Savva frost years of life. Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Personal life. Zinovia Grigorievna
150 years ago, on February 15, 1862, the famous Russian industrialist and philanthropist Savva Timofeevich Morozov was born.
Savva Timofeevich Morozov was born on February 15 (3 according to the old style) February 1862 in a very rich Old Believer merchant family, was a hereditary honorary citizen of Moscow. He belonged to one of the most famous families in the history of Russian business.
Savva Morozov received a good education: in 1881 he graduated from the 4th Moscow gymnasium, studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he attended lectures by Vasily Klyuchevsky on history, and in 1885 he went to England, to Cambridge, where he studied chemistry, worked on dissertation and at the same time got acquainted with the organization of textile business in English factories.
In 1886, after his father's illness, he was forced to return to Russia and take charge of affairs. He headed the share partnership of the Nikolsky manufactory of Savva Morozov son and Co., as well as the Trekhgorny brewing partnership in Moscow.
Having become the head of the Nikolskaya manufactory, Savva Morozov paid much attention to improving the social, living and working conditions of workers. He built new barracks for the workers and provided exemplary medical care. An almshouse was opened for the elderly workers. Morozov also took care of the leisure of the workers - in Nikolskoye, at the expense of the manufacturers, a park was arranged for folk festivals, libraries were organized, and the building of a stone theater was laid.
In 1888, Savva Morozov married his divorced relative Zinaida Grigoryevna Zimina. For his wife, Morozov built on Spiridonovka, a quiet aristocratic Moscow street, a mansion with a garden (now the Reception House of the Russian Foreign Ministry). The mansion was built by the architect Fyodor Shekhtel in the Neo-Gothic style that was fashionable at the end of the 19th century.
The house quickly became a popular place. To receive an invitation to a reception from the wife of Morozov was considered an honor by the highest-ranking officials of the city. Morozov himself did not like these high-society salons, rarely appeared there and felt superfluous.
In business circles, Morozov enjoyed great influence: he headed the committee of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, was a member of the Moscow branch of the Council of Trade and Manufactories and the Society for Promoting the Improvement and Development of the Manufactory Industry, was elected an elector of the Moscow Exchange Society and remained so until the end of his life.
In 1892 Savva Morozov was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree "for useful activities and special works under the department of the Ministry of Finance", in 1896 he was once again awarded one of the highest awards of the Russian Empire - the Order of St. Anna of the 2nd degree .
Morozov was engaged in the development of the chemical industry and at the Ural factories. In the early 1890s, he acquired property in the Perm province, rebuilt factories there and launched the production of acetic acid, wood and methyl alcohol, acetone, denatured alcohol, charcoal and acetic acid salt. All these products have been used in the textile industry.
Legends about the untold wealth of Morozov roamed among the people. At the same time, he was modest and unpretentious in everyday life. He is doing charity work and donating money to build shelters and hospitals.
Great was Morozov's help to national culture. He was an ardent admirer of the Moscow Art Theater, rendered him great assistance, regularly made donations for the construction and development of the Moscow Art Theater, and was in charge of its financial part. Under his leadership, the theater building was rebuilt and a new hall for 1300 seats was created. This construction cost Morozov 300 thousand rubles, and the total amount spent by him at the Moscow Art Theater approached half a million.
"This remarkable man was destined to play in our theater an important and wonderful role of a patron who knows how not only to make material sacrifices to art, but also to serve it with all devotion, without self-love, without false ambition, personal gain," Konstantin said about Savva Morozov Stanislavsky.
On the badge for the 10th anniversary of the theater there was an image of its three founders - Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko and Morozov.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Morozov became keenly interested in politics. He maintained relations with the leaders of the liberal movement, semi-legal meetings of the Cadets took place in his mansion on Spiridonovka. Then revolutionary views led him to close contact with the Bolshevik Party. With his money, the Iskra newspaper was published, the first legal Bolshevik newspapers Novaya Zhizn in St. Petersburg and Borba in Moscow were founded, party congresses of the RSDLP were held. Morozov illegally smuggled forbidden literature and typographic fonts to his factory, and in 1905 he hid Nikolai Bauman, one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, from the police. He was friends with Maxim Gorky, was closely acquainted with Leonid Krasin.
In February 1905, when Morozov planned to carry out extreme transformations at his factory, which were supposed to give workers the right to a part of the profits, his mother removed him from management, and the events of January 9, 1905, which went down in history as "Bloody Sunday", became a real shock for him. In addition, Morozov began to have problems in family life because of his passion for actress Maria Andreeva.
As a result, Savva Morozov actually retired, fell into a deep depression and avoided communication. The council, convened by relatives, diagnosed him with a severe nervous disorder, expressed in excessive excitement, anxiety and bouts of melancholy.
On the recommendation of doctors, Morozov, accompanied by his wife, left for Cannes. Here, on May 26, 1905, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in the room of the Royal Hotel, the 44-year-old magnate was found dead, shot through the chest. According to the official version, Morozov committed suicide. Many circumstances of this suicide are still not clear. They said that on the eve there were no signs of a tragic denouement - Morozov was going to the casino and was in a normal mood.
Savva Morozov did not immediately find peace after death. According to Christian canons, a suicide cannot be buried according to church rites. The Morozovsky clan, using money and connections, began to seek permission for a funeral in Russia. The authorities were presented with confusing and rather contradictory testimonies from doctors that the death was the result of a "sudden onset of passion", so it cannot be considered as an ordinary suicide. Finally, permission was granted. The body of Savva Morozov was brought to Moscow in a closed metal coffin and buried at the Rogozhsky cemetery. The tombstone on his grave was made by the sculptor Nikolai Andreev, the author of the famous monument to Nikolai Gogol.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Bison Games
Savva Morozov was born in 1862 in the village of Zuevo near Moscow into a wealthy merchant family. From an early age, he had a strong temper, for which he received the nickname Bison. He graduated from Moscow University, then trained in England, preparing to defend his dissertation in Cambridge. But, only after returning to Moscow, he gave vent to passions.
There was a lot of money. Savva did not deny himself anything. It was rumored that once he rode a troika into the hall of the Yar restaurant - for the sake of this case, the beggars hired by him dismantled the wall in Yar for two days, and it’s scary to imagine how much it cost to coordinate this attraction with the administration.
There is, however, other information - supposedly Savva was dissuaded for a long time, nothing helped, but when his acquaintance a gypsy dancer complained that because of this trick the entire gypsy troupe would be left without work for a long time, he abandoned his crazy idea. Allegedly, he understood only this argument.
However, all this is nothing more than tales, only once again emphasizing the full scale of Savva.
Stanislavsky, director of the Art Theater, wrote: "Savva Timofeevich Morozov not only supported us financially, but also warmed us with the warmth of his responsive heart and encouraged us with the energy of his cheerful nature."
Businessman Without Borders
Journalist N. Rokshansky spoke about Savva Timofeevich: “S.T. Morozov is a type of Moscow big businessman. Small, stocky, tightly tailored, agile, with fast-moving and constantly precisely laughing eyes, now a “shirt-guy”, capable of even pranks, now a cautious, businesslike businessman-politician “on his mind”, who knows his line firmly and from norms will not come out - neither my God!
There is strength in S.T. Morozov. And not only the power of money - no! Morozov does not smell of millions. This is just a gifted Russian businessman with exorbitant moral strength.
And the publicist A. Osipov wrote: “An Old Believer and a non-priest, a person with a university education, a chemist by profession, is afraid of tobacco, like grass grown from the womb of a harlot, and supports the works of Ibsen, Hauptmann and the latest Russian whiners. The scene with its business-like realism, rehearsals, make-up, every little thing of the actor's everyday life, and next to this huge factories that employ thousands of people. Here throwing money, there counting every absentee hour. Ibsen and bezpopovshchina, the system of shops and the staging of symbolic works, what kind of head can withstand it, but the Muscovite doesn’t care.”
Savva Timofeevich did not fit into any framework.
Of course, public opinion in principle did not exist for such a person. He could, for example, sit down in the Testovsky tavern with the seditious writer Maxim Gorky and at the same time buzz to the whole hall:
- I am your admirer ... Your relevance attracts me. For us Russians, the strong-willed principle and everything that excites it is especially important.
Savva was friends not only with Gorky, but also with other revolutionary writers, for example, Leonid Andreev.
He saw no boundaries in anything at all. Gorky wrote: “His personal needs were very modest, one might even say that he was stingy with himself, walked around in worn-out shoes at home, on the street I saw him in patched shoes.”
And he confessed: “When I see Morozov behind the scenes of the theater, in dust and trembling for the success of the play - I am ready to forgive him all his factories - which, however, he does not need, - I love him, because he disinterestedly loves art, which I almost I can feel it in his peasant, merchant, acquisitive soul.
However, the story with the theater ended badly. Savva Timofeevich, because of some nonsense, quarreled with the director Nemirovich-Danchenko and left the number of shareholders, in fact, leaving the entire troupe without a livelihood. And if another rich philanthropist, Nikolai Tarasov, had not taken his place in time, the theater would definitely not have survived, and everyone understood this very well.
And city rumor attributed to Savva Morozov a mansion on Vozdvizhenka, made in the form of a Moorish castle. In particular, the critic A. Fevralsky, speaking about the history of the Proletkult theater, which was located here under the new government, wrote that “on the upper part of the walls, not covered with panels, one could see the stucco decorations of the former mansion of Savva Morozov.”
In fact, this mansion belonged to Arseny Abramovich Morozov, and had nothing to do with Savva Timofeevich.
"Boring and huge mausoleum"
His house in Moscow, on Spiridonovka was a landmark, and his appearance was an event. The art critic Prince Shcherbatov wrote: “An interesting phenomenon was the newly built palace, huge, extraordinarily luxurious, in the Anglo-Gothic style, on Spiridonovka - the richest and smartest of the merchants Savva Timofeevich Morozov ... the largest patron of the arts. My father and I went to the grand opening of this new Moscow "miracle", erected on the site of the demolished charming mansion of the famous Aksakov family, the torch of the old Russian culture.
All eminent merchants gathered for this evening. The hostess, Zinaida Grigorievna Morozova, a former weaver ...
Here I saw and heard for the first time the young at that time, still rather shy Chaliapin, then only ascending the luminary, and Vrubel, who performed an excellent sculpture of dark oak in the Gothic hall, and a large vitro "Faust with Margarita among the flowers" ”.
True, Gorky did not like it here: “The appearance ... of the house on Spiridonovka reminded me of a boring and huge mausoleum, for some reason built not in a cemetery, but in the street. The door was opened by a large mustachioed man dressed as a Circassian, with a dagger at his belt; it seemed completely superfluous or accidental among heavy Moscow luxury and a vast vestibule ...
Downstairs, there is a living room wonderfully painted by Vrubel, a cold and deserted hall with columns of pinkish marble, a huge dining room, with a sideboard, gloomy, like a model of a crematorium, and in all rooms there are a lot of rich things of a diverse nature and the same purpose: to prevent a person from moving freely.
In the master's bedroom there is an awesome amount of Sevres porcelain: a wide bed is decorated with porcelain, mirror frames made of porcelain, porcelain vases and figurines on the dressing table and on the walls, on brackets. It was a bit like a dishware shop.”
“It was an absurd front house,” wrote Mikhail Buryshkin, a historian of Russian merchants and entrepreneur himself, about the mansion.
But Chaliapin liked it here.
Aviators, basket makers, watchmakers
The estate in Odintsovo near Moscow, built by the architect Fyodor Shekhtel, delighted his contemporaries. Local historian N. Chulkov recalled: “Odintsovo, as the estate of the Morozov manufacturers, has been imprinted in my memory since the distant pre-war times. One day in the summer of 1936, we, children, picking strawberries along the slopes of the Sukromsky ravine, went to the banks of Rozhai and a fabulous palace appeared in front of us on the opposite bank of the river in all its splendor. Someone who knew and had been here before said: "The Palace of Savva Morozov."
In the rays of the bright June sun, the palace seemed to me like a sailing ship. This first impression of the vision of a floating ship does not leave me now, half a century later, when I see the Morozov Palace.
Savva also became famous for patronage in these places - he supported handicraftsmen from Golitsyn, located nearby. Here, not without his participation in 1891, the first basket workshop was opened. In addition, he paid for the training of handicraftsmen, helped them to establish sales - and in addition to baskets, wicker furniture and even industrial containers for transporting coal were produced here.
He also set up a handicraft museum in Golitsyn. English teachers who happened here after the death of the patron, in 1911, left an admiring review: "Such an exhibition in terms of the quality and artistry of products would do honor to any country."
He also helped handicraft watchmakers. One of the local residents wrote: “My childhood memories include watching watchmakers who sat in their huts by the windows with their wives and children and made watches.” The local watchmakers were trained in Germany.
There was also a peasant theatre, an amazing thing at that time. The scenery for it was made by the famous Valentin Polenov. And among the spectators, Leo Tolstoy himself was once seen. Of course, without the participation of Savva Morozov, all this would have been unthinkable.
He assigned prizes of five hundred rubles to aviators who were fashionable at that time - they competed for speed, who would fly faster. But Ivan Tsvetaev, who came to ask for money for the Museum of Fine Arts, was refused.
Why? Who knows. Maybe he just wasn't in the mood.
Bolshevik manufacturer
By the way, he was no less enthusiastic entrepreneur than a philanthropist. One of the engineers of the Nikolskaya manufactory, owned by Savva Timofeevich, described the owner of this production as follows: “Excited, fussy, he ran hopping from floor to floor, tried the strength of the yarn, put his hand into the very thick of the gears and pulled it out unharmed, taught teenagers how to tie in a broken thread. And the newspapers called Savva Timofeevich "a merchant governor."
And with all this, the main object of his sponsorship were the revolutionaries. They did not hesitate to come to the mansion on Spiridonovka, demanding more and more money, probably blackmailing their benefactor. Savva Morozov financed the Iskra newspaper and other Bolshevik publications, personally delivered illegal literature to his own factories, and hid the revolutionaries Bauman and Krasin from the police in his own house.
Apparently, over the years, the businessman and revolutionary sponsor got completely confused. He, unexpectedly for all his acquaintances, became the initiator of the movement of Russian manufacturers against the strikers. Already at that time he was not well. Gorky recalled Savva Timofeevich: “One rainy day in the fall, he was sitting in my room at the Knyazhy Dvor Hotel, silently drinking strong tea and annoyingly tapping his fingers on the table. The rain lashed the window, streams of water flowed over the glass, it was very boring, it seemed that the glass would wash away, water would pour into the room and drown us.
- What happened to you? I asked.
“I don’t sleep well,” Savva answered reluctantly, wrinkling his face. I see stupid dreams. Recently I saw that some people grabbed me on the street and threw me into the basement, and there were thousands of rats, some kind of rat parliament. Rats sit on tubs, boxes, on shelves and talk like humans. But so, you know that every single word stretches out for about five minutes, and this slowness is unbearable, painful. As if all rats know a terrible secret and should tell it, but they cannot, they are afraid. A desperately stupid dream, and I woke up in wild anxiety, covered in sweat.
The council, consisting of the country's most prominent psychiatrists, issued a verdict: "A severe general nervous disorder, expressed either in excessive excitement, anxiety, insomnia, or in a depressed state, bouts of melancholy, and so on."
And, as an apotheosis - suicide in 1905 in Cannes. Savva Morozov was found dead in a hotel room. There was a note lying on the floor: “I ask you not to blame anyone for my death.”
According to some researchers, this suicide was staged.
Savva Timofeevich Morozov is best 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 very rich man in the Russian Empire, and therefore extremely influential.
Savva Timofeevich, in addition to the "family business" - a huge weaving industry, 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, which has become the pride of Russian culture, arose and managed to survive.
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 it was decency and connection with very dangerous people that killed the millionaire who was found dead in a luxury hotel room in Cannes in 1905? Let's figure it out...
Love and money
At the beginning of the 19th century, the serf Morozov guessed to create his own weaving workshop and turned out to be an intelligent craftsman and resourceful businessman. Soon he managed to redeem himself from 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 with a weaving factory with a large number of hired workers.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Morozov family, who adhered to the Old Believer faith, had grown significantly and divided into several independent clans that had their own production and capital. Of these, the richest and resourceful were considered "Timofeevichi", to which Savva Timofeevich belonged. In Orekhovo-Zuev near Moscow, the Timofeevichs owned almost everything: land, factories, kept 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, undersized, with slightly slanting 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 liked to pretend to be a 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 widely use electricity, having built a power plant, imported equipment from abroad and eagerly adopted new progressive technologies.
The wealth of the Morozov family can be evidenced by the fact that the mother of Savva Timofeevich, Maria Fedorovna Morozova, when she was widowed, had personal capital in 16 million rubles , and by the end of her life she managed to DOUBLE! It was fantastically huge money for those times. The wealth of the Morozovs 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 introduced to the emperor. The millionaire merchant was awarded orders and honorary titles. He married for love a 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 the workers, and there were legends about this. What prompted this outstanding person to have 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 the capital could not get at its 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 the theatrical fan from the factory owners Alekseev, who took the stage name Stanislavsky, only Morozov really gave them!
Stanislavsky hoped that his wealthy relatives would help him, but they did not give a penny. Then he began to ask for patrons, but only Morozov responded with a deed. Subsequently, the theater actually existed at his expense, and the "grateful" Nemirovich literally survived Savva Timofeevich from 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 he didn't get the glory.
Among Stanislavsky's acquaintances, who played on the amateur stage, there was a couple of gentlemen Andreevs. Their real surname was Zhelyabuzhsky. The head of the family had the rank of general of a real state councilor. His wife - Maria Fedorovna Andreeva (Zhelyabuzhskaya) - came from an impoverished noble family, her father served as 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 one, at the Art Theater. Through her son's student tutor, she met revolutionary-minded youth and became involved in the militant organization of the RSDLP, which was led by Leonid Krasin.
Andreeva had party nicknames "Phenomenon" and "White Crow".
Savva Morozov, who was greatly carried away by her, did not know anything 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 his private letters, unaware of 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 Feodorovna. With her secret mediation at the Morozov enterprise, Leonid Krasin, the head of the military organization of the RSDLP, got the opportunity to legalize.
In one of Morozov's estates, Nikolai Bauman worked as a veterinarian, who was killed in the troubled days of 1905. Receiving money from Morozov, the Bolsheviks often wrote in their Iskra deliberate lies about the situation of workers at the enterprises of a millionaire: supposedly people 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 press organ and covered the party functionaries from the political police.
Maria Fedorovna Andreeva Andreeva with her son and A.M. Gorky. 1905 Soon Andreeva got along with Maxim Gorky, but Morozov still continued to fulfill all her whims: the matter 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 to 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 a 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 forgive him to the end. The workers, for whom he sincerely tried to create the best conditions in Russia, betrayed him too. The theater, which without it 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, once again quarreling with Maxim Gorky. - Why does he appear to be a tramp when everyone knows that his grandfather was a wealthy merchant of the second guild and left a large inheritance?
The proletarian writer added, telling that Morozov allegedly guarded him and followed him everywhere with a Browning, so that Gorky would not be attacked by the Black Hundreds and Okhrana agents. This shameless lie aroused Savva Timofeevich's 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. Morozov was followed by suspicious people. Krasin and the company tried to convince the manufacturer that this was the tsarist secret police, but in fact they were Bolshevik people: they tried to exert psychological pressure on Morozov. It is possible that it was Andreeva and Gorky who deliberately spread rumors that the family had declared Morozov crazy.
All this was not 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 did not lose hope of getting money.
Even during the period of courting 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, but Morozov did not demand it back. Why? Secret…
Savva was resting in Cannes when Krasin came to him - to ask, beg, finally demand money! Morozov flatly refused, and an angry Krasin left with nothing.
A few days later, on May 13, 1905, a shot rang out in the most expensive hotel on the Cannes Riviera, the Tsarskoye. In the room where the millionaire Savva Morozov was resting. When Zinaida Grigorievna ran into the room, she saw her husband lying on the sofa, and nearby, on the floor, lay a small nickel-plated Browning. The window was ajar, and the woman saw a man running away: so she maintained until the end of her days. There was a note on the dressing table: "I ask you not to blame anyone for my death." However, the wife said that her husband's handwriting had been changed and Savva would never have decided to commit suicide.
Zinaida Morozova Did you close his eyes? - the first thing they asked the wife of a millionaire. After all, before the arrival of the police, no one touched the body of the philanthropist. The fact is that suicides and those killed do not close their eyes, another person does it for them. Who did it - the wife or the killer? Secret…
The French police officially declared suicide, and the case was quickly closed. In order to bury Morozov according to the Orthodox rite - suicides were not buried in the ground consecrated by the church - they had to declare that poor Savva had lost his mind. Then his body was buried in the earth as it should be. To relieve tension in the powerful Morozov clan, the Moscow mayor Count Shuvalov came to the funeral.
Soon, Madame Andreeva coolly 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 a death sentence for a well-known philanthropist and industrialist. For the greedy Bolsheviks, he was the only way to get Morozov's money. But who killed Savva? This has remained a mystery...
The Investigation That Wasn't
More than a hundred years have passed since the mysterious death of the manufacturer Savva Morozov, but the Cannes murder case continues to interest historians and politicians to this day. Since 1905, a negligible number of documents related to the death of Savva Timofeevich have been preserved: neither in the French nor in the Russian archives is there 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 a well-known Russian businessman.
Neither the French police, nor representatives of the Russian security department, 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-shot automatic Browning found on the floor next to the body of an entrepreneur.
The weapon that belonged to Savva was designed for 7.65 mm cartridges, but many historians testified that the bullet extracted from the manufacturer's body had a completely different caliber and could not fit his Browning.
The Browning itself, which served as important material evidence, mysteriously disappeared shortly after the incident. It could have been destroyed back in France, after the body of Savva Morozov 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 for some time under examination in the morgue, which worked at the city clinic. It was there that an autopsy was probably performed, in which the bullet would have been removed. However, the documents confirming this, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. To date, it is impossible to find out whether the bullet remained in the body of the manufacturer, 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 did not seem to have been investigated at all. This was also facilitated by the events that took place in Russia in 1905. At that time, huge amounts of money were required to suppress the revolution that had engulfed Russia. It is known that Russia managed to negotiate with the French authorities on obtaining a large loan on favorable terms for France.
Just at that moment, a well-known Russian politician and the largest millionaire died in Cannes. It is quite understandable that the French side sought to close this case as soon 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 a pistol and a right hand, it was worth raising a murder case with subsequent staging.
What or who forced the French police to deviate from official rules remains also unknown. It is only known that the issue of terminating the investigation of the case related to the death of the Russian millionaire was agreed upon at the highest interstate level.
Murder of Savva Morozov's doppelgänger?
According to unofficial data, there was still an investigation of this complicated case by Russia. And, allegedly, Nicholas II himself entrusted the investigation to a certain counterintelligence officer Sergei Svirsky. However, the solution of the Morozov issue was temporarily postponed by the uprising on the battleship Potemkin. Only in September Svirsky again reminded the ruler of this investigation.
Svirsky reported to Nicholas II that, on the basis of the data he had collected, it was impossible to either refute or confirm the suicide of Savva Timofeevich. The French police report on Morozov's death was drawn up from the words of a man who wished to remain anonymous; There were no photos from the crime scene either.
The version of historians about the double of Savva Morozov appeared as a result of one small detail. The fact is that the coffin with the body of Savva Morozov was delivered to Moscow through Revel on board a yacht called Eva Yuhanson, which belonged to the yacht club Savva's second cousin, Foma Panteleevich Morozov.
At the funeral, for some reason, they decided not to open the coffin. By religion, Savva Morozov, like all representatives of his dynasty, was an Old Believer, among whom suicide has always been considered the most terrible and unforgivable sin. Savva Timofeevich knew perfectly well that suicide entailed the renunciation not only of the church and faith, but also of the family and children. This is further evidence in favor of the version that he could not have committed suicide.
Savva Morozov was buried at the Old Believer Rogozhsky cemetery in Moscow, in a tomb, next to his grandfather and father. No speeches were made at his funeral, as this was not accepted according to the Old Believer traditions. They buried in complete silence, and together with Savva Timofeevich, they seemed to be burying the terrible secret of his death.
According to some data, many foreign accounts of Savva Morozov were bequeathed to a very mysterious person - Foma Morozov.
Savva's second cousin, who lived in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and the entrepreneur himself from 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 a member of the stock exchange committee, Foma often replaced him, putting on a suit and cutting his hair a little. Foma himself was well versed in financial matters, since he owned a brokerage firm.
After a more thorough study of the Morozov case, it turned out that Foma Morozov, who died in 1903, was buried in the village cemetery, located not far from the town of Lahti. The fact of the death of Foma Morozov 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 the suicide of Savva Morozov, told his grandson that the manufacturer until his death lived according to the documents of his second cousin.
There were rumors among the Old Believers that until October 1967, there was a grave with a huge cross and an inscription at the Malokhtensky cemetery, 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 went around among the workers after the death of Savva Timofeevich that he actually remained alive was not fiction. However, the writer Gorky claims that the factory workers themselves came up with the legend, refusing to believe what happened. The workers were very fond of Morozov.
There are many mysteries and secrets in this story, but the solution to this tangled story becomes more than obvious if you follow the fate of Savva Morozov's family members 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. On this day, she allegedly fell ill and remained in bed. The woman, because of whom he may have paid with his life, citing ill health, did not want to take him on his last journey.
Zinaida Grigoryevna 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 been, expressed condolences to her and said bluntly:
“I don’t believe in talking about suicide, Savva Timofeevich was too significant and respected person. It's a huge loss for everyone."
After the tragedy that happened to Savva Morozov, a lot of suffering and tragic moments awaited his family. Some time later, Timothy, the eldest son of Savva, actively began investigating the murder of his father. He probably still managed to find some facts or important evidence. Timothy, trying to start the investigation of this case again, was immediately arrested. In 1921 he was sentenced to death and shot. The younger son of Morozov, 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 an insane asylum, where she died under very strange circumstances. Only the younger Elena managed to escape from the reprisals of the authorities: after the revolution that swept the country, she was able to leave for Brazil. The widowed Morozova, who inherited a large amount of money from her husband, remained in Russia. A few years later, she married Governor General Rainboat. In her possession remained a mansion on Spiridonovka and a country estate Gorki with a huge park and a greenhouse.
Although Zinaida Grigorievna could well have left Russia after the victory of the Bolsheviks, she did not take advantage of this opportunity. For some time she lived in Gorki, however, having received a document from the authorities stating that her house with 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 her last days. She died after World War II in oblivion and poverty.
Maria Andreeva under Soviet rule became a well-known party worker and received many top government awards. Urns with the ashes of Krasin and Gorky are kept in the Kremlin wall to this day.
112 years ago, on May 26, 1905, an event occurred that historians are still arguing about: the largest Russian industrialist and philanthropist Savva Morozov was found in his hotel room in Cannes, shot through the chest. There is still no answer to the question of whether it was suicide or murder. Hundreds of articles and books have been written about Morozov, but much less is known about his family. The fate of the industrialist's widow and his children was no less dramatic than his own, which made superstitious people talk about the evil fate that pursued this family.
The funeral of Savva Morozov took place on May 29, 1905 in Moscow at the Rogozhsky cemetery. The funeral procession was attended by about 15 thousand people - all except the woman whom he loved in recent years and whose involvement in his death, many did not doubt. Actress Maria Andreeva, who played a fatal role in Morozov's life, was not present at the funeral. It was said that because of her he even wanted to divorce his wife, whom he married out of great love.
Zinaida Grigorievna Savva took away from his own nephew. She married Sergei Vikulovich Morozov at the age of 17, but the marriage was unhappy. Savva Timofeevich fell in love with her at first sight, because of their romance a scandal erupted: the Morozovs were Old Believers, and divorce was considered unacceptable for them. But Zinaida Grigorievna despised tradition, divorced her husband and married Savva Morozov.
Together they lived for 19 years, they had four children, and the marriage was happy until the industrialist became interested in actress Maria Andreeva. Zinaida Grigorievna could not forgive him either this love, or his passion for revolutionary ideas, or the financing of the Bolsheviks. Rumors spread around Moscow about the madness of Savva Timofeevich. In 1905, the Morozovs removed Savva from the management of the company and sent him to a resort abroad. His wife accompanied him and was in the next room on that fateful day when the shot was fired. According to her testimony, she saw a man running away from her husband's room.
After the death of Savva Morozov, the widow inherited his fortune, but did not want to dispose of it in the same way as her husband. “Prince Pavel Dolgoruky said that he came to me on behalf of the party, said a lot of pleasantries about my mind and other things, and how flattering they would be if I signed up for their party. I thanked the prince for the honor they did me, but, in my free thinking, I won’t join any party, because I don’t like limits, and then, I’m a rich woman, and when they ask me for party affairs, I will it’s hard to answer that I have no money, and besides, I don’t sympathize with the Cadets at all,” the widow said.
In 1907, she married again - to her longtime admirer, the mayor of Moscow, General Reinbot. However, many considered this union concluded by calculation: the general received material stability, and the widow - the nobility and the opportunity to be accepted in high society. Their marriage broke up in 1916 at the initiative of Zinaida Grigoryevna. Her husband was accused of embezzlement, followed by a scandalous resignation and a long lawsuit. The wife hired the best lawyers, and Reinboth was pardoned, but relations in the family deteriorated, and they broke up.
In fact, with the death of Savva Morozov, the troubles for his family had just begun. After the revolution, almost all family members suffered. Morozova-Reinboat escaped repression, but lost all her estates and was forced to live out her life in a rented dacha in the village of Ilyinsky, selling personal belongings. All her property was nationalized. Lenin later settled in her country estate in Gorki. In 1947, Zinaida Grigorievna died in oblivion and poverty, outliving many of the Morozov family. “How cruelly life has dealt with all of us!” she said shortly before her death.
For the children of Savva Morozov, fate was also not favorable. The eldest son Timothy tried to investigate the circumstances of his father's death, but was soon arrested. In 1921 he was sentenced to death and shot (according to other sources, he died during the civil war in 1919). The youngest son, Savva, was sent to the Gulag, and then expelled from the country (there is no exact information about him either).
Daughter Maria was declared mentally ill and died under strange circumstances in a psychiatric hospital. Only the youngest daughter Elena managed to escape the tragic fate - after the revolution she was able to leave for Brazil.
And historians are still discussing versions about the death of Savva Morozov:
Born in the village of Zuevo, Bogorodsk district, Moscow province. Grandson of the founder of the Morozov dynasty, Savva Vasilyevich Morozov. The son of a major textile manufacturer, the founder of the Nikolskaya cotton manufactory, an Old Believer Timofey Savvich Morozov and Maria Fedorovna, nee Simonova.
He received his primary education at the 4th Moscow Gymnasium. Then he studied at the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1885. He continued his studies at Cambridge in England, where he studied chemistry, was going to defend his dissertation, but returned to Russia to head the family business.
Upon his return, he took over the management of the family Nikolskaya manufactory. He was the director of the Trekhgorny Brewery Association in Moscow, headed the committee of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, was a member of the Moscow branch of the Council of Trade and Manufactories and the Society for Promoting the Improvement and Development of the Manufactory Industry. "For useful activity and special works" he was awarded the Orders of St. Anne of the 3rd and 2nd degrees.
S.V. Morozov is one of the largest patrons of the Moscow Art Theater, to whose cause he devoted a lot of time and soul. Stanislavsky recalled: “This remarkable man was destined to play in our theater an important and wonderful role of a patron of art, able not only to make material sacrifices to art, but to serve it with all devotion, without pride, without false ambition and personal gain.”
Savva Timofeevich was married to the daughter of a Bogorodsk merchant of the second guild, G.E. Zimina Zinaida Grigorievna Zimina. In her first marriage, she was Morozov's cousin, Sergei Vikulovich Morozov, whom she divorced and a few years later married Savva Morozov. Their romance made a lot of noise in Moscow, and caused a storm of protests in the family. Divorce, marriage to a divorced woman is a terrible sin in the Old Believer environment. Nevertheless, Morozov insisted on his own and the wedding took place. For his beloved wife, Savva Timofeevich built according to the project of F.O. Shekhtel luxury house on Spiridonovka. Had four children: Maria - married to I.O. Kurdyukov; Elena; Timothy; Savva.
The merchant Morozov provided all kinds of support to the revolutionary forces of Russia: he gave money for the publication of Iskra, smuggled printing typefaces, hid the revolutionary Bauman from the police, himself delivered forbidden literature to his factory, but most importantly, he provided considerable financial assistance to the revolutionaries. He was a close friend of M. Gorky. Towards the end of his life, he tried to break ties with the Bolsheviks by reconsidering his political views.
In 1898, Morozov met Maria Fedorovna Zhelyabuzhskaya, nee Yurkovskaya, an actress of the Moscow Art Theater with the stage name Andreeva. This was Morozov's last strong passion, which ended in a tragic break for him - in 1904, the actress Andreeva became the common-law wife of M. Gorky.
In 1905, Savva Timofeevich was in the deepest mental crisis. Rumors circulated in Moscow about his madness. The family decided to send him to France. In Cannes, in a hotel room on May 13, 1905, at four in the afternoon, Morozov was found dead. The official version - shot himself. Currently, there are two versions of what actually happened in Cannes: Morozov committed suicide due to persecution by the Bolsheviks, or he was killed by the Bolsheviks themselves.
The body was transported to Moscow and buried at the Old Believer Rogozhsky cemetery. In Moscow, a rumor spread that the coffin was lowered into the ground empty, and Morozov was alive and hiding somewhere in the depths of Russia.
Nemirovich-Danchenko left some comprehension of the tragic end of Savva Timofeevich: “Human nature cannot stand two equivalent opposing passions. The merchant does not dare to get carried away. He must be true to his element, the element of endurance and calculation. Treason will inevitably lead to a tragic conflict ... And Savva Morozov could be passionately carried away. Until love. Not a woman - this did not play a role for him, but a person, an idea, a public .... He ... gave significant sums to the revolutionary movement. When the first revolution broke out in 1905 and then a sharp reaction, something happened in his psyche, and he shot himself.”