Savva Timofeevich Morozov is most remembered as a philanthropist, merchant and textile manufacturer, and to a lesser extent as a person who indirectly supported the Bolshevik Party financially. He was a man Russian Empire very rich, and therefore extremely influential.
Savva Timofeevich, in addition to the “family business” - a huge weaving production, had his own mines and logging, chemical plants and hospitals, newspapers and even a theater.
And yet, not everyone knows that it was only thanks to his money that the famous Moscow Art Theater, now the Moscow Art Theater, arose and managed to survive, which has become the pride of Russian culture.
Yes, Savva Morozov gave money to the Bolsheviks - or did they extort it from him? - gave legal cover to the main militant of the RSDLP Leonid Krasin, who worked at his company as an electrician, and the famous Nikolai Bauman. Perhaps decency and connection with a very dangerous people and killed a millionaire who was found dead in a luxury hotel room in Cannes in 1905? Let's find out...
Love and money
IN early XIX century, the serf Morozov decided to create his own weaving workshop and turned out to be a smart craftsman and resourceful businessman. Soon he managed to buy himself out of serfdom from the master and bought out all his numerous relatives. Having moved to Moscow, famous for its merchant traditions, the founder of the dynasty began to actively expand the weaving business and after his death left each of his sons a weaving factory with a large number hired workers.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Morozov family, who adhered to the Old Believer faith, had grown significantly and was divided into several independent clans that had their own production and capital. Of these, the richest and most resourceful were considered the “Timofeevichs,” to whom Savva Timofeevich belonged. In Orekhovo-Zuevo, near Moscow, the Timofeevichs owned almost everything: land, factories, maintained the police at their own expense, published newspapers, built churches, schools, hospitals, etc.
Maria Fedorovna Morozova (1830-1911) with her son Savva Timofeevich Morozov (1862-1905) and grandchildren Maria, Timofey and Elena Outwardly, Savva Timofeevich resembled a Tatar Murza - dense, short, with slightly slanted eyes and a wide, stubborn forehead. Having received an excellent education - he graduated from the department of natural sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, and then successfully trained at the famous Cambridge - the millionaire loved to pretend to be half-wit, although he was distinguished by considerable suspicion and an amazing ability to make money.
Savva was one of the first in Russia to make widespread use of electricity, building a power plant, importing equipment from abroad and eagerly adopting new progressive technologies.
The wealth of the Morozov family can be evidenced by the fact that Savva Timofeevich’s mother, Maria Fedorovna Morozova, when widowed, had personal capital in 16 million rubles , and by the end of her life she managed to DOUBLE! This was fantastically huge money for those times. The Morozovs' wealth can be compared with the fortunes of the top ten richest people on the planet today.
Savva Timofeevich was received in high society, enjoyed the favor of the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire S. Yu. Witte and even received the honor of being presented to the emperor. The millionaire merchant was awarded orders and honorary titles. He married for love beautiful woman- Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova (Zimina), who loved her husband very much and bore him several children.
At his factories, Savva Timofeevich tried to create the most favorable conditions for workers, and there were legends about this. What pushed this extraordinary man into a fatal connection with the militants of the Bolshevik Party, which was distinguished by extreme intolerance, cynicism and was an implacable enemy of capital? Naturally, in the event that she could not get the capital at her own disposal.
The building of the Moscow Art Theater in Kamergersky Lane, 1900s It is believed that the tragic events began with the fact that Savva Morozov undertook to help create the Moscow Art Theater. Unlike other Moscow moneybags who promised to give money to theater fan Alekseev, who took the stage name Stanislavsky, only Morozov actually gave it!
Stanislavsky hoped that rich relatives would help him, but they did not give a penny. Then he began to ask patrons of the arts, but only Morozov responded with action. Subsequently, the theater actually existed at his expense, and the “grateful” Nemirovich literally forced Savva Timofeevich out of the board.
Morozov himself found a building for the theater, gave money and took an active part in creating the future pride of Russian culture. But the glory did not go to him.
Among Stanislavsky's acquaintances who played on the amateur stage were the Andreev couple. Their real name was Zhelyabuzhsky. The head of the family had the rank of general, actual state councilor. His wife, Maria Fedorovna Andreeva (Zhelyabuzhskaya), came from an impoverished noble family, her father served as the chief director at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
Maria Andreeva Maria began her career as a professional actress, but soon got married. Subsequently, she returned first to the amateur stage, and then to the professional stage, at the Art Theater. Through her son's student tutor, she met revolutionary-minded youth and became involved in combat organization RSDLP, led by Leonid Krasin.
Andreeva had party nicknames “Phenomenon” and “White Crow”.
Savva Morozov, who was very carried away by her, knew nothing about this. Andreeva skillfully extracted large sums from him, and he, enchanted by her, gave money to those who cynically used him.
Unhappy love and death
In one of the private letters, not suspecting Andreeva’s connections with the Bolshevik terrorists, Stanislavsky bitterly reproached her for a truly terrible disregard for the feelings of such a worthy person as Savva Morozov. But this did not make any impression on Maria Fedorovna. With her secret mediation at Morozov’s enterprise, the head of the military organization of the RSDLP, Leonid Krasin, was able to legalize.
Nikolai Bauman, who was killed in the troubled days of 1905, worked as a veterinarian on one of Morozov’s estates. Receiving money from Morozov, the Bolsheviks often wrote in their Iskra deliberate lies about the situation of workers at the millionaire’s enterprises: supposedly people there were starving and dying from overwork. This was one of the forms of their “gratitude” to the one who gave money for the existence of their printed organ and shielded party functionaries from the political police.
Maria Fedorovna Andreeva Andreeva with her son and A.M. Gorky. 1905 Soon Andreeva became friends with Maxim Gorky, but Morozov still continued to fulfill all her whims: it concerned mainly money for party needs. Or did they manage to take the millionaire firmly by the throat?
The Bolsheviks managed to incite the workers of Orekhovo-Zuev into an armed uprising, which was quickly and brutally suppressed by the troops. And then Savva Timofeevich experienced a mental breakdown. No, he did not go crazy, as they tried to imagine later, but he felt empty. He lost the woman with whom he was unrequitedly in love, his wife took him back and even bore him a son, but Morozov saw that she would never fully forgive him. The workers, for whom he sincerely tried to create the best conditions in Russia, also betrayed him. The theater, which without him simply would not exist in nature, having received decent money, threw it away with the hands of its artistic directors.
What a disgusting person,” Savva Timofeevich once exclaimed in his hearts, having once again quarreled with Maxim Gorky. - Why does he introduce himself as a tramp when everyone knows that his grandfather was a rich merchant of the second guild and left a large inheritance?
The proletarian writer wrote something up, saying that Morozov allegedly guarded him and followed him everywhere with a Browning so that Gorky would not be attacked by the Black Hundreds and secret police agents. This shameless lie caused Savva Timofeevich indignation.
An unpleasant surprise for the Bolsheviks was that the millionaire manufacturer flatly refused them financial support. He saw WHAT Bolshevism would bring to Russia, and did not want to feed his own murderer and gravedigger.
Krasin repeatedly turned to Morozov for money and even threatened him, but received a firm refusal. Suspicious people were following Morozov. Krasin and the company tried to assure the manufacturer that these were the tsarist secret police, but in fact they were Bolshevik people: they tried to put psychological pressure on Morozov. It is possible that it was Andreeva and Gorky who deliberately spread rumors that the family declared Morozov crazy.
None of this was true. Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova loved her husband. The family decided to temporarily hide Savva Timofeevich from his former dangerous acquaintances and at the same time give him the opportunity to rest and heal. Together with his wife, the manufacturer went abroad. But even there he was tracked down by Bolshevik militants, who still had not lost hope of getting money.
Even during his courtship with Andreeva, the millionaire insured his life for one hundred thousand rubles - fabulous money at that time - and gave the insurance policy to the actress. Andreeva kept the insurance policy, and Morozov did not demand it back. Why? Secret…
Savva was vacationing in Cannes when Krasin came to him - to ask, beg, and finally demand money! Morozov flatly refused, and the angry Krasin left with nothing.
A few days later, on May 13, 1905, a shot was heard in the most expensive hotel on the Cannes Riviera, the Tsarsky. In the room where millionaire Savva Morozov rested. When Zinaida Grigorievna ran into the room, she saw her husband lying on the sofa, and next to him, on the floor, a small nickel-plated Browning was lying. The window was slightly open, and the woman saw a man running away: This is what she maintained until the end of her days. There was a note on the dressing table: “Please don’t blame anyone for my death.” However, the wife said that her husband’s handwriting had changed and Savva would never have decided to commit suicide.
Zinaida Morozova Did you close his eyes? - the first thing they asked the millionaire’s wife. After all, before the police arrived, no one touched the philanthropist’s body. The fact is that suicides and murdered people do not close their eyes; another person does this for them. Who did it - the wife or the murderer? Secret…
The French police officially declared it a suicide and the case was quickly closed. In order to bury Morozov according to the Orthodox rite - suicides were not buried in ground consecrated by the church - it was necessary to declare that poor Savva had lost his mind. Then his body was buried as expected. To relieve tension in the powerful Morozov clan, Moscow mayor Count Shuvalov came to the funeral.
Soon Madame Andreeva calmly presented an insurance policy for one hundred thousand rubles for payment. Forty of them went to pay her debts, and sixty were immediately taken by the Bolshevik Party. It is believed that it was this fatal policy that became the death sentence for the famous philanthropist and industrialist. For the greedy Bolsheviks, he turned out to be the only way to get Morozov’s money. But who killed Savva? This remains a secret...
The investigation that never happened
More than a hundred years have passed since the mysterious death of manufacturer Savva Morozov, but the murder case in Cannes continues to interest historians and politicians to this day. Since 1905, a negligible amount of documents related to the death of Savva Timofeevich has been preserved: neither in the French nor in the Russian archives is there any material evidence of the incident, in addition to Morozov’s death certificate and his suicide note. This once again confirms that for some reason no one was interested in disclosing the real circumstances of the death of the famous Russian businessman.
Neither the French police, nor representatives of the Russian security agency, nor the relatives of the deceased took up the case of Savva Morozov - no one protested the version of the millionaire’s suicide, although many facts suggested that Savva Timofeevich was killed in a Cannes hotel room.
The fact that Morozov was not a suicide was also evidenced by a seven-round automatic Browning gun found on the floor next to the businessman’s body.
The weapon that belonged to Savva was designed for 7.65 mm cartridges, but many historians testified that the bullet removed from the manufacturer’s body had a completely different caliber and could not fit his Browning.
The Browning itself, which served as important evidence, mysteriously disappeared shortly after the incident. It could have been destroyed in France, after Savva Morozov’s body was sent to Russia, or during the years of Soviet power, when valuable documents related to this case were carefully sought out and destroyed.
As you know, Morozov’s body was examined for some time in the morgue that operated at the city clinic. It was there that an autopsy was probably performed, during which the bullet would certainly have been removed. However, the documents confirming this disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today it is impossible to find out whether the bullet remained in the manufacturer’s body, or whether it ended up in the hands of the French police.
Savva Morozov during the construction of the Moscow Art Theater
Morozov's case, it seemed, had not been investigated at all. This was also facilitated by the events that took place in Russia in 1905. At this time, huge amounts of money were required to suppress the revolution that was sweeping Russia. It is known that Russia was able to negotiate with the French authorities to receive a large loan on terms favorable to France.
Just at this moment, a famous Russian politician and a major millionaire died in Cannes. It is quite clear that French side I tried to close this case as quickly as possible.
For the French police, the version of Morozov's suicide was the most convenient. However, experienced Hungarian and Yugoslav experts admitted that with such an arrangement of the pistol and right hand, it was worth raising a murder case with subsequent staging.
What or who forced the French police to deviate from the official rules also remains unknown. It is only known that the issue of terminating the investigation into the case related to the death of the Russian millionaire was agreed upon at the highest interstate level.
Murder of Savva Morozov's double?
According to unofficial data, there was still an investigation into this complicated case by Russia. And, allegedly, Nicholas II himself entrusted the investigation to a certain counterintelligence officer Sergei Svirsky. However, the solution to the Morozov issue was temporarily postponed by the uprising on the battleship Potemkin. Only in September did Svirsky again remind the ruler about this investigation.
Svirsky reported to Nicholas II that, based on the data he collected, it was impossible to either refute or confirm the suicide of Savva Timofeevich. The French police report on Morozov's death was compiled from the words of a person who wished to remain anonymous; There were also no photographs from the crime scene.
The version of historians about Savva Morozov’s double appeared as a result of one small detail. The fact is that the coffin with the body of Savva Morozov was delivered to Moscow via Revel on board a yacht called “Eva Johanson,” which belonged to the yacht club Savva's second cousin, Foma Panteleevich Morozov.
For some reason they decided not to open the coffin during the funeral service. By religion, Savva Morozov, like all representatives of his dynasty, was an Old Believers, among whom suicide was always considered the most terrible and unforgivable sin. Savva Timofeevich knew very well that suicide entailed renunciation not only of the church and faith, but also of family and children. This is further evidence in favor of the version that he could not commit suicide.
Savva Morozov was buried at the Old Believer Rogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow, in a tomb, next to his grandfather and father. No speeches were made at his funeral, since this was not accepted according to Old Believer traditions. They buried him in complete silence, and together with Savva Timofeevich they seemed to be burying the terrible secret of his death.
According to some data, many of Savva Morozov’s foreign accounts were bequeathed to a very mysterious person - Foma Morozov.
Savva’s second cousin, who lived in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and an entrepreneur himself early childhood were incredibly similar to each other. This similarity did not disappear even over the years: it is known that at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where Savva Timofeevich was on the stock exchange committee, Foma often replaced him, putting on a suit and slightly cutting his hair. Foma himself was well versed in financial matters, since he owned a brokerage firm.
After a more thorough study of Morozov’s case, it turned out that Foma Morozov, who died in 1903, was buried in a village cemetery located near the town of Lahti. The fact of Foma Morozov’s death was not particularly advertised, and his brokerage firm continued to work according to existing documents. The co-owner of the office at that time was Nikita Morozov.
It was he who, many years after the news of Savva Morozov’s suicide, told his grandson that the manufacturer until his death lived according to the documents of his second cousin.
There were rumors among Old Believers that until October 1967, at the Malohtenskoye cemetery there was a grave with a huge cross and an inscription indicating that the body of Savva Morozov was buried here in October 1929. By order of the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, this cross was demolished. Perhaps the legend that circulated among the workers after the death of Savva Timofeevich that he actually remained alive was not fiction. However, the writer Gorky claims that the legend was invented by the factory workers themselves, refusing to believe what happened. The workers loved Morozov very much.
There are many mysteries and secrets in this story, but the solution to this complicated story becomes more than obvious if you trace the fate of the members of Savva Morozov’s family after the tragedy.
The fate of members of the Morozov family after the death of Savva Timofeevich
On May 29, about fifteen thousand people gathered for the funeral of Savva Timofeevich. All the actors and workers of the Moscow Art Theater were present at the cemetery, except for one artist - Maria Andreeva. That day she allegedly fell ill and remained in bed. The woman, for whom he may have paid with his life, citing ill health, did not want to take him to prison. last way.
Zinaida Grigorievna after Morozov's funeral A. A. Kozlov, the then Governor-General of Moscow, at Morozov’s funeral, approaching Zinaida Grigorievna, whom he knew well and whose house he had visited, expressed condolences to her and said directly:
“I don’t believe in talk about suicide; Savva Timofeevich was too significant and respected a person. It's a huge loss for everyone."
After the tragedy that happened to Savva Morozov, his family still faced a lot of suffering and tragic moments. After some time, Timofey, Sava's eldest son, actively began investigating the murder of his father. He probably still managed to find some facts or important evidence. Timofey, trying to start investigating this case again, was immediately arrested. In 1921 he was sentenced to death and executed. Morozov's youngest son, Savva, was sent to the Gulag.
Portrait of Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova with children: Timofey, Maria, Lyulyuta, 1900 - 1903 His daughter Masha, recognized as mentally ill, ended up in a mental hospital, where she died under very strange circumstances. Only the youngest Elena managed to escape from the authorities' reprisals: after the revolution that swept the country, she was able to travel to Brazil. The widowed Morozova, who inherited a large sum of money from her husband, remained on Russian territory. A few years later she married Governor General Rainboth. In her possession there remained a mansion on Spiridonovka and a country estate called Gorki with a huge park and a greenhouse.
Although Zinaida Grigorievna could well have left Russia after the Bolshevik victory, she did not take advantage of this opportunity. She lived in Gorki for some time, but having received from the authorities a document stating that her house and the artistic and historical furnishings in it belonged to the state, she was forced to leave the estate. For the rest of her life, Zinaida rented a dacha in the village of Ilyinsky, where she lived until last days. She died after World War II in oblivion and poverty.
Maria Andreeva became a famous party worker under Soviet rule and received many top government awards. The urns with the ashes of Krasin and Gorky are kept in the Kremlin wall to this day.
Date of birth: February 15, 1862
Place of birth: Moscow
Date of death: May 26, 1905
Savva Morozov- philanthropist and entrepreneur. Savva Timofeevich Morozov was a representative of one of the most famous dynasties in Russia. The family into which he was born belonged to a merchant dynasty, and his parents were Old Believers. Savva Morozov was a hereditary honorary citizen of Moscow and went down in history as one of the great entrepreneurs and representatives of the merchant class.
As a child, he received his education during the years of study at the fourth gymnasium in Moscow, subsequently studying at the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University, he attended lectures by Vasily Klyuchevsky, who at that moment taught history and after graduating from university went to Europe.
Continuing his studies in England at one of the oldest educational institutions in Europe - the University of Cambridge, he received a degree in chemistry and at the end of his studies became the author of a dissertation on the topic of textiles.
In those years, he first became acquainted with the weaving craft of industrialists in English manufactories and adopted their experience, which he later transferred to Russian production.
The period of his life in Europe ends in 1886, when he had to return to his homeland after news of his father’s illness. After his return, Savva Morozov takes the helm of his father’s business and heads the Nikolskaya Manufactory Partnership on Savva Morozov’s shares. His work was aimed not only at the development of production and changes in the processes of manufactories, but also devoted a lot of time to the social conditions for workers. The working conditions in his factories at that time were considered one of the best, and he significantly changed the situation in this direction.
Not only are working conditions changing in the factories themselves, where work becomes safer and requires less effort from workers, but he also invests a lot of time in developing their living conditions.
At that time, he created new barracks and barracks for workers to live. The conditions for providing medical care to employees are becoming almost ideal, taking into account the knowledge of that time. After the workers grow old and leave work, a special almshouse is built for them, where they can spend their old age.
The attitude not only to working conditions, living conditions, health and everyday life is changing significantly, but Savva Morozov is also creating a park in which everyone can spend weekends and free time. The theater buildings are being built and several libraries will be created.
Also, after his return, he was involved in the affairs of the Moscow brewing society.
At that time, in 1888, Savva became more closely acquainted with his distant relative Zinaida Grigorievna Zimina, who by that time was divorcing her ex-husband. That same year they got married and moved to a house specially built for them, built on one of the quiet streets located in an aristocratic district of Moscow. Construction lasted quite a short time by the standards of that time and its design was carried out by the famous architect Fyodor Shekhtel, choosing for its decoration the neo-Gothic style inherent in nineteenth-century buildings.
Thanks to the efforts of the wife, who liked social events, the house became a fashionable meeting place for representatives of various circles of the upper class. Morozov treats work with more attention than social life and, despite the tacit approval of such events organized by his house at the hands of his wife, he remains a rare guest at them.
At that time, Savva Morozov headed the fair committee Nizhny Novgorod and was elected to the Moscow Exchange House. Soon he was elected to the Moscow branch of the Council of Manufactures and Trade. During these years, Morozov became one of the most influential industrialists in Moscow and Russia. For his services in trade and various social aspects of the life of the city, in 1892 Morozov was awarded the Order of St. Anna, third degree, for services and works in relation to the Ministry of Finance.
The second significant order that he was awarded was the Order of St. Anne of the second degree, which he received in 1896. The Order is considered one of the highest awards of the Russian Empire and is awarded to only a few worthy people.
In 1890 Morozov decided to take up chemical industry and directs its efforts to the Ural factories. At that time, he acquired significant holdings in the Perm province and created chemical production there. All substances that new factories produce are used in textile industry, which allows him to create a new high-quality production cycle. Factories under his leadership produce wood alcohol, acetic acid salts, denatured alcohol and methyl alcohol.
Despite the fact that at that time there were legends and rumors about the fabulous wealth of Savva Morozov, his life did not show this in any way. A rather modest life and hard work coexist with extensive programs of charity and assistance to the poor. Savva donates huge amounts of money to create new shelters and build modern hospitals. The newly built medical institutions accept everyone for treatment and he finances their activities.
Various areas occupy a special place in Morozov’s life cultural life. He spends more than three hundred thousand rubles on the construction of a new building for the Moscow Art Theater. Everyone remains under his leadership financial questions theater, and he invests more than half a million rubles in its development. The new hall can accommodate one thousand three hundred spectators and its interior decoration is as amazing as its performances.
Konstantin Stanislavsky highly appreciates and often speaks of Savva Morozov as a great man who, while engaged in industry, does not abandon the culture of the country. Released at that time badge of honor, dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the founding of the theater, has an image of three people who founded it and made it so great and one of them, along with Nemirovich-Danchenko and Stanislavsky, and an image of Savva Morozov.
Despite the fact that Morozov was from a family of Old Believers, although this may be partly due to this, he became interested in politics at the beginning of the twentieth century. What is unusual about this is that he organizes meetings of the liberal part of the forces in his house and often meetings of the cadets are held in his house.
At that time, he became close to representatives of the Bolshevik Party, and he financed the publication of the newspaper Iskra. Later he became the initiator and creator of the editorial offices of the newspapers Borba and New life. He also takes part in financing the congresses of the RSDLP.
In addition to significant support in terms of funding, he takes an active part in the life of the revolutionary forces that are beginning to emerge at that time. Nikolai Bauman, who was the leader of the Bolsheviks at that time, is hiding in Morozov’s house. He also communicates with Maxim Gorky and provides him with support. In the factories owned by Morozov, prohibited literature and publications are stored, as well as the means for printing them, which he purchases.
Such radical views, acquaintance and communication with Bolshevik leaders push Morozov to significant and unprecedented reforms at that time, which he plans to carry out at his factories. According to his idea, workers should receive part of the profits from the production and sale of products from the factories in which they work. His mother removes him from managing the factories and the suppression of the riot that took place at that time, which was called Bloody Sunday, had a strong impact on him on January 9, 1905.
All these events caused the depression into which he fell in those years. In addition, this was greatly facilitated by problems in his personal life, after his wife became aware of his affair with actress Maria Andreeva.
Morozov is not actually involved in business and his communication is limited to a narrow circle of people who do not contribute to changing the situation for the better. Relatives contact doctors, who, as a result of a convened consultation, make a diagnosis of acute nervous disorder.
Having listened to the recommendations of doctors, as well as under pressure from his mother and family, he goes to France, where he is soon found shot dead under mysterious circumstances. Savva Morozov dies at the age of forty-four. As eyewitnesses described that day, Savva Morozov was in a good mood and in the evening had to go to relax at the casino, while no one understood what could have caused what happened and how he shot himself in exactly this way.
Since the official version of death was suicide, Morozov was not given a funeral service or buried according to Christian customs. Morozov's family was quite influential and, using all their connections, obtained permission for burial in Russia and his death was recognized as a consequence of sudden passion, as a result of which he did not make a conscious decision to kill himself. The sculpture on Morozov’s grave was made by the famous sculptor Nikolai Andreev.
Achievements of Savva Morozov:
Creation of a large structure of industrial plants, factories and manufactories
Construction of new buildings and active participation in the development of the Moscow Art Theater
Creation large number medical institutions, social institutions and the construction of several houses that are currently considered architectural monuments
Significant dates in the life of Savva Morozov:
February 15, 1862 fit in Moscow
1885 move to study in Europe
1888 marriage to Zinaida Zimina
1892 awarding of the Order of St. Anne, third degree
1896 awarded the Order of St. Anne, second degree
1905, having contacted the Bolsheviks, he was removed from business
May 26, 1905 death from a shot in the chest
Interesting things from the life of Savva Morozov:
As a representative of a noble merchant family from among the Old Believers, Savva Morozov provides significant assistance in the work of the Bolsheviks. A representative of the so-called class of oppressors of the working people is trying to give preferences to workers and make them, to some extent, involved in making a profit from the activities of the factories and enterprises in which they work.
The founder of the manufacturing industrial family of the Morozovs was a serf peasant of the village of Zuev, Bogorodsky district, Moscow province Savva Vasilievich Morozov, who was born in 1770 into a family of Old Believers. At first he worked as a weaver at Kononov’s small silk factory, receiving 5 rubles in banknotes per year from the owner’s grub. In 1797, he opened his own workshop, but for the next 15 years his family did not stand out in any way from other weavers. The prosperity of the Morozovs was greatly helped by the great Moscow fire of 1812, which immediately destroyed the entire capital's weaving industry. In the post-war years, in devastated Russia there was a huge demand for linen and cotton products, the demands for calico and chintz were enormous. The Morozovs' enterprise, oriented towards market demands, began to quickly grow rich. At first, Savva himself carried his products to Moscow and sold them to the houses of eminent landowners and ordinary people. Then the business expanded and went so well that around 1820, Savva Vasilyevich managed to buy out his freedom along with his entire family. To do this, he paid his landowner Gavril Vasilievich Ryumin a fabulous sum at that time of 17 thousand rubles. By this time, 40 people were already working at the Morozov enterprise. Having become his own master, Morozov in 1830 founded a small dyeing and bleaching plant in the city of Bogorodsk, as well as an office for distributing yarn to craftsmen and accepting finished fabrics from them. This establishment served as the beginning of the future Bogorodsko-Glukhov cotton manufactory. In 1838, Savva Vasilyevich opened one of the largest mechanical weaving factories in Russia, the Nikolskaya Mechanical Weaving Factory, which was housed in a large multi-story stone building, and nine years later, in 1847, he built a huge spinning building nearby.
In 1842 he received hereditary honorary citizenship and bought a house in Rogozhskaya Sloboda.
The choice of place was not accidental - Rogozhskaya Sloboda was the area in which Old Believers lived, and Morozov, who came from schismatic family, wanted to live together with his fellow believers.
In 1850, already at a very old age, Savva Vasilyevich retired and transferred management of the enterprise to his sons. He died in 1860.
Back in 1837, the eldest son separated from his father Elisha Savvich, who opened his own dyeing factory in the village of Nikolskoye. He, however, was more interested in religious issues, so the prosperity of this branch of the Morozovs began only under his son Vikula Eliseevich. In 1872, he built a paper spinning mill, and in 1882 he established the share partnership “Vikul Morozov and his sons.” The Bogorodsk establishment of Savva Vasilyevich passed to his son Zakhar. In 1842 he moved it to the village of Glukhovo. Gradually expanding the business, in 1847 he built a mechanical weaving factory, and in 1855 he approved the share partnership “Bogorodsko-Glukhovskaya Manufactory Company”. After his death in 1857, all affairs were managed by his sons Andrei and Ivan Zakharovich, under whom the business expanded and flourished even more. The descendants of Abram Savvich became the owners of the Tver manufactory.
Parents of Savva Timofeevich Morozov
However greatest commercial success and fame fell to the lot of the junior branch of the Morozov house. Its founder.
A stern man and, according to the recollections of his daughter, Yulia Timofeevna, of extraordinary intelligence and energy, Timofey was obsessed with two ideas - increasing the family fortune and preserving family traditions. He considered love in all its manifestations a sign of stupidity and weakness.
In November 1846, Timofey, on the advice of his father, married a merchant's daughter Maria Feodorovna Simonova. She came from a family of Kazan Tatars who converted to Orthodoxy, but, having entered the Morozov clan, she converted to the Old Believers - this was Timofey Savvich’s indispensable condition. Despite the difference in upbringing, it was in every way successful marriage: Maria Fedorovna turned out to be an intelligent and strong woman and managed to earn the respect of her stern husband, including her ability to keep the house and children in strictness.
Timofey Savvich Morozov set up an office in Tver, but concentrated his main efforts on the development of the Zuevsky factory. This was a manufactory in the full sense of the word, that is, it received cotton and sold the finished goods, often from its warehouses directly to the consumer. Timofey Savvich completely re-equipped it with English machines. Using the latest equipment, high-quality American cotton, and imported dyes, he managed to set up production in such a way that it met high international standards. It was one of the most profitable Russian companies, generating several million rubles of net income annually. Morozov showed enormous energy to improve production: he invited experienced and knowledgeable English and Russian engineers, and used his own funds to send young engineers to study abroad. The village of Nikolskoye (now the city of Orekhovo-Zuevo) resembled, according to contemporaries, “ specific principality of the Morozovs" Most of the buildings here were made by the Morozovs, and the entire population of 15,000 worked at their enterprises and was entirely dependent on them. Even the police were supported by the Morozovs.
For his workers and masters, Timofey Savvich was a formidable and cruel master. He introduced a Jesuit system of fines for the slightest violation or deviation from the established regulations. Even the most exemplary workers lost up to 15% of their earnings due to fines; the rest did not have enough money to live at all. It is no coincidence that it was at the Zuevskaya manufactory in 1885 that the the first organized strike of workers in Russia. The trial that followed, revealing the terrible abuses of the owners, turned out to be fatal for Morozov: he retired, fell ill and died in 1889. Management of affairs passed to his son Savva Timofeevich, who, not without reason, is considered the most striking and controversial figure in the world of Russian entrepreneurship of those years.
Childhood and teenage years, studies and marriage of Savva Morozov
Savva Morozov born February 15 (new style) 1862. His children's and teenage years took place in Moscow in the parental mansion located in Bolshoi Trekhsvyatsky Lane. The freedom of children in the house was limited to the chapel and the garden, outside of which they were not allowed by well-trained servants. He rarely saw his father; his mother, it seemed to him, gave preference to other children. For the first time, his parents showed interest in him when Savva was already a teenager: home teachers announced Timofey Savvich And Maria Fedorovna that they can’t teach Savva anything else - the boy shows remarkable abilities in the exact sciences and needs serious education. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1881, Savva entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, and after completing the course, in 1885 he left for England. At Cambridge, Savva Timofeevich successfully and deeply studied chemistry and was going to defend his dissertation here, but the need to head the family business forced him to return to Russia.
Management of Savva Morozov Nikolskaya manufactory
After the strike of 1885, the health of Savva Morozov’s father began to deteriorate, and he actually retired. On the initiative of Savva Timofeich’s mother - Maria Feodorovna, a mutual partnership was created from relatives, the technical director of which was a 25-year-old talented engineer Savva Timofeevich Morozov, who took up the management of the manufactory with pleasure.
Becoming head of the Nikolskaya manufactory, Savva Morozov hastened to destroy the most blatant oppressive measures introduced by his father. He abolished fines, built many new barracks for workers, and provided exemplary medical care. He carried out all these improvements as a manager. 
However, in the true sense, he was never the owner of the manufactory, since most of the shares after the death of Timofey Savvich passed to the mother of Savva Timofeevich, Morozova Maria Fedorovna, a very powerful woman, with great intelligence and independent views. Possessing enormous capital, Maria Feodorovna never forgot about charitable causes, and surpassed her husband in scale. For example, in 1908 Maria Feodorovna bought and closed all the notorious shelters in the Khitrovka area. Morozova's funds were used to build a student dormitory and a building for the laboratory of mechanical technology of fibrous substances at the Imperial Technical School (now named after Bauman). M.F. Morozova made her will in 1908, distributing her fortune between her children and grandchildren and allocating 930 thousand rubles. for charitable purposes. She died in 1911 at the age of 80, leaving behind 29 million 346 thousand rubles. net capital and increasing her husband’s fortune, which she inherited, almost 5 times.
Personal life of Savva Morozov
Shortly before graduating from university, Savva informed his parents that he had fallen in love and was going to marry the divorced wife of his close relative, Zinaida Grigorievna Zimina. His chosen one was completely different from the submissive, naive merchant daughters whom Savva’s parents introduced to her. She was a strong, charming, passionate and sensitive woman with a sharp mind. Despite the attempts of relatives to dissuade Savva from this marriage, the wedding still took place. And immediately after graduating from university, the newlyweds left for England. After returning to Russia, a house was built for his wife according to the design of F. O. Shekhtel on Spiridonovka (now the Reception House of the Russian Foreign Ministry), where the entire elite of the then intelligentsia of Moscow attended receptions. The most senior officials of the city considered it an honor to receive an invitation to a reception from Zinaida Grigorievna. However, Morozov himself rarely appeared at these receptions and felt out of place. Heavy and clumsy, he could not fit naturally into high society. After several years of such a life, Morozov gradually lost interest in his wife and did not approve of her overly luxurious lifestyle.
Charitable activities of Savva Morozov
Savva Morozov became famous due to his charitable activities. In addition, he was a great philanthropist, and many cultural endeavors of those years took place with the participation of his capital. He, however, had his own views here - he did not give money to everyone and not indiscriminately. For example, Morozov did not donate a penny to the Museum of Fine Arts, which was created with the active participation of Tsvetaev. But, regardless of any expenses, he supported everything in which he foresaw an important influence on national culture. In this sense, his attitude towards the Moscow Art Theater, in the creation of which Morozov deserves no less than Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, is indicative. The establishment of the theater required significant funds. Neither Stanislavsky nor Nemirovich-Danchenko had them. Having received a refusal from the government, they began to turn to philanthropists. From the very beginning in 1898, Morozov gave 10 thousand rubles for the theater. In 1900, when major complications arose in the troupe’s activities, he bought out all the shares and took it upon himself to finance current expenses. His donations became the theater's most important source of funds. For three years, he kept the theater afloat, relieving its managers of exhausting financial worries and giving them the opportunity to concentrate entirely on the creative process. According to Stanislavsky, “he took over the entire economic part, he delved into all the details and gave all his free time to the theater.” Morozov took a very keen interest in the life of the Moscow Art Theater, went to rehearsals and predicted “that this theater will play a decisive role in the development of theatrical art.” Under his leadership, the building was rebuilt and a new hall with 1,300 seats was created. This construction cost Morozov 300 thousand rubles, and the total amount he spent on the Moscow Art Theater was close to half a million.
Political activities of Savva Morozov
At the beginning of the 20th century. Morozov became keenly interested in politics. Semi-legal meetings of cadets took place in his mansion. This, however, was not surprising, since many large industrialists at that time gravitated toward constitutional democrats. But Savva Morozov soon ceased to be satisfied with the half-hearted reforms that they were going to carry out in Russia. He himself had much more radical views, which ultimately led him to close contact with the Bolshevik Party, which adheres to the most extreme socialist orientation. It is known that Morozov gave money for the publication of Iskra. With his funds, the first legal Bolshevik newspapers “New Life” in St. Petersburg and “Fight” in Moscow were established. All this gave the right to accuse Morozov of “fed the revolution with his millions”. Morozov did even more: he smuggled printing fonts illegally, hid the revolutionary Bauman from the police, and himself delivered prohibited literature to his factory.
Death of Savva Morozov
In February 1905, when Savva Timofeevich decided to carry out some extreme transformations at his factory, which were supposed to give workers the right to a part of the profits received, his mother - Maria Feodorovna removed him from management. In addition to this event on January 9, 1905, which went down in history as “ Bloody Sunday“became a real shock for him. Apparently, all these circumstances caused a severe nervous breakdown. Morozov began to avoid people, spending a lot of time in solitude, not wanting to see anyone. He began to experience insomnia, sudden attacks of melancholy and obsessive fears of madness. And in the Morozov family - although this was kept silent - there were many who lost their minds. A council of doctors convened in April at the insistence of his wife and mother stated that Savva Timofeevich had a “severe general nervous disorder” and recommended sending him abroad. Morozov left with his wife for Cannes and here in the Royal Hotel room on May 13, 1905 was found dead.
The official version said that it was suicide, but Zinaida Grigorievna did not believe it. And the doctor who accompanied the couple on the trip noted with surprise that the deceased’s eyes were closed and his hands were folded on his stomach. There was a nickel-plated Browning gun lying by the bed, and the window in the room was open. In addition, Zinaida Grigorievna claimed that she saw a man running away in the park, but the Cannes police did not conduct an investigation. Subsequently, all attempts to find out the truth about death of Morozov resolutely stopped him mother Maria Fedorovna, who allegedly said: “Let’s leave everything as it is. I won’t allow a scandal.”
In memory of a departed son Maria Fedorovna Morozova together with her son Sergei and daughter Yulia, she allocated funds for the construction of two buildings of the Old Catherine Hospital, a building for nervous patients with 60 beds and a maternity hospital building with 74 beds (both were preserved on the territory of MONIKI, the former Old Catherine Hospital).
She also contributed to the memory of her husband widow Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova, which built a building of cheap apartments in the Presnensky part of Moscow named after. Savva Morozov, spending 70 thousand rubles on him.
And two years after the death of Savva Morozov, she married the Moscow mayor Anatoly Rainbot.
“In Morozov you can feel the power not only of money. He does not smell of millions. He is a Russian businessman with exorbitant moral strength.”
N. Rokshin, Moscow journalist
"New Russians" sounds offensive. Popular rumor portrays the nouveau riche, the unspiritual rich tyrants who, no matter how hard they try, cannot reach the enlightened merchant class of the beginning of the century.
The legendary Moscow entrepreneur Savva Timofeevich Morozov tried with all his might to rebuild himself, to become spiritual, sensitive, understanding art, capable of sacrificing himself. Ultimately, he committed suicide. The story of his life leads to conclusions that are fervent in their polemics: people who make money simply need to be unspiritual and cynical and have a narrow outlook - otherwise they will die out as a class. For the sake of the public good, they should be banned from visiting museums and theaters, and God forbid they fall in love with actresses.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the top of the Moscow merchant class consisted of two and a half dozen families - seven of them bore the surname Morozov. The most famous in this series was considered the largest calico manufacturer, Savva Timofeevich Morozov.
Today we can only guess about the exact size of Morozov’s capital. "The Nikolskaya Manufactory of Savva Morozov, Son and Co" was one of the three most profitable industries in Russia. Savva Ivanovich’s salary alone (he was just a director, and his mother was the owner of the manufactory) was 250 thousand rubles a year. For comparison: the then Minister of Finance Sergei Witte received ten times less (and then Alexander III paid most of the amount to the “irreplaceable” Witte from his own pocket).
Savva belonged to the generation of “new” Moscow merchants. Unlike their fathers and grandfathers, ancestors family business, the young merchants had an excellent European education, artistic taste, and varied interests. Spiritual and social issues occupied them no less than the problem of making money.
The family business was started by Savva’s grandfather and namesake, the business man Savva Vasilyevich Morozov.
Reserved place for the next world
“Savva son Vasilyev” was born a serf, but managed to go through all the stages of a small manufacturer and become the largest textile manufacturer. An enterprising peasant from the Vladimir province opened a workshop that produced silk lace and ribbons. He worked on a single machine himself and walked on foot to Moscow, 100 miles away, to sell goods to buyers. Gradually he switched to cloth and cotton products. He was lucky. Even the War of 1812 and the ruin of Moscow contributed to an increase in income. After several capital factories burned down in the capital, a favorable customs tariff was introduced, and the rise of the cotton industry began.
For 17 thousand rubles - a huge amount of money at that time - Savva received his "freedom" from the Ryumin nobles, and soon the former serf Morozov was enrolled in the Moscow merchants of the first guild.
Having lived to a ripe old age, Savva Vasilyevich never mastered literacy, but this did not prevent him from doing business well. He bequeathed to his sons four large factories, united under the name “Nikolskaya Manufactory”. The old man took care to arrange for his descendants even in the next world: next to his grave in the Rogozhskoye cemetery there is a white stone Old Believer cross with an inscription, already faded with time: “At this cross lies the family of the merchant of the first guild, Savva Vasilyevich Morozov.”
Today four generations of Morozovs lie there.
A strike was named after him
"The Nikolskaya Manufactory of Savva Morozov, Son and Co" was located in the Pokrovsky district of the Vladimir province. Until the mid-40s of the 19th century, affairs here were run by Savva Vasilyevich himself, and then by him younger son Timofey.
The deft and resourceful heir rolled up his sleeves and got down to business. He decided to take control of the entire production cycle: in order not to depend on import supplies, he bought land in Central Asia and began growing cotton there, modernized the equipment, and replaced English specialists with young graduates of the Imperial Technical School.
Timofey Savvich enjoyed enormous authority in Moscow business circles. He was the first to receive the honorary title of manufacturing advisor, was elected a member of the Moscow City Duma, chairman of the Moscow Exchange Committee and Merchant Bank, and a member of the board of the Kursk Railway.
Unlike his father, Timofey was taught to read and write and, although he himself “did not graduate from universities,” he often donated quite large sums to educational establishments and for publishing. That didn’t stop him from being a real, as they said then, “bloodsucker”: wages He constantly reduced his workers and harassed them with endless fines. And in general he considered rigor and harshness in dealing with subordinates the best way of management.
The order in the manufactory was reminiscent of an appanage principality. There was even its own police here. No one had the right to sit in the owner’s office except him, no matter how long the reports and meetings lasted. A hundred years later, the current President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, had fun in the same way.
On January 7, 1885, a workers’ strike broke out at the Nikolskaya manufactory, later described in all domestic history textbooks as the “Morozov strike.” It lasted two weeks. By the way, this was the first organized action of workers. When the instigators of the unrest were tried, Timofey Morozov was called to court as a witness. The hall was crowded, the atmosphere was tense to the limit. It was not the defendants who caused the anger of the public, but the owner of the factory.
Savva Timoffevich recalled that trial: “They look at him through binoculars, as if in a circus. They shout: “Monster!” Bloodsucker!" The parent was confused. He went to the witness stand, fussed, stumbled on the smooth parquet floor - and the back of his head hit the floor, as if on purpose, right in front of the dock. There was such a level of mockery in the hall that the chairman had to interrupt the meeting."
After the trial, Timofey Savvich lay in a fever for a month and got out of bed as a completely different person - aged, embittered. I didn’t even want to hear about the factory: “Sell it, and the money goes to the bank.” And only the iron will of his wife saved the manufactory from sale. Timofey Morozov completely refused to conduct production affairs: he transferred the property to his wife, since the eldest son, in his opinion, was young and ardent.
Originally from Domostroy
The Morozov family was an Old Believer and very
gataya. The mansion in Bolshoi Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane had a winter greenhouse and a huge garden with gazebos and flower beds.
The future capitalist and freethinker was brought up in the spirit of religious asceticism, in exceptional severity. Priests from the Rogozh Old Believer community served daily in the family chapel. The extremely pious mistress of the house, Maria Fedorovna, was always surrounded by hangers-on. Any of her whims was law for the household.
On Saturdays, underwear was changed in the house. The brothers, the elder Savva and the younger Sergei, were given only one clean shirt, which usually went to Seryozha, his mother’s favorite. Savva had to wear the one that her brother took off. More than strange for the richest merchant family, but this was not the only eccentricity of the mistress. Occupying a two-story mansion with 20 rooms, she did not use electric lighting, considering it a demonic force. For the same reason, I didn’t read newspapers and magazines, and shunned literature, theater, and music. Afraid of catching a cold, she did not take a bath, preferring to use cologne. And at the same time she held her family in such a tight fist that they did not dare to rock the boat without her permission.
Nevertheless, changes inexorably invaded this firmly established Old Believer life. The Morozov family already had governesses and tutors, and the children - four sons and four daughters - were taught secular manners, music, and foreign languages. In this case, centuries-tested “forms of education” were used - young merchants were mercilessly beaten for poor academic success.
Savva was not particularly obedient. In his own words, while still in school he learned to smoke and not believe in God. He had a fatherly character: he made decisions quickly and forever.
He entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. There he seriously studied philosophy, attended lectures on the history of V.O. Klyuchevsky. Then he continued his education in England. He studied chemistry at Cambridge, worked on his dissertation and at the same time became acquainted with textiles. In 1887, after the Morozov strike and his father’s illness, he was forced to return to Russia and take over management of affairs. Savva was then 25 years old.
Until 1918, Nikolskaya Manufactory was a share enterprise. The main and main shareholder of the manufactory was Savva’s mother Maria Feodorovna: she owned 90% of the shares.
In production matters, Savva could not help but depend on his mother. In fact, he was a co-owner-manager, and not a full owner. But “Savva the Second” would not have been the son of his parents if he had not inherited their irrepressible energy and great will. He said about himself: “If anyone stands in my way, I will cross and not blink.”
I had to sweat,” Savva Timofeevich later recalled. - The equipment at the factory is antediluvian, there is no fuel, but here there is competition, a crisis. The whole thing had to be rebuilt on the fly.
He ordered the latest equipment from England. My father was categorically against it - it was expensive, but Savva broke his father, who was lagging behind in life. The old man was disgusted by his son’s innovations, but in the end he gave in: fines at the manufactory were abolished, prices were changed, and new barracks were built. Timofey Savvovich stamped his feet on his son and cursed him as a socialist.
And in good moments, a very old man would stroke me on the head and say: “Eh, Savvushka, you’ll break your neck.”
But the alarming prophecy was still far from being realized.
Things were going brilliantly at the Partnership. Nikolskaya manufactory ranked third in Russia in terms of profitability. Morozov's products replaced English fabrics even in Persia and China. At the end of the 1890s, 13.5 thousand people were employed in the factories; about 440 thousand pounds of yarn and almost two million meters of fabric were produced here annually.
Secretly, Maria Feodorovna was proud of her son - God did not deprive him of either intelligence or business acumen. Although she was angry when Savva gave orders first in his own way, as he saw fit, and only then approached: “Here, mama, allow me to report...”
Star trail
In addition to his production victories, Savva won one scandalous victory on the love front. In Moscow, he made a lot of noise by falling in love with the wife of his cousin Sergei Vikulovich Morozov, Zinaida. There were rumors that Sergei Vikulovich took it from the weavers at one of the Morozov factories. According to another version, she came from the merchant family of the Zimins, and her father, Bogorodsk merchant of the second guild Grigory Zimin, was from Zuev.
In Russia, divorce was not approved by either secular or ecclesiastical authorities. And for the Old Believers, to whom the Morozovs belonged, this was not just bad - it was unthinkable. Savva indulged in a monstrous scandal and family shame - the wedding took place.
The Morozovs were lucky to have powerful, arrogant, intelligent and very ambitious wives. Zinaida Grigorievna only confirms this statement. An intelligent, but extremely pretentious woman, she indulged her vanity in a way most understandable to the merchant world: she adored luxury and reveled in social success. Her husband indulged her every whim.
Newspapers commented in detail on the pompous opening of the new Morozov mansion (Spiridonovka, 5 - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds receptions here today), which was immediately dubbed the “Moscow miracle”. House unusual style- a combination of Gothic and Moorish elements welded together with Art Nouveau plasticity - immediately became a metropolitan landmark.
Zinaida Grigorievna's personal apartments were furnished luxuriously and eclecticly. "Empire" bedroom made of Karelian birch with bronze, marble walls, furniture covered with blue damask. The apartment resembled a tableware store, the amount of Sevres porcelain was frightening: even the mirror frames were made of porcelain, porcelain vases stood on the dressing table, tiny porcelain figurines hung on the walls and on brackets.
The owner's office and bedroom looked alien here. The only decoration is the bronze head of Ivan the Terrible by Antokolsky on the bookcase. Empty, these rooms resembled a bachelor's home.
In general, mother’s lessons were not in vain. In relation to himself, Savva Morozov was extremely unpretentious, even stingy - he walked around at home in worn-out shoes, and on the street he could appear in patched shoes. In spite of his unpretentiousness, Madame Morozova tried to have
to “the very best”: if there are toilets, then the most unimaginable, if there are resorts, then the most fashionable and expensive.
It became a funny thing. At the opening of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, Savva Timofeevich, as chairman of the fair exchange committee, received imperial family. During the ceremony, he was remarked that the train of his wife’s dress was longer than that of the crowned person.
Savva turned a blind eye to his wife’s affairs: mutual frantic passion soon grew into indifference, and then into complete alienation. They lived in the same house, but practically did not communicate. Even four children could not save this marriage.
Grasping, with an insinuating look and an arrogant face, complex because of her merchant status, and all hung with pearls, Zinaida Grigorievna sparkled in society and tried to turn her house into a secular salon. She “easily” visited the queen’s sister, the wife of the Moscow governor-general Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna. There were evenings, balls, receptions... Morozova was constantly surrounded by secular youth and officers. A.A. Reinbot, an officer of the General Staff, a brilliant suitor and socialite, enjoyed her special attention.
He later received the rank of general for his fight against the revolutionary movement. And two years after the death of Savva Timofeevich, he married Zinaida Grigorievna. One must think that her vanity was satisfied: she became a hereditary noblewoman.
Fatal namesake
Keeping a strict account of every ruble, Savva did not skimp on thousands of expenses for the sake of a good cause, in his opinion. He gave money for the publication of books, donated to the Red Cross, but his main feat was financing the Moscow Art Theater. The construction of the theater building in Kamergersky Lane alone cost Morozov 300 thousand rubles.
In 1898, the Moscow Art Theater staged the play “Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich” based on the play by Alexei Tolstoy. Savva Morozov, having accidentally stopped by the theater in the evening, experienced a deep shock and has since become an ardent fan of the theater.
Morozov not only generously donated money - he formulated the basic principles of the theater: maintaining its status as a public theater, not raising ticket prices, and performing plays of public interest.
Savva Timofeevich was an enthusiastic and passionate person. No wonder Mother Maria Fedorovna was afraid: “Hot Savvushka!.. will get carried away by some innovation, get involved with unreliable people, God forbid.”
God did not save him from the Art Theater actress Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, ironically the namesake of his mother.
The wife of high-ranking official A.A. Zhelyabuzhsky, Andreeva was not happy in the family. Her husband met another love, but the couple, keeping up appearances, lived in the same house for the sake of their two children. Maria Fedorovna found solace in the theater - Andreeva was her stage name.
Having become a regular at the Art Theater, Morozov also became a fan of Andreva - she had the fame of the most beautiful actress on the Russian stage. A whirlwind romance ensued. Morozov admired her rare beauty, admired her talent and rushed to fulfill any desire.
From Stanislavsky’s letter to Andreeva:
“Savva Timofeevich’s relationship with you is exceptional... These are the relationships for which they ruin their lives, sacrifice themselves... But do you know what sacrilege you reach?.. You boast publicly to strangers that the woman who is painfully jealous of you Zinaida Grigorievna is looking for your influence over her husband. For the sake of acting vanity, you are telling right and left that Savva Timofeevich, at your insistence, is contributing a whole capital... for the sake of saving someone...
I love your intelligence and views and I don’t like you at all as an actor in life. This actress is your main enemy. It kills the best in you. You start telling lies, you stop being kind and smart, you become harsh, tactless both on stage and in life."
Maria Feodorovna spun Morozov as she wanted.
Andreeva was a hysterical woman, prone to adventures and adventures. Only theater was not enough for her (or rather, she was wounded by the undoubted artistic genius of Olga Knipper-Chekhova), she wanted political theater. She was connected with the Bolsheviks and raised money for them. Later, the secret police will establish that Andreeva collected millions of rubles for the RSDLP.
“Comrade phenomenon,” as Lenin called her, managed to force the largest Russian capitalist to fork out for the needs of the revolution. Savva Timofeevich donated a significant part of his fortune to the Bolsheviks.
With his support, Lenin's Iskra and the Bolshevik newspapers Novaya Zhizn in St. Petersburg and Borba in Moscow were published. He himself illegally smuggled printing fonts, hid his most valuable “comrades”, and delivered prohibited literature to... his own factory. It was in Morozov’s office that the vigilant clerk picked up the Iskra, forgotten by the owner, and reported it “to the right place.” Savva Timofeevich was invited to a conversation by the Tsar’s uncle himself, the Governor-General of Moscow Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich. But his exhortations, very reminiscent of police blackmail, still did not achieve their goal.
The revolutionary nature of Savva Timofeevich Morozov should not be exaggerated. As Mark Aldanov wrote, “Savva subsidized the Bolsheviks because he was extremely disgusted with people in general, and people of his circle in particular.” He, a man of European education, was disgusted by the Old Believer way of life. Slavophilism and populism seemed to him sentimental. Nietzsche's philosophy is too idealistic, divorced from life. But Savva sympathetically accepted the views of the Social Democrats under the influence of the beloved Mashenka and her future common-law husband Maxim Gorky.
Passionate, addicted, a nature that goes “to the end” in everything, “seriously until complete destruction.” Rogozhin in the novel "The Idiot" seems to have been copied by Dostoevsky from Morozov - or great writer I knew the type of talented Russian businessman who was bored with his money, went crazy from the surrounding vulgarity and vanity, and who ultimately bet everything on a woman and love.
A rich Russian, as soon as he becomes educated, falls in love with a fatal intellectual who embodies for him culture, progress and passion at the same time. And then either he dies, unable to overcome the marginality of his existence, or... he becomes int
elligent.
Here in America there are no insoluble contradictions between capital and love. There, a capitalist, Bill Gates, for example, will never fall in love with a communist and will not suffer about it.
"Pity humiliates a person"
The tragedy began when Stanislavsky quarreled with Nemirovich-Danchenko.
And they quarreled over the artist Andreeva, who caused a scandal over the artist Knipper-Chekhova. Absolutely everyone recognized Olga Leonardovna Knipper’s genius.
Andreeva was given minor roles - she demanded the main ones, complained to Stanislavsky and Morozov about Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the end, the two co-owners of the theater hated each other so much that they could not talk calmly. Morozov abandoned his directorship. Together with his close friend Maxim Gorky and Maria Fedorovna, he started a new theater.
But then Andreeva and Gorky fell in love with each other. This discovery was a severe shock for Savva.
Actor A.A. Tikhonov talked about it like this:
“A woman’s hand, bare to the shoulder, in a white ball glove, touched my sleeve.
Tikhonych, dear, hide this for now... I have nowhere to put it...
Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, very beautiful, in a white dress with a deep neckline, handed me a manuscript with Gorky's poem "Man". At the end, a dedicatory note was made - they say that the author of this poem has a strong heart, from which she, Andreeva, can make heels for her shoes.
Morozov, who was standing nearby, snatched the manuscript and read the dedication.
So... a New Year's gift? Fell in love?
He grabbed a thin gold cigarette case from the pocket of his tailcoat trousers and began to light a cigarette, but from the wrong end. His freckled fingers were shaking."
A normal capitalist (and even Father Timofey Savvovich) immediately abandoned his beloved who had cheated on him. But a change of generations had already occurred: Savva Timofeevich lived according to the laws of Russian literature, where suffering from love and indulging in bitches and hysterical women was considered a virtue. Even after Andreeva and Gorky began to live together, Morozov still took care of Maria Fedorovna. When she was on tour in Riga and was hospitalized with peritonitis and was on the verge of death, it was Morozov who looked after her. He bequeathed to her an insurance policy in the event of his death. After Morozov’s death, Andreeva received 100 thousand rubles from insurance.
It was already the beginning of 1905. The revolution was breaking out. A strike broke out at the Nikolskaya manufactory. To reach an agreement with the workers, Morozov demanded from his mother a power of attorney to conduct business. But she, outraged by his desire to reach an agreement with the workers, categorically refused and herself insisted on removing her son from business. And when he tried to object, she shouted: “And I don’t want to listen! If you don’t leave on your own, we’ll force you.”
Suicide
The circle of loneliness was inexorably shrinking. Morozov remained in complete isolation. A talented, smart, strong, rich man could not find anything to rely on.
Love turned out to be impossible and untrue. The secular wife was annoying. He had no friends in his circle, and in general it was incredibly boring among the merchants. He contemptuously called his colleagues “a wolf pack.” The “flock” responded to him with fearful dislike. Gradually, an understanding of the true attitude towards him on the part of his “comrades” came: the Bolsheviks saw in him just a stupid cash cow and shamelessly used his money. The letters of Gorky’s “sincere friend” showed frank calculation.
Savva fell into severe depression. Rumors about his madness spread throughout Moscow. Savva Timofeevich began to avoid people, spending a lot of time in complete solitude, not wanting to see anyone. His wife vigilantly ensured that no one came to see him and seized any correspondence that came in his name.
At the insistence of his wife and mother, a consultation was convened, which made a diagnosis: a severe nervous disorder, expressed in excessive excitement, anxiety, insomnia, and attacks of melancholy. Doctors recommended sending the “patient” for treatment abroad.
Accompanied by his wife, Savva Timofeevich left for Cannes. Here, in May 1905, on the shore Mediterranean Sea, in a room at the Royal Hotel, the 44-year-old calico magnate shot himself. They said that the day before nothing foreshadowed a tragic outcome - Savva was going to the casino and was in a normal mood.
Many of the circumstances surrounding this suicide are still unclear. There is a version that the perpetrators of Morozov’s death are revolutionaries who began to blackmail their “friend.” A similar explanation was widely circulated in pre-revolutionary Moscow and even found its way into Witte’s memoirs. One way or another, the decision to die was hardly sudden for Morozov. Shortly before his death, he insured his life for 100 thousand rubles. He gave the insurance policy “to bearer” to Maria Andreeva along with a handwritten letter. According to her, in the letter, “Savva Timofeevich entrusts the money to me, since I alone know his desires, and that he cannot trust anyone but me, not even his relatives.” A significant part of these funds was transferred by Phenomenon to the Bolshevik Party fund.
Most of Morozov's fortune went to his wife, who, shortly before the revolution, sold shares in the manufactory.
“Restless Savva” did not immediately find peace even after death. According to Christian canons, a suicide cannot be buried according to church rites. The Morozov clan, using money and connections, began to seek permission for a funeral in Russia. The authorities were presented with confusing and rather contradictory evidence from doctors that the death was the result of a “sudden onset of passion”, therefore it cannot be considered as an ordinary suicide. Eventually permission was granted. The body was brought to Moscow in a closed metal coffin. A magnificent funeral was organized at the Rogozhskoye cemetery, followed by a funeral dinner for 900 people.
For many years, a legend circulated around the capital that it was not Savva Timofeevich in the coffin, and that he was alive and hiding somewhere in the Russian outback...
If in those days there was a joke about the “newest Russians” (who, as you know, are nothing more than the ruined “new Russians”), then the main proof of this would be Savva Timofeevich Morozov.
16.02.2016 7146 3.0 0
Savva Morozov. Loving philanthropist.
This person could definitely occupy the first positions in Forbes magazine. People like him can afford everything and there is no apparent reason to be unhappy, however... no one has yet managed to buy true love and true friendship.
Vibrant life and tragic death in the prime of life...
At the beginning of the 20th century, the top of the Moscow merchant class consisted of two and a half dozen families - seven of them bore the surname Morozov. The most famous in this series was considered the largest calico manufacturer, Savva Timofeevich Morozov. “In Morozov you can feel the power not only of money. He does not smell of millions. He is a Russian businessman with exorbitant moral strength.”- N. Rokshin, Moscow journalist.
MOROZOVS.
The founder of the manufacturing industrial family of the Morozovs was a serf peasant from the village of Zueva, Bogorodsky district, Moscow province, Savva Vasilyevich Morozov, who was born in 1770 into a family of Old Believers. At first he worked as a weaver at Kononov’s small silk factory, receiving 5 rubles in banknotes per year from the owner’s grub. The lot falls on Savva to become a soldier, and he, wanting to pay off the recruitment, makes a large loan from Kononov, with which he pays off within 2 years.
Savva Vasilyevich Morozov is the founder of the dynasty.
In 1797, he opened his own workshop, but for the next 15 years his family did not stand out in any way from other weavers.
In 1779 in the village. In Zuyevo he organizes his own production. His wife Ulyana Afanasyevna, who was famous for her art of dyeing fabrics, helps him in this.
The prosperity of the Morozovs was greatly helped by the great Moscow fire of 1812, which immediately destroyed the entire capital's weaving industry. In the post-war years, in devastated Russia there was a huge demand for linen and cotton products, the demands for calico and chintz were enormous. The Morozovs' enterprise, oriented towards market demands, began to quickly grow rich.
At first, Savva himself carried his products to Moscow and sold them to the houses of eminent landowners and ordinary people. Then the business expanded and went so well that around 1820, Savva Vasilyevich managed to buy out his freedom along with his entire family. To do this, he paid his landowner Gavrila Vasilyevich Ryumin a fabulous sum at that time of 17 thousand rubles. By this time, 40 people were already working at the Morozov enterprise.
Having become his own master, Morozov in 1830 founded a small dyeing and bleaching plant in the city of Bogorodsk, as well as an office for distributing yarn to craftsmen and accepting finished fabrics from them. This establishment served as the beginning of the future Bogorodsko-Glukhov cotton manufactory.
In 1838, Savva Vasilyevich opened one of the largest mechanical weaving factories in Russia, the Nikolskaya Mechanical Weaving Factory, which was housed in a large multi-story stone building, and nine years later, in 1847, he built a huge spinning building nearby.
In 1842, he received hereditary honorary citizenship and bought a house in Rogozhskaya Sloboda. The choice of location was not accidental - Rogozhskaya Sloboda was an area in which Old Believers lived, and Morozov, who came from a schismatic family, wanted to live with his fellow believers.
In 1850, already at a very old age, Savva Vasilyevich retired and transferred management of the enterprise to his sons. He died in 1860.
The sons continued their father's work. Savva Vasilyevich had five sons: Timofey, Elisha, Zakhar, Abram and Ivan. Little is known about the fate of the latter, but the first four appeared themselves or through their sons as the creators of the four main Morozov manufactories and the ancestors of the four main branches of the Morozov family. Timofey was at the head of the Nikolskaya manufactory; Elisha and his son Vikula - Vikula Morozov's manufactory; Zakhar - Bogorodskaya-Glukhovskaya, and Abram - Tverskoy.
Back in 1837, the eldest son Elisha Savvich separated from his father and opened his own dyeing factory in the village of Nikolskoye. He, however, was more interested in religious issues, so the prosperity of this branch of the Morozovs began only under his son Vikul Eliseevich. In 1872, he built a paper spinning mill, and in 1882 he established the share “Partnership of Vikul Morozov with his sons.”
The Bogorodsk establishment of Savva Vasilyevich passed to his son Zakhar. In 1842 he moved it to the village of Glukhovo. Gradually expanding the business, in 1847 he built a mechanical weaving factory, and in 1855 he approved the share partnership “Bogorodsko-Glukhovskaya Manufactory Company”. After his death in 1857, all affairs were managed by his sons Andrei and Ivan Zakharovich, under whom the business expanded and flourished even more. The descendants of Abram Savvich became the owners of the Tver manufactory.
Heads of four Morozov family firms:
Abram Abramovich Morozov (grandson), Timofey Savvich Morozov (youngest son), Ivan Zakharovich Morozov (grandson) and Vikula Eliseevich Morozov (grandson).
A healthy, almost sporting rivalry began between the brothers. Each tried to surpass the other and prove that his manufacture was better. When the Nizhny Novgorodskaya was built Railway approached the brothers' property and was attacked from three sides at once. Zakhar demanded to lead her through Bogorodsk, Elisha - to the left of Nikolsky, and Timofey - to the right. According to a popular legend that was widespread in those days, Timofey allegedly specially introduced his workers into the ranks of the railway builders so that they would quietly build the road the way the owner needed it. Whether it was true or not, the road in 1861 passed through the property of Timofey Savvich . In the same year, the country first learned about the village of Nikolskoye.
“Nikolskoye consists exclusively of buildings belonging to the Morozov manufacturers,
- wrote the Vladimir Provincial Gazette. -- Here you will not find a single nail, not a single sliver of wood that does not belong to the Morozovs. The minimum population figure in the town extends annually to 15 thousand people and consists of people who came here for a piece of daily bread.”
For comparison: in Moscow by that time there were about 25,000 factory workers, in St. Petersburg - 23,000.
TIMOFEY SAVVICH MOROZOV.
It is difficult to find such an evil capitalist as Timofey Savvich Morozov was. Workers at his factories received the minimum possible wage, most of it was issued by “checks”, which could only be purchased in Morozov’s stores. The working day was 12-14 hours, while the management often declared working days even on all-Russian and main days. church holidays. Everything was subject to fines, which cost up to half of the earnings. They were fined for singing in the workplace (this is in weaving shops, where you can’t hear your voice), for dirty shoes, for not attending church services, for gaping and not taking off your hat in front of the master...
People lived in barracks, three families per room, and the rooms were fictitious, separated by plywood partitions.
None of the company employees had the right to sit in Timofey Savvich’s office, even during hours-long meetings. The people did not like the owner and made up unimaginable legends about him. They said that the roof of his house was lined with gold sheets. According to another version, there was a gold outhouse in his house. They said that he sold his soul to the devil, and now the bullet won’t take him. They said that he personally tortured forty people, who were buried in the basement of the factory administration. In general, Timofey raised gravediggers for himself - no matter where. Determined, embittered, hungry. So is it any wonder that the first major strike in Russia took place precisely at the factories of Timofey Savvich.
It all started with the fact that the management of the Partnership of the Nikolskaya Manufactory “Savva Morozov’s son and Co.,” as the company was called by that time, on January 5, 1885 declared January 7, the great holiday of Epiphany, a working day. This has never happened in Russia before. That evening, the most zealous workers gathered at a local tavern and vowed to stop the factory on January 7th. Crowds of enraged people set out to destroy the offices, shops, and apartments of their bosses.
On the night of the 7th to the 8th, two infantry battalions and a cavalry detachment arrived in Nikolskoye, by personal order of Alexander III. The entire village was cordoned off by patrols. In the afternoon, Timofey Savvich himself arrived from Moscow, who, after consulting with the administration, made minor concessions to the workers and again left for the capital. The strikers were not happy with this situation. In the evening next day they made their demands.
In the end, three more infantry battalions and six Cossack hundreds were brought into the village. By January 17, the strike was suppressed and its organizers were arrested, but it was still difficult to force people to return to work.
The workers of the Nikolskaya manufactory called Timofey Morozov nothing more than a “bloodsucker.”
He managed to cut already meager salaries with endless fines.
At the trial of the strike organizers, Timofey Savvich acted as a witness. When he was called to testify, he stood up and, on a completely level place, in the aisle between the chairs, fell and broke his nose bleeding. They immediately shouted from the audience: “God is punishing you, bloodsucker!” Most of the accused at the trial were acquitted; only a few people were sentenced to three months in prison and were immediately released in the hall, since they had already spent about a year in pre-trial detention.
After the strike, Timofey Savvich abolished fines at the factory, fired the foremen who were hated by the workers, and gave full pay to those who wished to leave the factory. Timofey Savvich lay in a fever for a month and got out of bed as a completely different person. I didn’t even want to hear about the factory: “Sell it, and the money goes to the bank.” And only the iron will of his wife saved the manufactory from sale. The factory became her property, but she entrusted production management to her son Savva. During the four years of his life that remained to him, Timofey Savvich was never able to recover from the shock and, according to the recollections of his loved ones, he often said that he saw dirty, ragged and angry workers approaching him in his dreams.
And perhaps the most famous of the Morozovs, Savva Timofeevich, began managing the company.
SAVVUSHKA.
No, it happens, of course, that the apple falls too far from the tree, but for it to be abandoned like that...
Savva Morozov was born on February 15 (new style) 1862. His childhood and teenage years were spent in Moscow in his parents' mansion, located in Bolshoi Trekhsvyatsky Lane. The freedom of children in the house was limited to the chapel and the garden, outside of which they were not allowed by well-trained servants. He rarely saw his father; his mother, it seemed to him, gave preference to other children.
The future capitalist and freethinker was brought up in the spirit of religious asceticism, in exceptional severity. On Saturdays, underwear was changed in the house. The brothers, the elder Savva and the younger Sergei, were given only one clean shirt, which usually went to Seryozha, his mother’s favorite. Savva had to wear the one that her brother took off. More than strange for the richest merchant family, but this was not the only eccentricity of the mistress.
Occupying a two-story mansion with 20 rooms, she did not use electric lighting, considering it a demonic force. For the same reason, I didn’t read newspapers and magazines, and shunned literature, theater, and music. Afraid of catching a cold, she did not take a bath, preferring to use cologne. And at the same time she held her family in such a tight fist that they did not dare to rock the boat without her permission. In this case, centuries-tested “forms of education” were used - young merchants were mercilessly beaten for poor academic success.
Savva was not particularly obedient. In his own words, while still in school he learned to smoke and not believe in God. He had a fatherly character: he made decisions quickly and forever.
For the first time, his parents showed interest in him when Savva was already a teenager: home teachers announced to Timofey Savvich and Maria Fedorovna that they could not teach Savva anything else - the boy showed remarkable abilities in the exact sciences and needed a serious education.
After graduating from high school in 1881, Savva entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. There he seriously studied philosophy, attended lectures on the history of V.O. Klyuchevsky. Then he continued his education in England. He studied chemistry at Cambridge, worked on his dissertation and at the same time became acquainted with textiles. In 1887, after the Morozov strike and his father’s illness, he was forced to return to Russia and take over management of affairs.
At his father's enterprises, Savva carried out a complete modernization of production: he installed new machines, equipped all factories with powerful steam engines, installed electric lighting, reduced the management staff and introduced fixed prices. He built three-story stone dormitories for family workers and houses of cheap apartments, transferred the partnership to a nine-hour working day and opened the first public theater in Nikolskoye.
The hospital built in those distant times is still functioning and is called Morozovskaya. Huge brick buildings with spacious chambers and offices still evoke surprise and admiration today. To supply the hospital, nursery and almshouse with meat and dairy products, cows and chickens were kept in outbuildings.
On the outskirts of the settlement there was a beautiful green park. Here the workers rested, on holidays they brought samovars, set tables, and had fun singing and dancing. At the entrance to the park there was an open stage, significant because Fyodor Chaliapin sang on it on August 7, 1918. Savva was the initiator of the construction of a summer theater, and later, in 1904, a stone theater building with 1,350 seats.
He created the country’s first temperance society, opened a “recreation garden”, where a specially hired orchestra played for workers in the evenings, and on weekends, artists invited from the capital performed on the summer stage, and where workers were given free tea and sweets. It was forbidden to bring alcoholic beverages into the garden, however, according to the recollections of local gendarmes, workers still managed to throw bottles wrapped in thick rags over the high fence.
Relatives, representatives of the Eliseevich branch, took Savva’s social transformations as a personal challenge and also rushed to improve the living conditions of the workers. They are in short term two hospitals, a school and a reading room were built. Only in culture, the owner of the Partnership of Manufactories “Vikula Morozov with Sons” Alexey Vikulovich was not strong. And so I decided to focus on sports and built a football stadium in the village, which became one of the best stadiums in Russia. At the stadium, the Orekhovo club-sports football team was created from the workers of the Vikulovskaya manufactory, which repeatedly became the champion of the empire.
However, Savva carried out all the transformations only as a hired director: after the death of Timofey Savvich, all family enterprises passed to his wife, Maria Feodorovna. Secretly, Maria Feodorovna was proud of her son - God did not deprive him of either intelligence or business acumen. Although she was angry when Savva gave orders first in his own way, as he saw fit, and only then approached: “Here, mama, allow me to report...”
The father was afraid that the “socialist” Savva would waste the family property, and left him only insignificant shares that brought in a good income, but did not give him a decisive vote. Timofey Savvovich stamped his feet on his son and cursed him as a socialist.
“- And in good moments, a very old man would stroke me on the head and say: “Eh, Savvushka, you’ll break your neck.”, Savva Morozov recalled.
Meanwhile, the father’s worries were in vain: the factories reorganized by Savva were twice as productive as before. The money that the young director seemed to simply throw away quickly returned to the family and brought good dividends.
To say that Savva was loved by the people means to say nothing. He was simply adored and affectionately called Savvushka. He walked around Nikolskoye in worn-out shoes and easily talked to people. “Just wait,” he said to the workers, “in ten years I’ll cover the streets here with gold.” There were legends among the people that in the evenings Savva often dressed in a peasant shirt and walked through the streets in this form, and then kicked out anyone whom he noticed had a bad attitude towards the working people without explanation.
SCANDALAL MARRIAGE.
Savva Timofeevich showed persistence not only in the reorganization of textile production, but also in his own marriage. He fell in love with the wife of his second cousin, Sergei Vikulovich, the son of Vikula Eliseevich, a neighbor in Nikolsky, the young beauty Zinaida Grigorievna, née Zimina
insisted on her divorce, and, despite protests from relatives, married her before graduating from university.
Savva’s mother often reprimanded him: “You have made me happy, Savvushka. The first groom is in Moscow, and who did he bring to the house... That your Zinovia without a dowry is not so bad, it’s a scam, that’s what’s bad. You never know how many worthy families there are in Moscow, but you took Zimina, the daughter of a merchant of the second guild, and even her husband’s wife, away from her nephew.”
For both the Morozov family and the Zimin family, Zinaida’s divorce and Savva’s marriage to a divorcee were a terrible shame. Zina’s father (in fact, her name was Zinovia, she named herself in a secular manner) told his daughter: “It would be easier for me, daughter, to see you in a coffin than to endure such a shame.”
People have a separate legend about Zinaida. They said that she herself was “from the factory”, that she worked at Elisey Savvich’s Nikolsk factory as a piecer, that is, she made sure that the thread did not break, and that it was there that the youngest of the Eliseevich clan noticed her, who took the girl into the master’s mansion. In fact, Zina was the daughter of the merchant of the second guild Zimin, the owner of the Zuevskaya manufactory I.N. Zimin."
At the age of seventeen, she was married to Sergei Vikulovich Morozov, who often preferred the company of friends to that of his young wife. One day, on the eve of the Christmas ball, he went hunting - Zinaida Grigorievna showed her willfulness and went to the ball alone. They whispered behind her back, she pretended not to notice. That evening she met Savva Timofeevich Morozov, her husband’s uncle. Savva later admitted that he fell in love with her at first sight.
The Morozovs were lucky to have powerful, arrogant, intelligent and very ambitious wives. Zinaida Grigorievna only confirms this statement. An intelligent, but extremely pretentious woman, she indulged her vanity in a way most understandable to the merchant world: she adored luxury and reveled in social success. Her husband indulged her every whim.
Z. Morozova is expecting her first child, Timofey. 1888
For his beloved wife, Savva Morozov built a castle in 1893, the likes of which had never been seen in Moscow. Zinaida did not count her husband’s money and rumors about the luxury of the mansion quickly spread throughout Moscow (all the interiors were carefully designed by Shekhtel, with the participation of Vrubel). Gothic turrets, lancet windows, battlements on the walls - the house exuded mystery, the spirit of the Middle Ages. This same mansion is considered one of the prototypes of the mansion of Bulgakov’s Margarita.
Now it belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, is located at Spiridonovka, no. 17 and is used for receptions at the highest level (in particular, this is where the G8 once met).
Morozov's mansion on Spiridonovka.
In the same mansion, Morozov for some time hid the revolutionary Bauman, who was on the run. And here's the bad luck: it was at this time that Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich himself decided to visit Morozov for lunch... The reception was arranged in the most luxurious way. Sergei Alexandrovich was sitting at the table and did not even suspect that the “family friend” of the Morozovs sitting there was none other than the most dangerous revolutionary Bauman, whom the entire Moscow police was looking for and could not find.
Zinaida Grigorievna's personal apartments were furnished luxuriously and eclecticly. "Empire" bedroom made of Karelian birch with bronze, marble walls, furniture covered with blue damask. The apartment resembled a tableware store, the amount of Sevres porcelain was frightening: even the mirror frames were made of porcelain, porcelain vases stood on the dressing table, tiny porcelain figurines hung on the walls and on brackets.
The owner's office and bedroom looked alien here. The only decoration is the bronze head of Ivan the Terrible by Antokolsky on the bookcase. Empty, these rooms resembled a bachelor's home.
In general, mother’s lessons were not in vain. In relation to himself, Savva Morozov was extremely unpretentious, even stingy - he walked around at home in worn-out shoes, and on the street he could appear in patched shoes. In spite of his unpretentiousness, Madame Morozova tried to have only the “very best”: if there were toilets, then the most unimaginable ones, if there were resorts, then the most fashionable and expensive. Savva turned a blind eye to his wife’s affairs: mutual frantic passion soon grew into indifference, and then into complete alienation. They lived in the same house, but practically did not communicate.
S.T. Morozov - with children Maria, Timofey, Elena. 1897
Grasping, with an insinuating look and an arrogant face, complex because of her merchant status, and all hung with pearls, Zinaida Grigorievna sparkled in society and tried to turn her house into a secular salon. She “easily” visited the Tsarina’s sister, the wife of the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. There were evenings, balls, receptions…
Morozova was constantly surrounded by secular youth and officers. A.A. Reinbot, an officer of the General Staff, a brilliant suitor and socialite, enjoyed her special attention. Morozova understood that the queen would be recognized because of her money, and not because of her origin, and even Parisian dresses would not make her profile nobler. And she doesn’t look like the famous beauties of her time: her cheeks were not rosy, her shoulders were sloping, and her gaze was naive - she was dark, with “aligned eyebrows,” with a dark gypsy look in her eyes, she was too spectacular for her time, too purposeful, too calculating.
THEATER.
Everyone knows the story of how in Moscow in 1897, in the Slavic Bazaar, the merchant of the first guild Alekseev, who later took the pseudonym Stanislavsky from his grandmother, and the nobleman, theater critic Nemirovich-Danchenko, met and what then came of it. But much less is known about the fact that without the help of another merchant, namely Savva Timofeevich, absolutely nothing would have come of this. According to legend, Savva Timofeevich once attended a performance at the still young Art Theater and looked at Moskvin in the role of the Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich was so moved that he immediately came to the theater’s shareholders’ meeting and bought all its shares. In fact, Savva was one of the first merchants to respond to the request of Alekseev and Nemirovich-Danchenko to help create the first public theater in Russia.
Over four years, Savva spent more than 200,000 rubles on the Moscow Art Theater. He renovated the Hermitage Theater for his needs, on the stage of which the Moscow Art Theater troupe performed, bought costumes for performances, and for the play “The Snow Maiden” he even equipped an expedition to the North to buy costumes, covered losses and acted as the main guarantor in financial matters.
Savva Timofeevich, holding the position of technical director, personally supervised the theater's lighting service. Once one of his friends, coming to a mansion on Spiridonovka, saw Savva mixing some varnishes on an expensive mahogany table. “Savva, you should at least lay something down, you’ll ruin the furniture,” the guest stuttered. “The table is nonsense,” replied the owner, “any carpenter can make one like that for a hundred rubles.” But only in my theater will there be moonlight.” The chief illuminator of the Moscow Art Theater, a certified chemist, prepared colored varnish for the “Snow Maiden” light filters.
If for the period before 1902 Savva spent 200,000 rubles on the theater, then in 1903 alone his expenses under the same item amounted to 300,000 rubles. This was due to the fact that Savva found a new building for the theater on Kamergersky Lane, which he rented for twelve years and completely rebuilt. And in 1904, he left the Partnership to establish a Public Theater in Moscow, donating all his shares to the theater free of charge. And the reason for this was, as often happens, a woman...
LOVE.
Savva Timofeevich was an enthusiastic and passionate person. No wonder Mother Maria Fedorovna was afraid: “Hot Savvushka!.. gets carried away by some innovation, gets involved with unreliable people, God forbid.”
Maria (nee Yurkovskaya) was the wife of a passionate theatergoer - actual state councilor Andrei Alekseevich Zhelyabuzhsky, who was a member of the board of the Russian Theater Society. He was 18 years older than his wife and held a high position in the Russian railway department. The couple had two children, son Yuri and daughter Ekaterina.
Both she and her husband passionately loved the stage - Mr. Zhelyabuzhsky was a talented amateur actor. The State Councilor and his wife performed in home performances; the prominent Moscow manufacturer Mr. Alekseev, a handsome man, a dandy and a star of the amateur stage (he was known there under the pseudonym Stanislavsky), was their good friend. Zhelyabuzhsky chose his stage name Andreev. Maria Fedorovna also made her debut under this name on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater.
Andreeva was not happy in her family. Her husband met another love, but the couple, keeping up appearances, lived in the same house for the sake of their two children. Maria Fedorovna found solace in the theater.
Fate brought her together with Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky, with whom she played together in plays for some time. And when Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko began to create the Art Theater, Maria took an active part in this. Not a single official could resist her charm, and patrons of the arts donated a lot of money at her first word.
Then Savva Timofeevich Morozov appeared in her life. The millionaire was reserved, taciturn, did not like it when people paid attention to him, but he gave the money, and not the merchants who boasted of their charity. Then the gloomy and taciturn Morozov greatly amused her; she realized later that she couldn’t laugh at him.
She knew that the Moscow millionaire fell in love with her desperately and immediately, and she was flattered by it. And he quickly realized what torment love for a beautiful, intelligent and completely unavailable woman can bring.
A whirlwind romance ensued. Morozov admired her rare beauty, admired her talent and rushed to fulfill any desire.
Several years will pass, and Stanislavsky will write her a sharp letter: “Sava Timofeevich’s relationship with you is exceptional... These are the relationships for which they ruin their lives, sacrifice themselves... But do you know what sacrilege you reach?.. You boast publicly to strangers that Zinaida Grigorievna, who is painfully jealous of you, is looking for your influence over your husband. For the sake of acting vanity, you are telling right and left that Savva Timofeevich, at your insistence, contributes a whole capital... for the sake of saving someone....
I love your intelligence and views and I don’t like you at all as an actor in life. This actress is your main enemy. It kills the best in you. You start telling lies, you stop being kind and smart, you become harsh, tactless both on stage and in life."
This letter was written immediately after Andreeva, the first theater actress to play leading roles, announced that she was breaking with the Moscow Art Theater. She remembered him for the rest of her life - the reproach was fair, then there was too much of the talkative Moscow coquette left in her.
In the theater, which quickly gained popularity, Maria played leading roles; many Muscovites went to the Khudozhestvenny “to see Andreeva”. But soon another wonderful actress appeared in the theater - Olga Knipper, and Stanislavsky began to give her the roles that Andreeva was applying for. A conflict arose that Stanislavsky could not or did not want to extinguish in time, and his rash statements about Maria’s affair with Morozov, comparing the game of Andreeva and Knipper in favor of the latter only “added fuel to the fire.” Andreeva was given minor roles - she demanded the main ones, complained to Stanislavsky and Morozov about Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the end, the two co-owners of the theater hated each other so much that they could not talk calmly.
Maria decided to leave the Art Theater, sending a caustic farewell letter to Stanislavsky: “The art theater has ceased to be an exception for me, it pains me to remain where I so sacredly and ardently believed that I was serving an idea... I don’t want to be a Brahmin and show that I serve my god in his temple when I realize that I am serving an idol and the temple is only better and more beautiful in appearance. It’s empty inside.”
Savva's devotion to his idol knew no bounds. He immediately declared that he no longer had any financial obligations to the Moscow Art Theater, and decided to create a new theater in St. Petersburg, which would be directed by Andreeva and Gorky. The revolution of 1905 prevented the implementation of his grandiose plans.
PASSION AND REVOLUTION.
Andreeva was a hysterical woman, prone to adventures and adventures. Only theater was not enough for her; she wanted political theater. First, Maria Fedorovna became friends with her son’s Marxist tutor, then with his student friends, they studied Capital, then she was asked to raise some money for the party, and things went so well that it was enough to publish Iskra. Then the students were exiled. Maria Fedorovna, playing Irina that day, sobbed so much that the alarmed Morozov rushed to Petrovka, to the Pikhlau and Brant store, bought a whole batch of fur jackets - there were enough of them for all the arrested students of Moscow University, and then paid the Minister of Internal Affairs ten thousand rubles as a deposit .
Morozov gave money, which was used for fake passports, and for weapons, and for Iskra, and it published reports from Orekhovo-Zuev, which told how his own workers were starving. (Maria Fedorovna did not think that there was little truth here - she never appeared at the factory.)
She quickly picked up the keys to the unoccupied heart of the forty-year-old oligarch, and through her a stream of money quickly flowed into the party treasury. She managed to quickly convince Savva of the correctness of Marxist ideas; she introduced her new lover to Gorky, Krasin and Bauman. And Savva became seriously interested in the new idea: he gave money for the publication of Iskra, bought warm clothes for exiles, financed prison escapes, and hid escaped convicts in his own office. It’s funny, but true: Savva personally smuggled revolutionary literature into his factories and distributed it among the workers.
Maria’s achievements were highly appreciated by the leader of the proletarian revolution, Comrade Lenin, who gave Andreeva the party nickname “Comrade Phenomenon.” Savva did not become a revolutionary. He only sympathized with the working class and dreamed of democratic changes in society. The wealthy businessman “closely followed Lenin’s work, read his articles and once said amusingly about him: “All his writings can be entitled: “Course of political massacre” or “Philosophy and technique of fighting.”
But there was one more love in Andreeva’s life. Once upon a time, before one of the performances, Maxim Gorky was brought into her dressing room - a strange, tall, thin as a sliver, absurdly dressed, poorly mannered man. But he has long fingers, a radiant smile and beautiful blue eyes. He spoke in a deep voice, smoked in his fist, behaved either too pompously or too stiffly, and adored cheap trinkets, which she was disgusted to look at. He was a genius (Maria Feodorovna believed in this, as in “Capital”), a real man who conquered both injustice and need; everything she wanted to serve was embodied in him.
Andreeva and Gorky became lovers.
This discovery was a severe shock for Savva. Morozov loved her more than life itself, she was his dream and curse. For her sake, he broke his fate, but Maria Fedorovna forgot about this a long time ago...
Actor A.A. Tikhonov talked about it like this:
“A woman’s hand, bare to the shoulder, in a white ball glove, touched my sleeve.
- Tikhonych, dear, hide this at your place for now... I have nowhere to put it...
Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, very beautiful, in a white dress with a deep neckline, handed me a manuscript with Gorky's poem "Man". At the end, a dedicatory note was made - they say that the author of this poem has a strong heart, from which she, Andreeva, can make heels for her shoes.
Morozov, who was standing nearby, snatched the manuscript and read the dedication.
- So... a New Year's gift? Fell in love?
He grabbed a thin gold cigarette case from the pocket of his tailcoat trousers and began to light a cigarette, but from the wrong end. His freckled fingers were shaking."
A year later, Andreeva left her husband without receiving a divorce. Social friends pretended that she did not exist - the family of a familiar chamberlain passed by without bowing, her husband’s friends stopped inviting her, and only Savva Morozov still remained her knight - he only regretted that it was impossible for him, a stranger, to to intercede for her... It was both touching and funny, and she recounted his words to Gorky with pleasure.
Savva Timofeevich lived according to the laws of Russian literature, where suffering from love and indulging in bitches and hysterics was considered a virtue. Even after Andreeva and Gorky began to live together, Morozov still took care of Maria Fedorovna. When she was on tour in Riga and was hospitalized with peritonitis and was on the verge of death, it was Morozov who looked after her. He bequeathed to her an insurance policy in the event of his death (in the event of Morozov’s death, Andreeva could receive 100 thousand rubles from the insurance). In essence, it was a death warrant signed with his own hand.
LIFE AFTER PASSION.
“What a disgusting person, indeed!- Savva Timofeevich once exclaimed in his hearts, having had a strong fight with Maxim Gorky. - Why does he present himself as a tramp when everyone around knows very well that his grandfather was a rich merchant of the second guild and left the family a large inheritance?
Morozov could not resist his venerable opponent, and was forced to improve relations with his wife, and not without success. The women barely knew each other - Morozov's wife was deeply indifferent to Maria Fedorovna. And thanks to Andreeva, she experienced humiliation that was enough for her whole life: her husband fell in love with this lady and for several years lived with his legal wife as a brother and sister might live; then the lady had a lover, and Savva returned to the marital bed again...
Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova did not understand the nuances. She considered Savva to have gone astray, a dislocated, wrong person, but they lived in love and harmony for more than ten years, and she mourned her youth, the wonderful beginning of their marriage, the way he cared for her and tried to please her. The husband returned to her, but he still loved someone else. It seemed to her that the state councilor had bewitched Savva, and then squeezed her out and abandoned her. A year later, the Morozovs had a fourth child - son Savva...
Savva Morozov with children: Timofey, Maria, Elena, Savva. Moscow, 1905.
The year was 1905, troubled times had come in the country, the first Russian revolution was brewing. After Bloody Sunday, workers' unrest intensified and spread to many Russian cities. Orekhovo-Zuevo was no exception. A significant role in shaping the revolutionary spirit of the workers of the Morozov manufactory was played by Leonid Krasin, whom Savva assigned to supervise the construction of the power plant back in 1904.
Krasin was well versed not only in electricity, but also in the manufacture of explosive devices. It was not for nothing that he headed the Combat Technical Group under the Bolshevik leadership. Krasin's expropriations consisted of organizing bandit raids on bank crews in order to seize money.
In Moscow, in Gorky’s apartment, Krasin’s workshop was equipped, which was vigilantly guarded by Georgian militants of the legendary Simon Kamo. It was here that the bombs that exploded at Stolypin's residence in August 1906 were constructed. At that time, Stolypin was not injured, but as a result of the explosion, 32 people were killed and dozens were injured. Terrorist actions were gaining momentum. “Krasin dreamed of creating a portable “bomb the size of Walnut"- recalled Leon Trotsky. Krasin's military merits were highly appreciated by his comrades-in-arms, and he was appointed treasurer of the Central Committee.
Finally, Savva realized what a threat the fiery revolutionaries pose to society, and stopped pouring money into their treasury. This turn did not suit the Bolsheviks; they tried to put pressure on the sponsor, but Savva was adamant, and so were the Bolsheviks.
At the beginning of 1905, a mass strike began at the Morozov textile manufactory. Savva decided to compromise. He asked his mother for a power of attorney to conduct business in order to negotiate with the workers and fulfill their demands. But the mother, still the head of the manufactory, categorically refused to follow the workers’ lead. When her son tried to object, she said: “And I don’t want to listen! If you don’t leave on your own, we’ll force you!” And she carried out the threat - Savva was removed from leadership.
The circle of loneliness was inexorably shrinking. Morozov remained in complete isolation. A talented, smart, strong, rich man could not find anything to rely on. Love turned out to be impossible and untrue. The secular wife was annoying. He had no friends in his circle, and in general it was incredibly boring among the merchants. He contemptuously called his colleagues “a wolf pack.” The “flock” responded to him with fearful dislike. Gradually, an understanding of the true attitude towards him on the part of his “comrades” came: the Bolsheviks saw in him just a stupid cash cow and shamelessly used his money. The letters of Gorky’s “sincere friend” showed frank calculation.
Savva fell into severe depression. Various reasons were given, including conflict with the mother. Perhaps his mother’s actions hurt his pride, but in no way affected his wealth. Morozov remained a wealthy industrialist. He owned mines, logging, chemical plants, hospitals, newspapers. The breakup with Andreeva occurred several years earlier and also could not have caused a nervous breakdown. Rumors were spread throughout Moscow about his madness.
Savva Timofeevich began to avoid people, spending a lot of time in complete solitude, not wanting to see anyone. His wife vigilantly ensured that no one came to see him and seized any correspondence that came in his name. At the insistence of his wife and mother, a consultation was convened, which made a diagnosis: a severe nervous disorder, expressed in excessive excitement, anxiety, insomnia, and attacks of melancholy. Doctors recommended sending the “patient” for treatment abroad.
THE END OF EVERYTHING.
On April 15, Savva Timofeevich, together with his wife and doctor, went to France, to Cannes. This decision was made at a family council in order to remove Savva from dangerous friends, and at the same time improve his health. Apparently, even then, not only the “ghost of communism” was wandering around Europe, but also its agents. Later, Zinaida Grigorievna recalled that some suspicious individuals were constantly hanging around their house in France.
A photograph of the Royal Hotel, where S.T. Morozov was killed, discovered in the archives of Cannes
Nothing foreshadowed a tragic outcome - the day before Savva was going to the casino and was in a normal mood.
On May 13, a shot rang out in Morozov’s apartment. Zinaida Grigorievna ran into her husband’s room and found him shot through the heart. Through the open window she noticed a man running away. Police found two notes near the body of the murdered man. In one it was written: “Debt in payment. Krasin." In the other - Savva’s posthumous appeal, in which he asked not to blame anyone for his death.
Morozov's suicide note
The handwriting of the last note was similar to Krasin's. Morozov’s personal doctor noted with surprise that the victim’s hands were neatly folded on his stomach and his eyes were closed. The doctor doubted that the suicide could have done this without outside help.
Until the end of her life, Zinaida Grigorievna did not believe in Savva’s suicide and claimed that Krasin visited her husband in Cannes. At the insistence of the mother of the deceased, she was accepted official version- suicide due to a nervous breakdown. “Let's leave everything as it is. I won’t allow a scandal.”
, she decided.
The investigation into the suicide of S. T. Morozov was entrusted to counterintelligence officer, Colonel Sergei Nikolaevich Svirsky.
“At the moment, based on the data collected, we can neither confirm nor deny the fact of Savva Morozov’s suicide,” he reported to Nicholas II. “The protocol on Morozov’s suicide was drawn up by the French criminal police from the words of a person who wished to remain anonymous... there is no photo of the corpse , there is no death certificate either..."
Act on the death of S.T. Morozov (Cannes)
A metal coffin with a certain body was delivered to Moscow via Revel on board the yacht “Eva Johansson,” assigned to the Helsingfors yacht club by Savva’s second cousin, merchant of the 3rd guild of the Nizhny Novgorod province, Foma Panteleevich Morozov. During the funeral service, the coffin was not opened and was buried in the Rogozhskoye cemetery without opening. According to the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is customary to bury suicides outside the fence of cemeteries; in this case, the firm rule was violated, which means that the coffin contained the body of anyone, but not a suicide.
By his religion, Savva Morozov, like the entire Morozov clan, was an Old Believer, and among them suicide has always been and is considered to this day the most terrible, and most importantly, unforgivable sin. Suicide entails renunciation of faith and church, family and children... If we accept on faith the version that Savva did shoot himself, then it becomes unclear why the coffin with his body was buried in full accordance with church rites and canons , why the whole family took a very active part in the burial.
Rogozhskoe cemetery and family tomb of Savva Morozov
FINAL TOUCHES.
NOBLEMAN ZINAIDA MOROZOVA.
Z.G. Morozov in Pokrovskoye-Rubtsovo after her husband’s funeral. May 1905
Savva's widow soon married for the third time in 1907. On the Kuznetsky Bridge she met her longtime admirer, General Rainbot, who was then the mayor of Moscow. He sent her roses, she thanked him, they corresponded for a while, then got married. Rainbot was married but divorced. Morozova married for the third time, and her surname became double.
It was a union of vanity and calculation: the beggar Rainbot gained financial stability, the merchant Morozova became a noblewoman. Reinbot turned to the Moscow Deputy Noble Assembly with a request to include his wife, Zinaida Grigorievna Reinbot, in the genealogical book of the Moscow province and issue her documents on the nobility. Morozova gave her husband 380 acres of empty land so that the Rainbot couple would be included in the genealogical book of the Moscow nobility.
The new husband did not live up to expectations. Under him, bribes became a completely legal phenomenon. If the owners of gambling houses or shopping arcades delayed payment, the secretary called and reminded: “General Rainbot asked me to tell you that he still lives on Tverskoy Boulevard.” Rainbot was accused of embezzlement, followed by a scandalous resignation and a long trial; the former mayor was pardoned by the highest order. Morozova hired the best lawyers, and the “Exculpatory Documents in the Rainbot Case” were published as a separate volume. The proud and intelligent woman’s pride was dealt a severe blow. In 1916, on the initiative of Zinaida Grigorievna, the Rainbot couple separated forever.
Until the revolution, she lived on her beloved Gorki estate, which she turned into the world's first industrial agro-industrial farm. And after the revolution, Lenin settled in Gorki. Although no one survived Zinaida Grigorievna from here: they gave her a whole outbuilding.
After the revolution, Morozova-Reinbot miraculously escaped repression, but lost all her estates - she had to sell personal belongings and valuables. Children died young, grandchildren suffered from tuberculosis, and war began. Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova died in 1947. Her ashes rest in the Morozov family crypt at the Old Believer Rogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow.
REVOLUTIONARY ANDREEVA.
Morozov's relatives protested Andreeva's right to dispose of the policy, but lost the case. “Krasin was in charge of all these operations,” Andreeva wrote in a letter to Nikolai Burenin, Lenin’s comrade-in-arms. Most of the money received under the policy went to the Bolshevik treasury. About 28,000 rubles were transferred to Evgenia Krit, Andreeva’s sister, who raised her children. Andreeva herself, together with the “petrel of the revolution,” began to carry out a new task for the Bolshevik committee to raise money.
For this purpose, they went to New York with a letter of recommendation from the Executive Committee of the RSDLP and a personal note from Lenin. Maxim Gorky, in his passionate speeches to the Americans, exposed the bloodthirsty policies of tsarism and asked for money to support the revolution in Russia.
The new government remembered Savva Morozov as a rich industrialist-exploiter, trying to make his large monetary contributions that went towards the revolutionary cause forgotten.
M.F. Andreeva with her son and Gorky. 1905
A new period of life began for Andreeva after the October events of 1917. Appointed commissar of theaters and entertainment of the union of communes of the Northern region, which included Petrograd, she developed a vigorous activity. Opening and closing of theaters, food rations and housing for actors, new revolutionary plays, etc. and so on. There was practically no time left for personal life. Although she came from time to time to Gorky, who during this period lived near Berlin, their relationship gradually became simply friendly.
In 1931, Andreeva was appointed director of the House of Scientists in Moscow. Thanks to her energy and organizational skills, the House of Scientists quickly gained authority among the intelligentsia; even a phrase appeared that did not need explanation: “Go to Andreeva.” Maria Fedorovna led the House of Scientists until 1948 (she turned 80 that year!), surviving the war and evacuation with it.
Maria Fedorovna Andreeva died on December 8, 1953. At the end of her life, she wrote interesting memoirs, which were published in 1961. They say that it was she who became the prototype of Bulgakov’s Margarita. It is quite possible, since Bulgakov knew Andreeva well and all the vicissitudes of her relationship with Gorky.
LEGENDS AND ASSUMPTIONS.
Savva’s suicide immediately gave rise to several legends, one more beautiful than the other. According to the first, Savva could not survive the fact that Andreeva preferred Gorky to him. According to the second, Savva was shot by the main Bolshevik terrorist and a good friend of Morozov, Krasin, to whom Savva refused the next tranche of money. And finally, at the third, the most beautiful, Savva did not shoot at all. He threw away all his capital, changed into a simple peasant dress and went to wander around Russia. According to a police act, in 1907 a man showed up in Nikolskoye, posing as Savva Timofeevich Morozov. He was welcomed in companies, willingly given drink in taverns, but then he was caught in a lie and severely beaten.
From the memoirs of Morozov’s distant relative, Fyodor Morozov:
“In accordance with the will of Savva Morozov, his remains were to be buried according to Old Believer rules at the Malohtenskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, which, however, was not fulfilled. All his accounts, including foreign ones, were entirely bequeathed to the same Foma Morozov, and not to his wife, children or to his brother Sergei, which, you see, is very unusual and suspicious.
And, finally, something about the mysterious Thomas, the second cousin of Savva Timofeevich, a merchant of the 3rd guild of the Ardatov district of the Nizhny Novgorod province. From early childhood, Foma and Savva were very similar to each other. Over the years, this similarity did not disappear, and at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where Savva chaired the stock exchange committee, Foma often replaced him, cutting his hair slightly and wearing his brother’s fashionable suits.
Foma was not a novice in financial matters: he owned a brokerage firm at the same Nizhny Novgorod fair... The coffin with Savva’s body was brought to Moscow not by his nephew Karpov, sent by his family to Cannes, but by Foma, and he brought it not from Cannes, but from Helsingfors, where the coffin, in fact, was purchased from the funeral home "Olof Swenson and Co."
The most curious thing: in a village cemetery near the town of Lahti, a grave was discovered... of Foma Morozov, who died in 1903 from overeating in the Lutheran infirmary of Mary Magdalene in Helsingfors. The grave was recently opened. But we are unable to prove the substitution of Savva Morozov for Foma Morozov without having the fingerprints of both of them. It is impossible to prove that Foma Morozov, who brought Savva’s coffin to Moscow, and Foma Morozov, who died in Helsingfors, are the same person, since all the evidence necessary for identification is not available to us. The fact that the Morozovs bought a metal coffin in Helsingfors is not denied and is not true - they say, where they bought it cheaper, they brought it from there.
There is reason to assert that the body was placed in a coffin in Reval, but it is impossible to prove or refute this. As for the oddities of the will, the Morozovs explain them simply: Savva believed that the family would have enough shares and real estate, and of all his distant family, he pitied Thomas the most, to whom he bequeathed his main capital. That's all...
I know what happened next from the words of my grandfather Nikita Stepanovich Morozov, co-owner of the brokerage office of Foma Morozov. Although my grandfather’s companion died in 1903, the fact of his death was not advertised, his passports continued to have legal force, and the office at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair continued its vigorous activity as if nothing had happened until the 1917 revolution. Since 1905, she carried out the most piquant and strange orders of Savva Timofeevich Morozov, who lived according to the documents of his deceased second cousin until his death.
I heard many times from Old Believers that at the Malohtensky Old Believers Cemetery until October 1967 there was a grave with a large cross and a plaque, the inscription on which testified that the body of Savva Morozov was buried here on October 14, 1929. This cross was demolished on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution by order of one of the secretaries of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU. In 1990, another secretary of the same regional committee told me about this “in a terrible secret.”
P.S. In 1992, Vladimir Sergeevich Lizunov, a local historian of Orekhovo-Zuevo, wrote a series of works about the history of the city. Talking about the Morozov dynasty, he mentioned the icon of St. Sava Stratilates. For about a century, the icon represented tribute to to an outstanding person of his era - Savva Timofeevich Morozov, and after widespread publicity, the historical relic was stolen.
That's the whole life story of a Russian philanthropist and an ordinary person. I would really like to pay tribute of blessed memory Savva Timofeevich Morozov, after whom not a single theater, not a single museum, not a single street, not a single alley is named in Russia...
