Grigory Eliseev and Vera Fedorovna. The last love of the merchant Grigory Eliseev. Irreversible family conflict

(1864-08-21 )

Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev(August 21, St. Petersburg - January 11, Paris) - Russian businessman, horse breeder of Russian trotting breeds, Honorary Consul General of Denmark in St. Petersburg, Acting State Councilor (1914).

Biography

He was educated at home, studied winemaking abroad. After returning to Russia in 1893, he headed the Eliseev family business. In 1896, he transformed the family firm into the Eliseev Brothers trading partnership (equity capital - 3 million rubles). Until 1914, along with A. M. Kobylin and N. E. Yakunchikov, he was a member of the Board. Under him, the case reached its greatest extent: in 1913 in St. Petersburg. The Eliseevs owned a confectionery factory, 5 shops (the most famous - on Nevsky Prospekt) and two shops in Apraksin Dvor, where wines, fruits, gastronomy, confectionery and tobacco products were traded. In 1903, GG Eliseev was assistant to the General Commissar for organizing an international exhibition in San-Louis. In 1898-1914 he was a member of the Petersburg City Duma.

He was also the Chairman of the Board of the Partnership of the Peterhof Shipping Company, a member of the Board of the Society for the construction and operation of crews and vehicles Frese and Co., the director of the Board of the St. Petersburg Brewing Society New Bavaria (in 1909, 670 thousand buckets of beer were produced for 1 million rubles) , was a candidate member of the Board of the Society "St. Petersburg Chemical Laboratory" (founded in 1890). The society owned a perfume factory, opened in 1860. He owned houses on Birzhevaya line, 12, 14 and 16 (in house 14 - the administration of the t-va, cond. f-ka, etc., in house 16 - wine warehouses), in Birzhevoy per., 1 and 4, on emb. Makarova, 10, Nevsky prospect, 56, emb. Admiralteisky Canal, 17, emb. R. Fontanka, 64 and 66.

He was the owner of the Gavrilov stud farm in the Bakhmut district of the Yekaterinoslav province, had a large stake in the St. Petersburg Accounting and Loan Bank. In 1882 he founded in the Mogilev province. stud farm of trotting breeds "Privalions". IN last years life in Russia made a great contribution to the breeding of trotter breeds of horses.

In 1910, he was elevated to hereditary nobility. In 1914, after a divorce, the suicide of his first wife and a new marriage, he left for Paris.

He was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris.

Family

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Notes

Literature

Krasko A.V. Petersburg merchants: pages of family stories. - M.-SPb.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2010. - S. 85-134. - 414 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-227-02298-1.
// Kommersant - "Money" No. 10 (365) dated 03/20/2002
// Russian encyclopedic dictionary

An excerpt characterizing Eliseev, Grigory Grigorievich

But he had not finished yet, when he felt that his joke was not accepted and did not come out. He was confused.
“Please leave,” said the staff officer, trying to keep his seriousness.
Prince Andrei glanced once more at the figure of the artilleryman. There was something special about her, not at all military, somewhat comical, but extremely attractive.
The staff officer and Prince Andrei mounted their horses and rode on.
Having left the village, constantly overtaking and meeting the marching soldiers, officers of different teams, they saw to the left the fortifications under construction, reddening with fresh, newly dug up clay. Several battalions of soldiers in only shirts, despite the cold wind, like white ants, swarm on these fortifications; shovels of red clay were constantly thrown out from behind the rampart by invisibly by someone. They drove up to the fortification, examined it and drove on. Behind the very fortification they stumbled upon several dozen soldiers, constantly changing, running away from the fortification. They had to pinch their noses and trot their horses to get out of this poisoned atmosphere.
- Voila l "agrement des camps, monsieur le prince, [Here is the pleasure of the camp, prince,] - said the officer on duty.
They went to the opposite mountain. The French were already visible from this mountain. Prince Andrei stopped and began to examine.
- Here is our battery, - said the staff officer, pointing to the highest point, - that same eccentric who was sitting without boots; From there you can see everything: let's go, prince.
“I humbly thank you, now I’ll pass alone,” said Prince Andrei, wanting to get rid of the officer’s headquarters, “please don’t worry.
The staff officer lagged behind, and Prince Andrei rode alone.
The further he moved forward, closer to the enemy, the more decent and cheerful the appearance of the troops became. The strongest confusion and despondency were in that wagon train in front of Znaim, which Prince Andrei circled in the morning and which was ten miles from the French. Some anxiety and fear of something was also felt in Grunt. But the closer Prince Andrei drove up to the chain of the French, the more self-confident the appearance of our troops became. Lined up in a row, soldiers in overcoats stood, and the sergeant major and the company commander counted people, poking a finger in the chest of the last soldier in the squad and ordering him to raise his hand; scattered throughout the space, the soldiers dragged firewood and brushwood and built booths, laughing merrily and talking to each other; clothed and naked sat by the fires, drying their shirts, undershirts, or mending boots and overcoats, crowding around the boilers and cookers. Dinner was ready in one company, and the soldiers with greedy faces looked at the smoking cauldrons and waited for the sample, which the captain of the army officer, who was sitting on a log opposite his booth, brought in a wooden cup. In another, happier company, since not everyone had vodka, the soldiers, crowding, stood near a pock-marked, broad-shouldered sergeant-major who, bending a keg, poured into the lids of the manners, which were alternately substituted. The soldiers, with pious faces, brought the manners to their mouths, knocked them over, and, rinsing their mouths and wiping themselves with the sleeves of their overcoats, with cheerful faces, moved away from the sergeant major. All the faces were so calm, as if everything was happening not in the mind of the enemy, before the case, where at least half of the detachment was supposed to remain in place, but as if somewhere in their homeland, waiting for a quiet stop. Having passed the chasseur regiment, in the ranks of the Kiev grenadiers, valiant people engaged in the same peaceful affairs, Prince Andrey, not far from the regimental commander's tall, different booth, ran into the front of a platoon of grenadiers, in front of which lay a naked man. Two soldiers held him, and two waved flexible rods and rhythmically hit his bare back. The punished man screamed unnaturally. The fat major walked in front of the front and, without ceasing and paying no attention to the cry, said:
- It is shameful for a soldier to steal, a soldier must be honest, noble and brave; and if he stole from his brother, there is no honor in him; this is a bastard. More more!
And all the flexible blows and a desperate, but feigned cry were heard.
“More, more,” said the major.
The young officer, with an expression of bewilderment and suffering on his face, moved away from the punished man, looking inquiringly at the passing adjutant.
Prince Andrei, leaving the front line, rode along the front. Our chain and the enemy's were on the left and on the right flank far from each other, but in the middle, in the place where the truce passed in the morning, the chains came together so close that they could see each other's faces and talk among themselves. In addition to the soldiers who occupied the chain in this place, on both sides stood many curious people who, chuckling, looked at strange and alien enemies.
From early morning, despite the prohibition to approach the chain, the chiefs could not fight off the curious. The soldiers standing in chains, like people showing something rare, no longer looked at the French, but made their observations of those who came and, bored, waited for a change. Prince Andrei stopped to examine the French.
“Look, look,” one soldier said to a comrade, pointing to a Russian musketeer soldier who, with an officer, approached the chain and talked something often and passionately with the French grenadier. “Look, he mutters so cleverly! Already the guardian does not keep up with him. Well, what are you, Sidorov!
- Wait, listen. Look, smart! - answered Sidorov, who was considered a master of speaking French.

Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev was a successful successor to the famous merchant dynasty that founded the legendary grocery stores in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Until 1914, the business of the entrepreneur went uphill: the cash turnover of the trading company was about 60 million rubles a year, a new store was opened in Moscow on Tverskaya and the anniversary of the trading activity of the Eliseevs' house was celebrated. But one meeting became fatal both for the trading business and for the family of Grigory Grigoryevich.

Over the 200 years of its history, the shops of the merchants Eliseevs have gained fame as a "paradise on earth", where no one could remain indifferent to such a variety of overseas goods - wines, tropical fruits, ocean fish, elite chocolate. The prosperity of the trading business, founded by the former state peasant Pyotr Eliseev, was facilitated by the outstanding commercial talent of his descendants.

Father and uncle of G. G. Eliseev

Dynasty heir

The sons created the Eliseev Brothers Trading House, bought Dutch high-speed ships to transport goods from South America and received "honorary citizenship" as patrons and leaders of Russian trade. The case was continued by one of the grandchildren of the resourceful peasant Pyotr Eliseev, Grigory.

Gilyarovsky describes the famous grocery store as "a slender blond man in an impeccable tailcoat," who at first glance had little in common with the founders of the merchant dynasty - the stocky, bearded "Eliseev brothers." Nothing in the billionaire of the early twentieth century betrayed a peasant origin.

Eliseev did not have higher education. The family of St. Petersburg merchants did not depart from the tradition of home education, so the father dedicated the wisdom of the commercial activities of the future grocery store. Eliseev himself believed that the experience of the famous baker I. M. Filippov, whose name in the second half of the 19th century became a guarantor of the quality of baking, could also be added to the number of “his universities”. The said baker was honored to be called the "Supplier of His Imperial Majesty".

By the way, in the 1830s the Eliseev dynasty also had the right to supply the imperial court with its main product - wine. However, they failed to achieve the right to a monopoly for 4 years, despite the promise to provide preferential terms that would reduce the cost of the treasury by 30%.

It is possible that it was precisely on the basis of Filippov's experience that Grigory Grigorievich learned that very commercial acumen and adventurism, thanks to which the income of the Eliseev trading house multiplied several times.

"Who does not risk..."

The European public was so amazed by the richness and quality of wines that had been stored in family cellars for several decades that Grigory Eliseev was awarded highest award France - Order of the Legion of Honor.

Most of all, Grigory Eliseev is famous for the opening in 1901 of a grocery store, which in the future, as soon as it will not be called - both Gastronome No. 1 and Eliseevsky.

It is this store, the construction of which became the main capital intrigue of the early twentieth century, that is clearest example revolution that Grigory Eliseev made in trade. The grocery store was not just a place to buy products, but rather a palace where the eyes of the buyer rejoiced, and the shopping process itself was supposed to be a real pleasure.

Fanciful stucco, gilding, crystal chandeliers - this is the interior that captured the spirit of any buyer or just a passerby staring at the window. Both the service and the product had to be of an appropriate level.

Judging by the restructuring of the mansion chosen for the future grocery store on the corner of Tverskaya, Grigory Grigoryevich did not suffer from sentimentality. He was a man who could, for example, destroy the historical halls of the former literary salon, where Pushkin read his poems, and the white marble staircase for the sake of a wine cellar.

Maecenas

Unlike his predecessors, Grigory Eliseev did not limit himself to trade. This active person took an active part in the development public education. He was a member of the City Duma for 16 years and was an honorary trustee of the St. Petersburg Pedagogical University. In addition to sponsoring the university, he also paid for the most talented, but underfunded student.

The scale of Grigory Grigoryevich's hobbies corresponded to the scale of his outstanding personality. Interest in the emerging motoring eventually resulted in participation in the creation of the first automobile plant in Russia, Frese and Co.

The love for horses led Grigory Eliseev to the development of horse breeding: the trotters of the Eliseevsky estate won world awards and increased the prestige of Russian horse breeds. For merits in the development of Russian industry, Eliseev was granted the hereditary nobility.

Family of G. G. Eliseev

Irreversible family conflict

Petty love affairs of Grigory Grigoryevich did not end with anything, but in 1913, a successful grocery store, by the will of fate, met a woman for whom he left everything - both business and family.

The conflict in the family, in fact, has matured even earlier. Children who received an excellent education and developed themselves in science, art and oriental studies did not want to continue the work of their father. Maria Andreevna sided with the children in this conflict, which, of course, did not help strengthen her relationship with her husband.

Under such circumstances, Vera Fedorovna Vasilyeva appeared in the life of Grigory Grigorievich, who was 20 years younger than him. Rumors spread around the capital about the connection between the famous grocery store and the jeweler's wife, and Eliseev himself openly asked his wife for a divorce and left the family. Mad with love or tired of scandals in the family? One way or another, such an impulsive act does not fit with the image of a practical and reasonable businessman.

Maria Andreevna suffered from nervous breakdowns and blackmailed her unfaithful husband with suicide. After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Maria Andreevna hanged herself.

The youngest - daughter Masha - was secretly stolen from her father, despite increased security. Subsequently, one of the sons, Sergei Eliseev, the future founder of American Japanese studies, recalled that, having matured, Masha "tried to make peace with her father, but nothing came of it."

Grigory Eliseev did not come to his wife's funeral, and three weeks later he was already married to Vera Fedorovna. The affairs of the company almost ceased to interest him, and in 1917 he emigrated to Paris with his second wife, where he died 30 years later.

The trading business, which was at the peak of its development thanks to the talent and enthusiasm of Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev, died before the revolution came. Soviet power it only remained to nationalize the shops and capitals of the Eliseev dynasty, for which no one else was going to fight.

Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev(August 21, 1864, St. Petersburg - January 1949 (or 1942), Paris) - Russian businessman, horse breeder of Russian trotting breeds, honorary consul general of Denmark in St. Petersburg, real state councilor (1914).

Eliseev brothers shop on Nevsky Prospekt. Photo from 1906

Under him, the case reached its greatest extent: in 1913 in St. Petersburg. The Eliseevs owned a confectionery factory, 5 stores (the most famous - on Nevsky Prospekt) and two shops in Apraksin Dvor, where wines, fruits, gastronomy, confectionery and tobacco products were traded. GG Eliseev was in 1903 assistant to the General Commissar for the organization of the international. exhibitions in San Louis. In 1898-1914 he was a member of the St. Petersburg City Duma.

Birzhevaya line, building 6 - the house of the Eliseevs (architect N.P. Grebyonka, 1861-1862; rebuilt according to the project of architect G.V. Baranovsky in 1892-1893; now the building of the student canteen and the University social and cultural center Petersburg state university). Birzhevaya line, house 14 - the former building of the Eliseevs' partnership. From the 1920s to the 1990s - one of the buildings of the State Optical Institute. Currently (2011) - one of the buildings of St. Petersburg State University ITMO.

He was the owner of the Gavrilov stud farm in the Bakhmut district of the Yekaterinoslav province, had a large stake in the St. Petersburg Accounting and Loan Bank. In 1882, he founded the Privaliony stud farm of trotting breeds in the Mogilev province. In the last years of his life in Russia, he made a great contribution to the breeding of trotting horse breeds.

In 1910, he was elevated to hereditary nobility. In 1914, after a divorce, the suicide of his first wife and a new marriage, he left for Paris.

He was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris.

House number 14 along Tverskaya street in Moscow (known as house of E. I. Kozitskaya or house of G. G. Eliseev) - a monument of history and culture of Moscow of the XVIII century; it houses the famous Eliseevsky shop, as well as Memorial Museum of N. A. Ostrovsky.

House No. 14 on Tverskaya Street was built on the corner of Tverskaya Street and the lane, which was then called Sergievsky, in the late 80s of the 18th century according to the project of architect Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov. It was said that the “Palace on Tverskaya” was built by the secretary of state of Catherine II Grigory Vasilyevich Kozitsky for his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna Kozitskaya (nee Myasnikova), but this is not so: almost 15 years before the start of construction, Grigory Kozitsky, falling into state disgrace, put an end to himself, inflicting 32 stab wounds on himself. So by the time construction began, Ekaterina Kozitskaya had long been a widow and took care of the house on her own. Soon Sergievsky lane was renamed in honor of the new mistress of the house in Kozitsky.

The new house of Kozitskaya embodied all the perfection and harmony of classicism architecture. This light six-column building was magnificent both inside and out. The interiors were so luxurious that this circumstance was the reason for the refusal of the Moscow university authorities to hire him to accommodate students and professors after the fire of 1812, when the university's own house on Mokhovaya was almost completely burned out. The rector of Moscow University, Ivan Andreevich Geim, wrote about Kozitskaya’s house: “Only its lower floor, due to its simple decoration, would be capable of accommodating university students and candidates in it, and the second floor is so richly decorated and cleaned so magnificently that no officials, and even less students, it’s impossible to live in it, so as not to spoil the piece floors and damask wallpaper, huge expensive dressing tables and so on ... "

Subsequently, as a dowry of the Kozitskys' daughter Anna, the house passes to the Russian diplomat Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselsky-Belozersky, who had two daughters Zinaida and Maria from his first marriage.

Zinaida Alexandrovna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya was fluent in French, Italian, English knew Greek and Latin. She had a literary talent, she was a great singer. Her voice of rare beauty was admired by the Italian composer Rossini. A beauty with a brilliant mind, a subtle connoisseur and patroness of the arts, she composed music, staged operas, where she performed in the lead roles, wrote poetry and prose, and was fond of painting. In 1811, Zinaida Alexandrovna married Nikita Grigorievich Volkonsky, the brother of the future Decembrist Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky.

In 1824, Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna Volkonskaya moved to Moscow and settled in house number 14 on Tverskaya Street. She turned the house into a real temple of art, placing in it her father's collection, where there were originals and copies of the most famous paintings, and the walls of the rooms were decorated with frescoes in the style of various eras. Princess Volkonskaya arranged literary and musical evenings in her house. Her salons were very famous. High-society amateurs performed in the house - the famous cellist Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky, the singer Ekaterina Petrovna Lunina-Ricci, as well as other talented musicians and singers of the Italian opera. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Vasily Zhukovsky, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Fyodor Tyutchev, Denis Davydov and Alexander Odoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Alyabyev and many others visited the house.

In 1825, the daughter-in-law of Zinaida Volkonskaya, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya (nee Raevskaya), the wife of the exiled Decembrist Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky, stayed in this house on her way to Siberia. In order to somehow brighten up Maria's last hours before a terrible journey, Zinaida Alexandrovna gathers "Farewell Evening" in her house, where she invites the best performers of Italian music who were in Moscow at that time. Pushkin is also present at that evening.

In 1829, the Volkonskys left for Italy, but the house remained in the possession of the Beloselsky-Belozerskys. The subsequent mention of the house dates back to the end of the 60s, when it housed the boarding house of E. Kh. Repman, in which the children of wealthy parents studied.

At the beginning of 1870, the house was acquired by the contractor Malkiel, who supplied shoes for Russian army. The house was remodeled according to the new fashion by the architect August Yegorovich Weber in 1874: the classical portico and columns were removed, the facade was almost completely changed. But Malkiel quickly went bankrupt, and his houses, including house number 14, passed to creditors.

From the time of Malkiel, the lower floor of the house was occupied by the tailor's shop of the Corpus, and the mezzanine - rich apartments. The interior of the luxurious halls has been preserved. The white marble staircase and the entrance leading to the front yard also remained. The house was owned in turn by the merchants Nosovs, Lanins, Morozovs.

In 1898, the St. Petersburg millionaire merchant Grigory Grigoryevich Eliseev acquired the house. The house is enclosed on all sides wooden scaffolding, so that no one could penetrate its territory, and a new global restructuring begins. There are various rumors, some even said that it would be the “Temple of Bacchus”.

In 1901, the mysterious veil fell: Eliseev opened a luxurious and rich store called "Eliseev's Store and Cellars of Russian and Foreign Wines." In total, five departments were opened in Eliseevsky: colonial and gastronomic goods, Baccarat crystal, grocery, confectionery and the largest fruit department. In addition, there were also a wine cellar and production workshops. Muscovites liked the olive oil that Eliseev bought in Provence. He taught them both to French truffles and bushes. Russian hams, balyks from white and sturgeon fish, and caviar successfully competed with overseas goods. In the confectionery department, "ladies' cakes" from their own bakery were especially popular. There were so many varieties of coffee and tea that the buyers were lost, and it was generally impossible to figure out the wines without clerks.

To remake the house, Eliseev invited the St. Petersburg engineer Gavriil Vasilyevich Baranovsky, who later built several houses for Eliseev in St. Petersburg. Interior decoration, together with Baranovsky, was carried out by architects V.V. Voeikov and M. M. Peretyatkovich. The passageway that once ran under the house, into which carriages could enter, became the main entrance to the store, and the rooms on the first and second floors turned into a huge trading hall, sparkling with intricate decorative treatment of the walls and bright lights of elegant huge chandeliers. The mansion on Tverskaya belonged to Eliseev until 1917.

With the advent of the revolution, Eliseev emigrated from Russia to France, and the store was nationalized - he became the state Gastronome No. 1. Throughout the years of Soviet power, it continued to be called "Eliseevsky" unofficially. The store was a kind of hallmark of Moscow. They visited there not only for scarce products, but also just to look at the luxurious whim of a millionaire merchant - a temple shop. One of the most high-profile embezzlement cases in Soviet trade is also connected with the Eliseevsky grocery store. For embezzlement from Eliseevsky, its director Yuri Sokolov was then sentenced to death.

In 2003, on the occasion of the 190th anniversary of the House of Eliseevs, the current owners of the grocery store restored the old premises.

Since 1918, part of the house has been used as apartments. In 1935-36, he spent the last year of his life in one of them. short life Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky: he lived for 32 years, of which 9 years he was bedridden. In 1940, the memorial museum of N. A. Ostrovsky was created in the apartment.

In 1992, the museum was renamed the State Museum - Humanitarian Center "Overcoming" named after N. A. Ostrovsky. The museum has become a center for popularizing the creativity of people from handicapped health. The museum works in close contact with the All-Russian Society of the Disabled, the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, the Russian Society of the Blind; the Children's Order of Mercy, the International Charity and Health Fund, the Charitable Center for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, the Regional Charitable Public Institution Posokh-Med, the Sergiev Posad Orphanage; Public association of disabled people "Ivan da Marya" (applied art) and "Young Motherland" (artists).

Biography

He was the owner of the Gavrilov stud farm in the Bakhmut district of the Yekaterinoslav province, had a large stake in the St. Petersburg Accounting and Loan Bank. In 1882 he founded in the Mogilev province. stud farm of trotting breeds "Privalions". In the last years of his life in Russia, he made a great contribution to the breeding of trotter breeds of horses.

In 1910, he was elevated to hereditary nobility. In 1914, after a divorce, the suicide of his first wife and a new marriage, he left for

Dynasty heir

The sons created the Eliseev Brothers Trading House, bought out Dutch high-speed ships to transport goods from South America and received “honorary citizenship” as patrons and leaders of Russian trade. The case was continued by one of the grandchildren of the resourceful peasant Pyotr Eliseev, Grigory.

Father and uncle of G. G. Eliseev

Eliseev did not have a higher education. The family of St. Petersburg merchants did not depart from the tradition of home education, so the father dedicated the wisdom of the commercial activities of the future grocery store. Eliseev himself believed that the experience of the famous baker I. M. Filippov, whose name in the second half of the 19th century became a guarantor of the quality of baking, could also be added to the number of “his universities”. The said baker was honored to be called the "Supplier of His Imperial Majesty".

"Who does not risk..."

Grigory Eliseev was not afraid to take risks and make decisions that at first might seem like an unjustified adventure. So, in 1900, the heir to a dynasty of merchants who had their cellars not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Mallorca, presented his collection in Paris at the World Exhibition. The European public was so amazed by the richness and quality of the wines that had been stored in family cellars for several decades that Grigory Eliseev was awarded France's highest award - the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Most of all, Grigory Eliseev is famous for the opening in 1901 of a grocery store, which in the future, as soon as it will not be called - both Gastronome No. 1 and Eliseevsky. It is this store, the construction of which became the main intrigue of the capital at the beginning of the 20th century, that is the clearest example of the revolution that Grigory Eliseev made in trade. The grocery store was not just a place to buy products, but rather a palace where the eyes of the buyer rejoiced, and the shopping process itself was supposed to be a real pleasure. Fancy stucco, gilding, crystal chandeliers - this is the interior that captured the spirit of any buyer or just a passer-by staring at the window. Both the service and the product had to be of an appropriate level.

Maecenas

Unlike his predecessors, Grigory Eliseev did not limit himself to trade. This active person took an active part in the development of public education. He was a member of the City Duma for 16 years and was an honorary trustee of the St. Petersburg Pedagogical University. In addition to sponsoring the university, he also paid for the most talented, but underfunded student.

The first car of the Russian Empire

Irreversible family conflict

However, the main hobby captured Grigory Eliseev when he was 50 years old. Until 1914, he was a merchant, billionaire, philanthropist, father of 5 children and not a very exemplary husband of Maria Andreevna Durdina. Their marriage was concluded by calculation, as often happened in the merchant environment. Petty love affairs of Grigory Grigorievich did not end with anything, but in 1913, a successful grocery store, by the will of fate, met a woman for whom he left everything - both business and family.

Family of G. G. Eliseev

Maria Andreevna suffered from nervous breakdowns and blackmailed her unfaithful husband with suicide. After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Maria Andreevna hanged herself.

After her death, Grigory Grigorievich finally lost contact with his sons and hope for the continuation of the merchant dynasty. The children abandoned their hereditary nobility and inheritance, blaming their father for the death of Maria Andreevna. The youngest, daughter Masha, was secretly stolen from her father, despite heavy security. Subsequently, one of the sons, Sergei Eliseev, the future founder of American Japanese studies, recalled that, having matured, Masha "tried to make peace with her father, but nothing came of it."

The trading business, which was at the peak of its development thanks to the talent and enthusiasm of Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev, died before the revolution came. The only thing left for the Soviet government was to nationalize the shops and capitals of the Eliseev dynasty, for which no one else was going to fight.