph in the “Address Calendar” you can see Father Pyotr Varfolomeevich Bitny-Shlyakhto - young man with a full head of light brown hair and a wide smile. It was to him that Nizhny Novgorod Catholics owed so much, but today even we, archivists, do not know how his life turned out after 1917... An outstanding educator and national cultural figure, Rabbi Baruch Zakhoder of Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir (1848-1905) stood at the origins of the charitable society in the Jewish religious community (the number of Jews in the province ranged from several hundred people in the 1880s to 3 thousand people in 1914). On the initiative of B.I. Zakhoder, with the private donations of all parishioners, the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Synagogue (1881-1883, Bolotov Lane, 5) was built - an interesting architectural monument; at the expense of the merchant G.A. Poyalka and his sons opened and operated the theological school “Talmud Torah”; A society to help the poor also arose, the first chairman of which was the famous philanthropist, merchant of the 2nd guild G.M. Becker. There is evidence that donations for the benefit of the poor were collected in the very small Armenian and Karaite communities of Nizhny Novgorod.

Thus, the individual initiative of Nizhny Novgorod residents apparently played a large role in trusteeship activities at the local level - in parish councils (both Orthodox and other denominations), as well as in local trusteeships for the poor. Unfortunately, the documents of local trustees for the poor, subordinate to local governments (city councils and councils, volost boards), are poorly preserved (for example, there are references to the implementation of charity concerts“The Fourth Kanavinsky City Precinct Care for the Poor”). We can only state that the work of these bodies intensified during the First World War (1914-1918). The budget of these trustees, as well as the refugee councils and committees operating in Nizhny Novgorod since 1915 (Tatyaninsky, national-religious, assistance to the families of the victims, etc.) was formed not so much at the expense of the treasury, but at the expense of private charity.

Charity in the penitentiary system

It just so happened in Rus' that from time immemorial, people imprisoned in prisons aroused the most sincere compassion. And therefore, it was considered a manifestation of high piety to “give alms to the unfortunate with prayer” (remember “Provincial Sketches” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin!), to find funds “to help prison inmates,” or even just say a sympathetic word to them. Perhaps behind this there was a not fully realized desire to prevent the condemned from becoming embittered towards the whole world, to alleviate their sinful souls with mercy and repentance. Or maybe there was also an understanding of the innocence of many of the poor fellows in prisons and jails: after all, this often happened in Rus'. It’s not for nothing that there was a proverb in all social strata of Russian society: “Don’t renounce prison or money”... Be that as it may, in the Nizhny Novgorod province in XVIII-XIX centuries It was customary to release prisoners on Sundays to collect alms and food - from the prison, county "prison castles", from prison companies...

Since 1819 there has been guardianship in the penitentiary (prison-correctional) system. During this period, the Nizhny Novgorod provincial guardianship committee on prisons, subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and later to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). The minister who headed the guardianship in this area on a state scale was called the “president of guardianship”; the provincial committee was headed by a governor (less often a vice-governor), called “vice-president”; members of the committee (higher provincial officials of the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice) were called “directors”. In its activities, the provincial committee relied on a network of district committees, which included the administrative and police leadership of the districts. For trusteeship activities in women's prisons, the committees included the wives of senior officials of the province. In addition to committees, in the period before the reforms of the 1860-1870s. existed guardianship of the Nizhny Novgorod prison company, which was led by the commander of the garrison battalion (that is, local internal troops), with similar functions.

The committees resolved almost exclusively the economic issues of maintaining prisoners, and also considered requests from prison officials for incentives, and conducted economic correspondence about the repair of prison buildings. The budget of the committees was formed from funds allocated for the correctional system by the treasury. A significant part of the documentation of the committees consists of financial statements and reports, from which, for example, it follows that in 1863, 7 kopecks of daily allowance were allocated for the maintenance of one prisoner in the Nizhny Novgorod province (for comparison: in the Moscow - 6 kopecks, St. Petersburg - 9 kopecks, Kazan - 4 kopecks). Much attention was paid to increasing the profitability of the prison department through the labor of the prisoners themselves; private donations, judging by the documents, were insignificant. In the protocols of the provincial committee there are acts of inspection of the sanitary and hygienic condition of the cells (there are complaints about stuffiness, stale air, etc., a ban on drying clothes in cells on stoves); There are also recommendations to read more often literature on religious and moral topics with prisoners, but such materials are relatively rare in archival collections.

As a result of the actions of the system of trustee bodies, private charity practically disappeared from the penitentiary system by the beginning of the 20th century. Prison committees, having turned into purely administrative and advisory bodies, stopped attracting donations from private individuals, breaking the centuries-old tradition of merciful assistance to prisoners. Therefore, it is natural that in the memoir literature there are repeatedly complaints about abuses by these officials, and in general against members of prison trustee committees.

Charity and concern for people's sobriety

In 1894-1897, bodies were created guardianship of people's sobriety, subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We must immediately admit that this was a relatively new matter: traditions of charity in this area had not developed, and ordinary church teachings about the dangers of drunkenness were practically not supported by private donations (for the non-Orthodox communities of our region, the problem of drunkenness was not relevant at all). And the level of development of medicine until the end of the 19th century was such that there was no hope of a cure for alcoholism, and therefore there was no need to donate to special hospitals. But by the end of the 19th century, the problems of alcoholism in Russia began to be clearly recognized by the authorities, which prompted an “initiative from above.”

In the Nizhny Novgorod province it was created and began to operate provincial committee of guardianship of people's sobriety, based on a network of district committees. The provincial committee was headed ex-officio by the governor (in fact, at the beginning of the 20th century it was headed by the vice-governor; in particular, many of the committee’s initiatives are associated with the name of the vice-governor S.I. Biryukov). The committee, also ex officio, included senior provincial officials of various departments: the manager of the provincial committee of state property, the manager of excise duties, the head of the provincial gendarme department, the chairman of the district court, the bishop, the director of public schools (from the Ministry of Public Education), as well as representatives of the zemstvo and the head of local government - the mayor. The composition of the district committees was similar, where all the administrative, police and spiritual leadership of the district were also present. The committees (especially the district ones) also included competing members from the merchants and intelligentsia, but their influence was insignificant.

The tasks of the committees were: organizing explanatory work about the dangers of drunkenness, creating conditions for sober leisure (permits to open teahouses, organizing and holding theatrical performances, folk festivals, etc.), monitoring compliance with the rules of alcohol trade. The budget for the guardianship of people's sobriety was formed from deductions from the treasury, fees from the sale of moralizing literature, financial activities teahouses opened, as well as private donations. However, judging by the documents, public participation in the activities of these committees was insignificant (except for attempts noted by the gendarmerie to use legal meetings in teahouses for revolutionary work). The committees' estimates have been preserved in the archival funds. For example, the Nizhny Novgorod provincial committee of trusteeship for national sobriety approved in 1909 a parish in the amount
25,000 rubles (mainly funds from the treasury and from teahouses) and expenses in the same amount (for the maintenance of the same teahouses and free public libraries). At the same time, charity fees amounted to 600 rubles, and the expenses for office work of the committees amounted to 500 rubles per year! It is typical that the committees annually asked for increased revenues from the treasury.

The situation on the ground was no better. So, "Special Nizhny Novgorod Fair Committee for the Trusteeship of People's Sobriety", established in 1901, submitted almost all reports with a significant excess of expenditures over revenues. An example is a teahouse on Samokatskaya Square: in 1907, income was 627 rubles 08 kopecks, expenses were 945 rubles 05 kopecks; in the Lubyansky Garden in the same year, income was 7,143 rubles 08 kopecks, and expenses were 10,765 rubles 75 kopecks. It became clear that without regular private subsidies, the mere sale of tea with sugar and the reading of lectures on the dangers of alcoholism, the guardianship of public sobriety would not be able to exist for long. And there were practically no private donations - and this despite the solid representation of fair figures in the committee (P.M. Kalashnikov, F.A. Mazurkevich, A.A. Titov) and the membership of Mr. Police Chief himself (of course, by position, and not at the behest of the soul). Temperance societies were opened in rural areas, for example, in the villages of Pavlovo (1899) and Shapkino (in the parish of the Kazan Church, 1908) of Gorbatovsky district, in the village of Bolshoye Pole (in the parish of Zosimo-Savvatievsky Church, 1912) of Makaryevsky district, etc., but, it seems, further than registration things didn't work out according to the regulations...

The activities of trustees for public sobriety at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries are, although negative, still a very important historical experience, indicating the obvious doom of any undertaking that is not based on popular support.

Charity in emergencies

Some charitable societies were of an extraordinary nature, with funding from both private donations and the treasury. An example would be Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Charitable Committee, who was active during the famine of 1892. The committee included: Governor
N.M. Baranov (chairman), bishop, a number of prominent officials of the provincial government, representatives of the merchant class (in particular, N.A. Bugrov, P.I. Lelkov), intelligentsia
(V.G. Korolenko), zemstvos (N.F. Annensky), doctors, etc. The Committee organized the opening of free public canteens, issuing loans in money and grain for those in need, controlled the sending of medicines (through the society of doctors), and encouraged donations in every possible way. It is interesting to note that thanks to the governor’s support, significant funds came not only from private individuals, but also from officials of official institutions and educational institutions (“subscription fees”).

Essays by V.G. Korolenko “In a Hungry Year”, written hot on the heels of events (they were published as a separate book already in 1893), provide an opportunity to become more familiar with the activities of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Charity Committee and its results, to feel the atmosphere of the Committee meetings, to see the practical work that caring people did to someone else's misfortune people. Among them was Vladimir Galaktionovich himself: “At the end of February 1892, on a clear frosty evening, I left Nizhny Novgorod along the Arzamas highway. I had about a thousand rubles [comparable to the annual income of a small parish trustee. - B.P.], given kind people at my disposal for direct assistance to the starving, and an open letter from the provincial charity committee, which, for its part, was pleased to provide me with instructions that completely coincided with my intentions. (...) I had to spend three months in the district, without interrupting this protracted work, and then return there again, until the new harvest...” Talented writer and a deeply decent person, Korolenko described what the surviving official documents of those years are silent about. From the pages of the essays, the reader is presented with a thirteen-year-old peasant girl Feska, who “eats illegally” (because she was not included in the list of those dining in a free canteen), residents of the village of Dubrovka (“Eat everyone in a row!.. We are all poor! What are we like?” residents! And next to this is the callousness of bureaucratic orders that doomed entire villages to death by starvation (“Alas!” it turned out that gentlemen zemstvo bosses hastened to cut loans in all families in which someone used the canteen. I already knew about this, but I hoped to achieve (and achieved) the cancellation of a strange order that made all private charity completely pointless.”); arbitrariness of the district authorities, whose actions negated the results of private charity (“... People from the province are indicated on the spot who agreed to take over the running of the canteens, and these people, upon presentation of estimates, were sent money through the district trusteeship to open the canteens. But then something completely unexpected happened: the trusteeship, instead of transferring the money for its intended purpose, sequestered it and transferred it to the zemstvo sections. It turned out that the people found in the district through the efforts of the provincial committee found themselves without the money that had been sent to them; money, sent for a specific task, found themselves isolated from the people who asked for them”).

Reflecting on his experience of participating in the work of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Charity Committee, V.G. Korolenko wrote: “There are two possible methods of helping the population within the limits of private charity. The first one is when intelligent person, living or even settled for a long time in a needy village, enters into direct, more or less close communication with those whom he helps. TO financial assistance In this case, he can add moral support, he can give to the people he knows and who know him everything he is capable of, everything that is at his disposal from moral and material resources. (...) Without a doubt, this is the most sympathetic, complete and humane form of charity, establishing a certain reciprocity between the receiver and the giver, and finally bringing the greatest satisfaction to both parties. (...) However, there is another method, and, due to circumstances, it fell to my lot. No matter how good, no matter how beneficial moral communication and reciprocity may be, a piece of bread itself, in itself, constitutes a great benefit where it is lacking...”

The essays of the great writer-righteous man of the Russian land, quoted in such detail here, help to understand a very simple, in essence, thing: private charity, encountering bureaucratic obstacles and government prohibitions, is doomed to failure, but in the same way any good undertakings of the administration are doomed to failure, not supported by broad public support.

Thus, charity and trusteeship in the Nizhny Novgorod region have long traditions, and their manifestations were multifaceted. This was a very honorable business, and those who showed themselves in this field enjoyed great respect in society. There are cases when the titles of honorary trustees were specifically requested. For example, documents show that in 1866, excise department official A.K. Kirkor donated 100 silver rubles to orphanages and, pledging to donate 50 silver rubles annually in the future, submitted a petition to the Nizhny Novgorod provincial trusteeship of orphanages to be included as an honorary member of the trusteeship. The official's request was granted.

It should be noted that Nizhny Novgorod governors and officials of provincial government bodies welcomed the manifestation of charity. There were several possible forms of reward for regular charity on a large scale: a written expression of gratitude, a welcome address, a diploma, a monetary incentive (one-time or “salary increase”). The trustee committees had the right to nominate particularly distinguished “honorary members” for government awards: a written “statement of the highest gratitude”, a valuable gift (for example, a ring with an imperial monogram), orders and medals. Information about all forms of incentives was necessarily entered into the “formular list” (personal file). From archival documents it is known that honorary member of the trusteeship of orphanages V.E. Sapozhnikov for his “excellently diligent” service was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 2nd and 3rd degree, St. Anna 2nd degree; merchant of the 2nd guild A.A. Vesnin, who donated 10,000 rubles to the Nativity Church in Nizhny Novgorod, received “gold medals to wear on his chest with Stanislavov and Annin ribbons.” As the highest recognition of his services to charity, Nizhny Novgorod industrialist Ya.E. Bashkirov, awarded the title of “honorary citizen” in 1898, was elevated to hereditary noble dignity by a personal decree of Emperor Nicholas II of June 13, 1912 (“in consideration of outstanding charity and social activities”).

And in conclusion, we will try to answer the question: why, in those distant times, did our fellow countrymen so actively strive to help their neighbors? What motivated people who donated money (sometimes a lot!) for the benefit of the poor? This question, which inevitably arises when working with documentary materials on the history of Nizhny Novgorod charity, deserves special consideration.

First of all, we must decisively reject the version of granting philanthropists the right to preferential taxation. There were and could not be any tax breaks for people involved in charity in pre-revolutionary Russia! (The introduction of the principle of “compensation for losses incurred from charitable activities” is incompatible with the very concept of a good creation). Further, we must understand that both before 1917 and after, all people were different, which means that everyone could have their own personal motivations that do not coincide with the others. And very often one can only guess about these motives, because people not only did not explain them in official documents, but often could not explain them, acting unconsciously, obeying the dictates of the soul and the traditions of previous generations. It is quite obvious that for many Nizhny Novgorod residents the main reason for significant donations for the public good was the desire to fulfill the religious commandment of helping one’s neighbor (it is no coincidence that we began the essay by mentioning these commandments). But it is also quite obvious that at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, for that part of Nizhny Novgorod society that moved away from religion (and there were many of them among the intelligentsia), religious motives did not play a decisive role. But even atheistically minded revolutionary democrats have always made their contribution to helping their neighbors: let us remember the selfless work of V.G. Korolenko in that hungry year of 1892, let us remember M. Gorky, never mentioned in the “duty circle” of Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists, who used his literary fees to help everyone who turned to him, literally saving people from starvation, paying for education and treatment for those in need; let us also remember the asceticism of many teachers, doctors, agronomists, engineers... Therefore, it would be more correct, apparently, to talk about moral motives for charitable activities: after all, the ideals of selfless service to society were equally dear to people with very different beliefs.

It is very likely that participation in charitable activities could have been influenced by certain personal circumstances and subjective motivations. Judging by the documentary evidence of those years, among the trustees who generously donated large amounts of money, there were many single people who had no heirs or family at all (N.A. Bugrov and V.M. Burmistrova are striking examples), and therefore sought to ensure posthumous gratitude for themselves fellow countrymen with good deeds. By the way,
ON THE. Bugrov, distinguished by his great worldly wisdom and flair, last years life spoke about the possibility of a social cataclysm in Russia (“The authorities, the police, and the army will sweep away everything”); it is possible that these sentiments explain the amazing generosity of the “manufacturer-advisor” towards the Seima peasants and, certainly, the completely paradoxical assistance to the revolutionary movement.

In some cases, class solidarity could become an incentive. As you know, until 1917 Russia was a class state, which could not but affect charity. In our province, examples of collective class charity are known: for example, the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Deputy Assembly allocated funds for the creation of a Women's Dormitory for Nobles, to help the families of low-income nobles and the maintenance of their children in the Nizhny Novgorod Cadet Corps and the Alexander Noble Institute. There were also examples of private charity: for example, the widow of Staff Captain Karataev, E.D. Karataeva, donated buildings that belonged to her to create a hostel for the care of poor nobles and a shelter for their children, and both institutions were maintained, including on interest from the capital she placed in the Alexander Noble Bank. To a shelter for the charity of poor nobles M.B. Prutchenko, vice-governor and former manager of the Treasury Chamber, donated 15 thousand rubles at a time. Finally, expenses for public benefit could become a unique form of repentance: it seems that the generosity of the landowner S. Martynov and his family members was caused by the desire to atone for the sin of his son Nikolai, who killed the poet M.Yu. in a duel in 1841. Lermontov.

An analysis of the composition of trustees in various committees and societies of the Nizhny Novgorod province revealed an interesting feature: the merchants who participated in them were almost exclusively grain merchants, flour millers, shipowners, clothing and footwear manufacturers, owners of light and woodworking industries - in a word, those who, in the conditions of our region, are not had a monopoly on manufactured products. Government contracts (“state orders”, in modern parlance) helped such entrepreneurs survive the fierce competition in the Russian market at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The decision to grant government contracts was made by local administrative authorities, that is, ultimately, the governor is the “head of the province” and the indispensable (ex officio) chairman of almost all trustee committees, obligated to report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for their work. Is it not in the desire to gain fame and favor from the authorities (and ultimately receive the coveted contract) that lies the secret of the activity with which some Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurs rushed to trusteeship?.. For comparison, we note that monopoly producers of certain types of products in the region - for example, “ vodka king" A.V. Debts or owners of chemical plants joint stock company“Salolin” - “not noticed” in active charity work...

And yet, I think, the main thing was not this, but the system of mutual assistance that literally permeated Nizhny Novgorod society until 1917. Almost all residents of the Nizhny Novgorod province, young and old, were involved in this system to one degree or another, participating in the work of the trustees to the best of their abilities by making monetary contributions, providing free services, raising funds and attracting donors. Not only merchants, but also officials of all ranks, intellectuals (nobles and commoners), clergy, students, townspeople and rural residents took part in charitable events. People who have selflessly helped the poor for years were held in high esteem in society. It is in nurturing the traditions of highly moral public service that, in our opinion, lies the most important historical experience of Nizhny Novgorod charity.

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. For a long time, the fair construction contract was alternately held in the hands of the venerable Nizhny Novgorod merchants Pyatov and Michurin. 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.” An all-Russian competition for the project was announced, and 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 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. At the end of the 19th 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 a major scandal began related to 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, back at the beginning of the 19th 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.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov(1839-1911) - largest Nizhny Novgorod merchant, grain industrialist, 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

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov (1839-1911) - the largest Nizhny Novgorod merchant, grain industrialist, 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 city of Nizhny Novgorod: F.A., A.A., N.A. Blinovs, A.P. and N.A. Bugrovs and U. S. Kurbatov, who with their donations gave the city the opportunity to build a water supply system in 1880, subject to free use of it forever 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, forever, 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 Widow's House named after the Blinovs and Bugrovs" to the 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

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 the 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 Society for the Promotion of 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 the children were given only elementary education, and with Rukavishnikov’s money they built a school with workshops: shoemaking and tailoring for boys, sewing 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 an 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 large collection paintings, including “Flying Carpet” by Vasnetsov, “Lady under an Umbrella” by Kramskoy, which now adorn the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. He donated money for the Annunciation 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), and 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, and provided them with free teaching aids, clothes and shoes, 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 funds for the maintenance of the House of Industriousness, took part in improving production activities, organizing the education of children (a parochial school was opened here largely with their funds) and in establishing 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 the iron old man, also left a memory of herself by purchasing land for the city cemetery, erecting a church and service buildings there and surrounding the Nizhny Novgorod necropolis with a fence with turrets and gates (just in case, the cemetery territory 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.