The Nizhny Novgorod Demidovs — the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the celebrated Russian noble family of mining industrialists, the Demidovs.

The essence of the phenomenon

The Demidovs hold a special place among Russian noble families: the name is a kind of symbol of the new Russia transformed by Peter I.

The talent and energy of the Tula gunsmith Nikita Demidovich Antufyev (later Demidov) became the foundation for the birth of Russian industry in the Urals in the 18th century.

The blacksmith and his sons, who became the masters of the Stone Belt, founded more than 50 works. The Demidov mining works, which produced more than forty percent of the country's pig iron, made an enormous contribution to the victory of the Russian troops in the Great Northern War that won access to the Baltic Sea. It was no accident that the very first nobleman to come from the merchant estate was Nikita Demidov.

For their elevation to baronial rank the Demidovs were allotted land in Nizhny Novgorod Province. The central estate became Bykovka, today Vorotynsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Historical background

From the beginning of the 18th century Nikita Demidov, under a special charter from Peter I, held the Nevyansk ironworks in the Urals. Taking on state armament contracts, the industrialist in effect became the master of the Urals. Nikita's son Akinfy Demidov, having received his father's inheritance, threw himself zealously into the business and became the creator of the Demidov "empire", which by the middle of the 18th century produced 52% of all Russian metal.

In 1720 Nikita Demidov bought from Nikolai Fyodorovich Golovin a patrimonial estate in Barminskaya volost of Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd, and thereby obtained noble rank. The Demidov villages of Bykovka, Fokino, Ognyov-Maidan and Pokrov-Maydan (Pokrovsky Maydan), with their hamlets, became a source of labour for the Urals works.

The Nizhny Novgorod holdings passed by inheritance from Nikita to Akinfy, and then to Prokopy. Catherine II ordered Prokopy Akinfievich to hand the estate over to his children Akaky, Lev and Ammos, fearing that they would be left without means of subsistence, since their father was liable to spend considerable sums of money on charity and other purposes. On 5 May 1769, after the division between the brothers, Bykovka went to Lev Prokofyevich. The branch of Prokopy's descendants, the senior one in the Demidov family tree, is called the Nizhny Novgorod branch, and the village of Bykovka its principal ancestral seat.

For Bykovka the oncoming 19th century is inseparably linked with the name of Vasily Lvovich Demidov, who after his father's death became the sole master — and a talented, thrifty and attentive one at that. Three-field crop rotation and sowings of fodder crops (clover, sainfoin and alfalfa) were something new. Vasily Lvovich made the first planting of potatoes, which had not yet been grown in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. The potatoes gave an excellent harvest. Bykovka may therefore rightly be regarded as the birthplace of the Vorotynets — and even of the Nizhny Novgorod — potato.

In modern terms, the Bykovka estate was a multi-branch enterprise: grain crops and beekeeping, the breeding of Kholmogory cows and Oryol trotters, pig farming and beekeeping, horticulture and greenhouse farming (hothouses in which peaches, apricots, plums and even grapes ripened. ). The estate was brought to perfection; even the director of the Petrovskaya Academy came to see it, and Dokuchaev's expedition visited here as well.

Vasily Lvovich died in 1861. And two years later the Bykovka peasants, with the help of the communal capital set up on the initiative of their "progressive" squire, were able to buy out their allotments. A unique case in the history of Russia!

Vasily Lvovich and his wife Neonila Ivanovna, a former serf girl, created a strong and close-knit family in which for several generations the relatives loved one another and kept up close ties. The spiritual centre, the capital as it were of this branch of the family, remained Bykovka — a true ancestral nest, where not only all of Vasily Lvovich's children were born, but also almost all of his grandchildren and most of his great-grandchildren. Almost all of them, even if they served elsewhere, tried to come to Bykovka at least for the summer, and on retiring returned if not to Bykovka then at least to the district town of Vasilsursk, called Vasil in the old fashion, or to the governorate city of Nizhny Novgorod. Practically all of them took part in zemstvo work: if one looks at the list of officials of Vasilsursk Uyezd for any year, nearly half of them are either Demidovs or their relatives.

Alexander Vasilyevich Demidov (1811 — 1872) was in 1841 elected chairman of the nobility of Vasil Uyezd. In 1865 he was elected the first chairman of the zemstvo board of Vasilsursk Uyezd.

Arkady Vasilyevich Demidov (1819—1902) was in 1861 appointed a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Board for Peasant Affairs. He received an award — a silver medal on the Alexander ribbon for his labours in the emancipation of the peasants. For several three-year terms he was elected by the Governorate Assembly to the post of permanent member of the Vasil Uyezd Board for Peasant Affairs.

The grandson Platon Alexandrovich Demidov (1840—1892) was a district justice of the peace of the Vasil circuit, then an honorary justice of the peace and governorate chairman of the assembly of justices of the peace. He was married to Olga, the daughter of Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl.

His son Igor Platonovich (1873 — 1946) was a major public figure and journalist, a deputy of the Fourth State Duma for the Kadet party, an active participant in the February Revolution; he was a member of the Provisional Government for a very short time, took part in the White movement (counter-intelligence) and emigrated. In Paris, from the 1920s until the arrival of the Germans, he was for many years assistant to the editor (P. N. Milyukov) at the newspaper «Последние новости». Three of his great-grandsons live in France today.

Alexander Vasilyevich's second son, Alexander Alexandrovich (1842 - 1918), began his service as a clerk in the chancellery of the Vasil uyezd marshal of the nobility, then was a head of desk in the police administration, a district justice of the peace and even chairman of the Vasil uyezd zemstvo board. He devoted much serious attention to music, corresponded with the composers Mussorgsky and Balakirev, who had stayed at Bykovka, and of course was well acquainted with the composer Lyapunov, who was married to Yevgenia, the daughter of his brother Platon.

The third son, Mikhail Alexandrovich (1850—1871), died very young.

The fourth, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1859—1891), also died young, but left behind «A Historical Sketch of Vasilsursk Uyezd of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate».

Pavel Arkadyevich Demidov (1858—1927) graduated from the law faculty of St Petersburg University and was elected a district justice of the peace of the Nizhny Novgorod circuit. He was then appointed zemstvo chief in Vasil Uyezd. In 1908 he was appointed a member of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate zemstvo board, was soon elected to the post of chairman of the Governorate Zemstvo Board and was thereafter repeatedly re-elected for a further three-year term.

In 1917 he received a telegram signed by the chairman of the Provisional Government and minister of the interior Prince G. E. Lvov: «Attaching the most serious importance, for the ordering of affairs within the country and for the success of the state's defence, to the uninterrupted activity of all governmental and public institutions, the Provisional Government has found it necessary temporarily to remove the governor and the vice-governor from the discharge of their duties stop the administration of the governorate is temporarily entrusted to you as governorate commissar of the Provisional Government».

In 1918—1919 he was a member of the zemstvo liquidation commission, served briefly as head of the organisational department of the handicraft administration under the VSNKh in Moscow, then in Glavkustprom, Narkomprod and Gosstrakh, and from 1923 he was once again in service in Nizhny Novgorod, in the Provincial Planning Commission (Gubplan), holding the post of head of the local economy section. On 2 February 1927, in the 69th year of his life, Pavel Arkadyevich died. The newspaper «Gorkovskaya Kommuna (newspaper)» carried a notice and an obituary. The obituary said that «In the person of the deceased Pavel Arkadyevich Demidov, Gubplan has lost an excellently educated, major and irreplaceable worker with a broad outlook, one who knew the province and its economy superbly, and his colleagues have lost a splendid and warm-hearted comrade.

Before the October Revolution, during his work as Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Zemstvo Board, Pavel Arkadyevich laboured much to improve the amenities of the province. Under him the network of zemstvo schools and public libraries was considerably expanded... a zemstvo museum was organised, measures were put in place... for the study of handicraft trades and for assisting their development and improvement... Pavel Arkadyevich's last work was the drawing up of a general plan for the province's municipal economy. He carried out this work confined to his bed by a grave illness, and to the very end never ceased to take the keenest interest in it». Pavel Arkadyevich died in good time — the repressions did not touch him.

Pavel Arkadyevich's son, Arkady Pavlovich (1902—1937), was not close to his father. In the early 1920s he served in the bodies of public education; in 1926 he became a monk, taking the name Rufin at his tonsure (so in the church documents). After the monastery was broken up he became a village priest. He was arrested and convicted for the first time in 1932, and for the second time in 1937. Rufim (so in the NKVD documents) Pavlovich Demidov was accused of organising a counter-revolutionary group of kulaks, but this point of the charge could not be proved. What remained was the charge of agitation against the population census (some peasants believed it came from the Antichrist) and of seeking, by methods of coercion, to set the masses against Soviet power. The methods of coercion consisted in his refusing to baptise, to marry and to conduct funerals in those families that did not go to church. However, this proved enough for the troika of the NKVD Directorate to sentence him to be shot. He was shot on 4 November 1937. In 1989 he was rehabilitated.

Another son of Arkady Vasilyevich, Valery Arkadyevich (1861—?), was confirmed in 1891 as a zemstvo chief in Vasilsursky Uyezd and acted as a permanent member of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Board. In 1917 he was an actual state councillor.

Of the whole large family of the descendants of Vasily Lvovich, and apparently of Prokopy Akinfievich as well, all that remain today are a few Demidovs in Paris — Georges, Igor and Alexander Igorevich. They were born in 1963, 1965 and 1971 respectively.

How the lands of the Vorotynsky District are connected with the Demidovs

The village of Pokrov-Maydan (Pokrovsky Maydan) in the Vorotynsky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region is connected with the descendants of the well-known family of ironmasters, the Demidovs: one of the Demidov estates has survived here to this day. The expedition «Ukhodyashchaya Natura-2009», organised by the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Public Foundation of Cultural Figures «Dat Ponyat», was accompanied as an expert by Alexander Mikhailovich Dyuzhakov, Honoured Teacher of the Russian Federation and head of the Vorotynets district children's excursion bureau «Rodnoy Kray».

— Alexander Mikhailovich, please tell us how the lands of the Vorotynsky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region are connected with the Demidovs?

— The Demidov lands were originally situated on the lands of the present-day Vorotynsky, Spassky District and Lyskovsky District. Originally they belonged to the Vorotynskys, then to the Golovins (to the first admiral, Fyodor Alexeyevich Golovin). But in 1720 Nikita Demidov gradually began to buy them up. Below lies Urga River. And all of Pourzhye consists of the former Demidov lands. Having bought them up, Nikita Demidov became a nobleman, and precisely thanks to these lands. As is well known, only a landowner could receive a title of nobility. On 21 September 1720 a decree followed by which Demidov was «raised and granted the noble rank of the gentry».

On 24 March 1726 Catherine I issued a diploma to his sons Akinfy, Grigory and Nikita, in which they were already called noblemen «of Nizhny Novgorod», that is, by the estate they had bought. By the beginning of the 19th century, however, these lands were in terrible desolation. The point is that as early as 30 July 1720 Nikita Demidov had received permission from Peter I to buy peasants for his ironworks, and in connection with this the local peasants were methodically sent off to the Urals, to the Demidov works.

— But the Demidov estate in Pokrov-Maydan, which has come down to our day, suggests that there was a flourishing economy here. Apparently at some point the Demidovs changed their attitude to their Nizhny Novgorod patrimony?

— The point is that Nikita Demidov's grandson, Prokofy Akinfeyevich, who inherited a third of his father's property, took no interest at all in the Urals works. In January 1769 he sold them to Savva Yakovlev. Besides the works he also sold houses in various towns and many villages. An eccentric and a petty tyrant and at the same time a very great philanthropist, Prokofy Demidov was terribly keen on botany. Do you remember the famous portrait by Levitsky, in which Prokofy Demidov is shown in a dressing gown, with a nightcap on his head and a watering can in his hands?

This passion for agriculture was, by all appearances, in the Demidovs' blood and was passed down by inheritance. The flourishing of the lands in the Vorotynsky District is already connected with Prokofy Demidov's great-grandson, Vasily Lvovich. A former naval officer (in 1802, already in retirement, Vasily Lvovich was granted the rank of captain-lieutenant by imperial decree), he came to the village of Bykovka in 1795, in the opinion of E. I. Krasnova, a researcher of the Demidov genealogy. In 1801, after his father's death, Vasily Lvovich became the master of the Nizhny Novgorod patrimonies, and a thrifty, intelligent and caring master at that. It was he who began actively to develop new lands that had not been cultivated before.

It is not entirely clear when the Demidovs bought Pokrovsky Maydan from the Golovins, who were major landowners in the Nizhny Novgorod Province. Some historians believe that it was Vasily Lvovich who acquired it at the beginning of the 19th century. At first Pokrov-Maydan held an estate far from its masters, which supplied Moscow with foodstuffs. Vasily Lvovich lived in Bykovka, and wrote his orders here, to Pokrov-Maydan. There was a special elected man here (incidentally, the surname Vybornov comes from this, meaning that there was an elected man, appointed by Vasily Lvovich from among the peasants). He himself came here only on visits, but the rules were harsh. As a punishment the master could have an offender flogged with rods.

But first and foremost Vasily Lvovich was a man of the Age of Enlightenment. He kept all the accounts strictly, occupied himself with the estate economy and with questions of the peasants' daily life. Fearing epidemics and fires, Vasily Demidov set out in detail in his orders, for example, how one should behave with a cow if it fell ill. Moreover, he introduced smallpox inoculation. When the vaccine for inoculations was brought from Moscow and he began to inoculate the peasants, and above all their children, a wail hung over the village: «They've taken the lads off to be jabbed!» But, true, after the inoculation the master handed each child a baked kalach.

— What is known about the owners of the estate complex in Pokrov-Maydan?

— In 1851 Vasily Lvovich withdrew from affairs (he was about 80 years old) and divided his estate among his sons. At first the village of Pokrovsky Maydan went to Nikolai (1817 - end of the 1850s), where he was buried together with his wife Alexandra Ivanovna Tatarinova. After his death the owner of the estate became Konstantin Nikolayevich. After the abolition of serfdom the Demidovs sold their estate, and their traces in Pokrov-Maydan are lost. In 1899 the building was bought by the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, and a «second-class ecclesiastical school» was opened here for training future priests. Later (right up to the present day) a school was housed in the estate building.

The buildings here are of the 19th century, with elements of eclecticism. They are characteristic of the closing phase of classicism. The main manor house used to look somewhat different. It was adorned by the semicircular tops of the window openings and by brick surrounds, but after a major overhaul of the school none of this remained. Changes also took place inside the building. The former connecting rooms were isolated from one another in order to create a system of classrooms in the school. Inside, practically everything has now been rebuilt. Of the authentic features, the staircase has survived, as well as the basements — enormous cellars with unique vaulted masonry. Worth noting too is an interesting element of decoration on the façade, resembling dormer windows. Once upon a time a stone fence surrounded the Demidov estate in Pokrov-Maydan. Behind it stood the master's house, a number of outbuildings (servants' quarters, the medical assistant's house, the kitchen) and a park with plantings typical of that time.

— Which ones exactly?

— These are lime, maple, elm, bird cherry, pine, bushes of spiraea and, of course, lilac. Lilac was especially loved here. The 19th century is altogether the «lilac century» (particularly the end of the 19th century). Lilac was considered a symbol of noble Russia. Incidentally, the Demidovs laid out the park in a ravine, in the zone of a stream. It was dammed — there were (and are) ponds there. For some fifteen to twenty years the park was not cleared. Its clearing was taken up in earnest by the pupils of the local school in 2008. It turned out that during this time we had lost the «Star» glade, whose sides in the Demidovs' time radiated out like rays…

— In 2007 the journal «Нижегородский музей» published a photograph of the Church of the Intercession, which is part of the Demidov estate complex. In the picture the church has crosses leaning askew (evidently in Soviet times an attempt was made to dismantle them). Now the picture is completely different: the church is being restored. Has an investor been found?

— The restoration of the church is being carried out by the villagers with their own resources. The domes were rebuilt literally a year and a half ago. And although inside there is still desolation, we seriously hope that we shall restore the church. All the more so since Vladyka Georgy, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, has already been here, and the blessing for the restoration has already been given. The point is that the settlement of Pokrov-Maydan itself, standing on the road from Vorotynets (disambiguation) to Sergach (disambiguation), owes its name precisely to the church in honour of the Intercession of the Mother of God. There are three Maydans in this neighbourhood: Pokrov, Ognyov and Beryozov (a maydan is a place where potash is produced and burned; in the 17th and early 18th centuries this was one of the most powerful centres of potash production).

— That is, the Church of the Intercession was built here earlier than the Demidov estate?

— Yes. In 1864, on the site of the old wooden church in honour of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God, a new stone one was built. Like many churches of the second half of the 19th century, it was erected in the then dominant Russo-Byzantine style, under the influence of the designs of Konstantin Ton. Of course, the stone church appeared here thanks to the Demidovs. One may say that this is the genuine monument to the Demidovs in Pokrov-Maydan.

"A Spiritual Monument to the Demidovs", Galina Filimonova, the Nizhny Novgorod historiographical project "Места памяти".

Family

The spiritual centre, as it were the capital of this branch of the family, remained Bykovka. It was a true ancestral nest, in which not only all of Vasily Lvovich's children were born, but also almost all his grandchildren and the greater part of his great-grandchildren. Almost all of them, even if they served somewhere, tried to come to Bykovka at least for the summer, and on retiring returned, if not to Bykovka, then at least to the uyezd town of Vasilsursk or to the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod. Practically all of them were engaged in zemstvo activity.

In Bykovka, within a small area, there are several monuments of history, culture and nature: the Church of the Nativity of Christ and the Church of the Icon of the Sign, the church wall with its gates, the wooden manor house, the retaining wall and the estate park. Bykovka is fine at any time of the year, but especially in spring, when the village turns into a veritable sea of lilac, and the stirring scent of the flowers seems to fill the whole district.

Dyuzhakov Alexander Mikhailovich, chief specialist of the ORO of the administration of the Vorotynsky Municipal District

Literature

  1. Demidov N., A Historical Essay on the Vasilsursky Uyezd of the Nizhny Novgorod Province. Nizhny Novgorod. 1884.
  2. Kagorov V. M., Stages in the Formation of Landowners' Estates of the 18th—19th Centuries on the Demidovs' Nizhny Novgorod Estate of Bykovka, III Museum Scholarly Readings «The World of the Russian Country Estate». Collected materials. Nizhny Novgorod: DEKOM. - 2007. - 208 pp.
  3. Krasnova E. I., The Nizhny Novgorod Demidovs on the Ancestral Estate of Bykovka (Vasilsursky Uyezd). In: Notes of Local Historians. – N. Novgorod, «Knigi» publishing house, 2004. – 368 pp., ill.
  4. Smirnova L. M., The Cross. Local History Essays (in two books). – N. Novgorod: «Dyatlovy Gory», «Begemot», 2001. Book 1 – 288 pp., ill.

See also