Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin (1864 or 1865, Chkalovsky District — 1946 or 13 July 1953, Belgrade) was a major Nizhny Novgorod merchant, shipowner and shipbuilder, and commercial counsellor. He served as Nizhny Novgorod city mayor in 1913–1917 and was one of the leading figures of the Old Believer movement in the early 20th century.[1]

Business activity

Sirotkin was one of Russia: he sat on the council of the Vessel Insurance Society, on the council of the Moscow Bank, and on the boards of a number of transport and oil companies, and he also chaired the council of the Congresses of Shipowners of the Volga Basin.[1]

In 1910, with his direct involvement, the "Volga" Steamship Company was founded by merging four firms: the Nizhny Novgorod enterprises of Dmitry Sirotkin and Yakov Chernonyobov (an oil-tanker fleet) and the Astrakhan firms of Ivan Skripinsky and Ivan Lbov (fishing and shipping). Sirotkin was elected managing director of the new company. In its first two years the company's capital doubled; by 1914 the company had more than forty tugboats and steamships and one hundred and fifty barges. In 1912, opposite Nizhny Novgorod, the Teplokhod Plant was founded, producing oil tankers and tug-steamers.[1] As early as 1907, to Sirotkin's own design, an oil tanker unprecedented for its time, the "Marfa Posadnitsa," with a carrying capacity of more than half a million poods, was built in Nizhny Novgorod; he deliberately did not patent his invention so that anyone could build such vessels.[2]

City mayor

From 1913 to 1917 Sirotkin held the post of City Council. In March 1917 the City Duma, under his leadership, greeted the overthrow of the autocracy and the formation of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma with applause; that same day Blagoveshchenskaya Square drew as many as 30,000 residents.

Activity within the Old Believer movement

Sirotkin was a well-known figure of the Old Believer movement: he chaired the council of the All-Russian Congresses of Old Believers of the Belokrinitskaya Concord and the council of the Nizhny Novgorod community.[1][2]

Memory

The mansion built by Sirotkin Upper Volga Embankment (house 3) has survived and is a federally protected architectural and urban-planning landmark. Today it houses the "Foreign Art" building of the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum.

The grave of Sirotkin and his wife Maria was found at the "Novo Groblje" cemetery in Belgrade; on 25 May 2011 a monument in the shape of an Old Believer cross made of black-and-white marble was installed on it, commissioned by the Nizhny Novgorod city administration and funded by the "Nizhegorodsky Teplokhod" plant — an enterprise founded by Sirotkin himself.[2]

The grave of Sirotkin and his wife Maria was found at the "Novo Groblje" cemetery in Belgrade; on 25 May 2011 a monument in the shape of an Old Believer cross made of black-and-white marble was installed on it, commissioned by the Nizhny Novgorod city administration and funded by the "Nizhegorodsky Teplokhod" plant — an enterprise founded by Sirotkin himself.[2]

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (ru) — Sirotkin, Dmitry Vasilyevich
  2. rpsc.ru — Dimitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin (archive)
Material used from articles (3)

Steamship Company Volga, Russian Empire, Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum