Sculptor, physicist, geographer, shocking publisher and other talents of Russian merchants - the Ryabushinsky brothers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

“The father had eight sons. Seven clever and one eccentric. So, in a fabulous way, one could begin a story about the Ryabushinskys - representatives of a powerful merchant clan of bankers and entrepreneurs. These amazing brothers, who inherited from their father profitable factories, big capitals and a passion for charity, were such outstanding and multifaceted personalities that it is simply amazing how they did everything.

The father of these talented sons, the richest industrialist Pavel Ryabushinsky, was married twice. At a young age, knowing the sad story of his brother, whom a rich parent deprived of his inheritance only because he did not marry of his father's will, Pavel Mikhailovich meekly took as his wife the daughter of an Old Believer priest chosen for him by his father. The lady was older than him and was famous for her quarrelsome character, but the young heir endured her for many years and dared to file for divorce only after his father's death. The industrialist kept all the children with him, having assigned his six daughters to the boarding school.

The second time he married a young merchant's daughter, when he was 50, and this time out of great love. From the second marriage, another 16 children were born (three died in childhood), of which five were sons of the same age.

All the boys received an excellent education. In addition to school, which most of them graduated with gold medals, the children studied foreign languages with invited teachers. After school, they were assigned to the Academy of Commercial Sciences or the Voskresensky School.

Realizing that old age was just around the corner, my father organized the “Partnership of P. M. Ryabushinsky with his sons”and looked forward to when the young men matured and it would be possible to transfer all the affairs to them. However, not all sons were ready to do business and increase capital as fanatically as their parent.

Lover of cultural bohemia

One of the younger sons of Pavel Mikhailovich, Nikolai was not at all interested in business and production. In the opinion of his contemporaries, he was frivolous, liked to spend money and got along with “half-impoverished artists”. The last epithet concerned the newfangled trend of the Symbolists at the beginning of the last century. Carried away by the theme of painting and creativity in general, he sponsored talented friends. Having built a luxurious villa, Nikolai collected Moscow bohemians in it, in addition, he organized exhibitions of the Symbolists and actively bought their paintings.

In Moscow business circles, he was not taken seriously and was condescendingly called Nikolasha. It all ended with the fact that he voluntarily left his father's partnership of manufactures.

However, it was Nikolai, and not his brothers, who was recognized as one of the important figures in Russian culture of the last century, because he founded the famous art magazine "Golden Fleece". The publication was very expensive and pompous, and despite the fact that some artists considered it frivolous, and the owner - a capricious tyrant, it attracted many artists and writers. At various times, Bunin, Blok, Lanceray, Balmont, Sologub, Chukovsky, Benois collaborated with him.

Famous scientist

Dmitry Ryabushinsky also loved art and even somehow acquired Paganini's violin, but the main thing in his life was science. At his estate near Moscow, he created the world's first Institute of Aerodynamics. He was a Doctor of Science, Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences, President of the Russian Philosophical Society and the Association for the Preservation of Russian Cultural Values Abroad. And this is only a part of his many regalia and achievements.

The scientist spent the second half of his life in a foreign land: after the revolution, due to the persecution of the Cheka, he had to emigrate to Denmark. In Europe, he continued to engage in research, lectured at the Sorbonne and even won the Paris Academy of Sciences prize for his scientific experiments. However, until the end of his days Ryabushinsky called himself a Russian scientist, considering all his achievements to be a contribution to Russian science and culture.

Talented financier

Vladimir Ryabushinsky graduated with excellent marks from the Practical Academy of Commercial Sciences and the University of Heidelberg. Unlike Nikolai and Dmitry, he completely devoted himself to commerce, considering it very important to continue his father's business. "Ancestral factories for us are like ancestral castles for the knights of the Middle Ages," he said.

Vladimir Pavlovich was one of the founders of the Banking House of the Ryabushinsky brothers, later transformed into the Moscow Bank, and together with his brother Pavel published the newspaper of the young bourgeoisie "Morning of Russia".

In World War I, he volunteered for the front, and after the revolution was one of the organizers of the white movement. Later he went to live in France, where he organized a society of lovers of icon painting and himself wrote a number of scientific works on this topic.

Geographer-enthusiast

At a very young age (he was a little over twenty) Fyodor Ryabushinsky became the author and organizer of a scientific expedition to study Kamchatka. Previously, he attended a course of lectures on geography, history, ethnography and anthropology of the eastern part of Russia, studied many atlases and maps, got acquainted in detail with the experience of foreign travelers.

The idea was supported by the Russian Geographical Society. Fedor himself donated hundreds of thousands of rubles for the expedition (the money was huge at that time), attracted the most famous scientists and even wanted to go on a trip personally. Alas, tuberculosis prevented him from taking part in the expedition, from which he soon died. But his very grandiose undertaking was crowned with success and made a great contribution to science.

Founders of the ZIL plant

Stepan Ryabushinsky was considered one of the best collectors of icons, he actively bought them all over Russia and donated to Old Believer churches.

But it was just a hobby. The heir to his father's capital considered his main business to be family enterprises and the car plant of the Moscow Joint-Stock Company, which he built together with his brother Sergei. This is one of the oldest automobile enterprises in the country, after the revolution it was named "Likhachev Plant" - we all know ZIL.

In 1919, the Soviet authorities declared the plant to be state property. The collection of more than a hundred of Ryabushinsky's icons was also nationalized: it was divided among several museums.

Stepan Pavlovich himself went to Italy after the revolution, and his brother Sergei went to Paris.

By the way, Sergei Pavlovich, like his brothers, was fond of creativity: all his life he was an amateur sculptor and Ilya Repin highly appreciated his work.

Famous merchant families they have worked hard for the good of Russia, and this should not be forgotten.