Gavrila Gavrilowitsch Solodownikow

Gawrila Gawrilowitsch Solodownikow ( Russian Гаврила Гаврилович Солодовников ; * 1826 in Serpuchow ; † May 21 ^July / June 3,  1901 ^greg. In Moscow ) was a Russian businessman , entrepreneur , philanthropist and patron .

Life

Solodownikov's father Gavrila Petrovich Solodownikow was a merchant of the 3rd Guild in Serpukhov and traded in paper goods at fairs . Gavrila Solodovnikov had four siblings. He worked in his father's shops and was only doing auxiliary work, so that due to lack of time he did not learn to write and express his thoughts.

After the death of his father, Solodownikow went to Moscow with his inheritance and was so successful there that he became a merchant of the 1st guild when he was not yet twenty years old. When he was not yet 30 he had received hereditary honorary citizenship, and when he was not yet 40 he was a multimillionaire , although his business was not always very tidy. His frugality has been the subject of many anecdotes. The trial of his civil wedded wife Kukolevskaya, who had given birth to him some children, aroused great public amusement.

Kuznetsky Most with Tatishchev's house on the right (August Cadol, 1834)

Front of the Solodownikow Passage on Neglinny Projesd

In 1862 Solodownikov bought a passage building on Kuznetsky Most in Moscow for half a million rubles, by evading his business partner Usskow , which he immediately converted and in which he even set up a small theater . This also included the Tatishchev House , built between 1821 and 1823 . The Solodownikow passage belonged to 1941 to the central business centers in Moscow, when she in German-Soviet War was hit by a German bomb.

Facade of the Solodownikov Theater on Kuznetsky Most

Solodovnikov was best known as a patron of the arts. He owned the largest private theater in Moscow, but it was never used. In 1893 he applied for a building permit for a large theater with a concert hall on Moscow's Bolshaya Dmitrovka ulitsa for the performance of plays and ballets . The theater for 3,100 visitors was completed in 8 months in 1894. However, the state commission refused the acceptance because of inadequate interior fittings, missing escape stairs and emergency exits and too narrow access. He refused to pay the theater troupe and staff that were already engaged for the opening that was not yet possible. With the help of the actor and director Mikhail Lentovsky , after structural changes, it opened in December 1895. Soon the theater was used by the Mamontov private opera , and Fyodor Chalyapin had his first appearance here in Moscow. 1904–1917 the building housed Sergei Simin's private opera . After the October Revolution , it became a branch of the Bolshoi Theater . Since 1961 it has been the Moscow Operetta Theater .

In 1895, Solodownikov was the first to pay for the construction of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory . The magnificent marble staircase was built with its 200,000 rubles . During this time, Solodownikov wanted to be admitted to the nobility by doing something useful for the city as usual and then submitting a petition to that effect. At his request, the city found that there were actually enough facilities and only one hospital for venereal diseases was missing. Since the establishment he was to donate would be called the Venereal Diseases Hospital of the businessman Solodownikow, he refused. Three more attempts had the same result. Finally, he accepted the offer and built the STD hospital. At his request, his name was waived on behalf of the hospital. His name was then indeed entered in the Book of Nobles.

Solodownikov died after a long illness. His fortune was 21 million rubles. In his very detailed will , he distributed 1 million of these to his relatives and others. The largest sum of 300,000 rubles went to his eldest son and executor Pyotr, who was a member of the Board of Directors of the Nizhny Novgorod - Samara Agricultural Bank . The youngest son Praporschtschik Andrei only received the deceased's clothes and underwear because he refused to become a merchant. Of the remaining 20 million rubles, a third was earmarked for the construction of rural women's schools in the Tver , Arkhangelsk , Vologda and Vyatka governorates . The second third was intended for the construction of a vocational school in Ujesd Serpuchow for children from all walks of life and also for the construction and maintenance of a home for children without relatives. The third third was dedicated to building houses with cheap housing for poor individuals and working-class families. In 1909 the first house with 1152 furnished apartments for individuals was opened and two days later the first house with 183 one-room apartments for families with a crèche and kindergarten. Each house had a shop, canteen, bathhouse, laundry, library, electric light and an elevator . The weekly rent corresponded to the average daily wage of a worker. After the October Revolution, everything was nationalized. Solodovnikov's personal archives are in the Moscow State Historical Museum . The public foundation The Trade of the New Millennium has been awarding the annual Solodownikov Prize for outstanding entrepreneurs since 2001.

Web links

Commons : Moscow Operetta Theater  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peoples.ru: Гаврила Солодовников Gavrila Solodovnikov (accessed October 12, 2017).
2. ↑ Марина Овсянкина: Блеск и забвение Гаврилы Солодовникова (accessed October 12, 2017).
3. ↑ Гаврила Солодовников: плохой человек и хороший благотворитель (accessed October 12, 2017).
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Валерий Чумаков: Русский капитал. От Демидовых до Нобелей . ( Русский Колумб ХХ века. Борис Вилькицкий [accessed October 11, 2017]).
5. ↑ ^{a b} The Former Tenement Houses in Gilyarovsky Street (accessed October 12, 2017).
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Валерий ЧУМАКОВ: ЧУДАК СОЛОДОВНИКОВ ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 12, 2017). 
7. ↑ Мещанская слобода (accessed October 12, 2017).