The Vyakhirev family were a Nizhny Novgorod merchant dynasty known since the late 17th century (the first records date to 1686) and played a prominent role in the commercial, civic, and charitable life of Nizhny Novgorod for almost two centuries.[2] They descended from serf peasants of the village of Borzovka; until 1828 they belonged to the landowner Count Vladimir Orlov, who had taken possession of Borzovka in 1796, and they became the first in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate to buy their freedom from serfdom.[2] After their emancipation they rose quickly into the first-guild merchantry, and the most prominent members of the family were granted the title of honorary citizens of Nizhny Novgorod.[2]

Origins and the Start of the Business

The Vyakhirevs' ancestral home was the village of Borzovka. The family built up its initial capital through wild-bee keeping, coach driving, fishing, crafts, and contracts at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka.[2] After buying their freedom, the Vyakhirevs went into shipbuilding — building small vessels in the Borzovka backwater — and also traded in grain, salt, and timber.[2]

Most Notable Members

Ivan Antipovich Vyakhirev was the founder of the family's urban branch; it was his estate at Chernigovskaya Street that was built in 1838–1839 to a design by the architect Georg Kizevetter.[3] The complex comprises a central three-story main house and two three-story wings connected by arched carriageways; the buildings were originally two stories tall.[3] The structure is built in the style of late Russian Neoclassicism and forms part of the embankment ensemble in the area of Blagoveshchenskaya Sloboda.[3]

Ivan Antipovich's son Mikhail was awarded the Holy Synod's medal "For Diligence" for his participation in the construction and renewal of the Transfiguration of the Savior Karpovka Church after a fire.[2]

Mikhail's brother Izmail Ivanovich became a major financier and the first member of the City Duma; he sat on boards of trustees, charitable societies, brotherhoods, and committees, and for many years served as warden of the Spassky Old Yarmarka Cathedral.[2] He was among the initiators of the construction of the cathedral dedicated to the holy right-believing Prince Alexander Nevsky on the Strelka; it was later established that a heated side chapel in honor of St. Makary Zheltovodsky was built with his funds.[2] Izmail Ivanovich also donated 2,500 rubles toward the repair of the bishop's and brothers' buildings, the holy gates, and the stone wall of the Pechersky Monastery; in 2016, the monastery's abbot, Archimandrite Tikhon (Zatyokin), installed a memorial plaque on the Holy Gates with his name among the donors.[2]

Pavel Vasilyevich Vyakhirev (from the branch descending from Vasily Antipovich) was elected to the City Duma four times and oversaw the construction of the House of the Nobility Assembly (now the Sverdlov House of Culture), as well as of a maternity facility at the corner of Varvarskaya Street and Soldatskaya Street — a building later occupied by Maternity Hospital No. 3 No. 1. For this facility, Pavel Vasilyevich donated, free of charge, the plot of land held by the Vyakhirevs.[2] He was also entrusted with organizing a public library in Nizhny Novgorod in the mid-1860s, when interest in education in the city had grown.[2]

Karpovka Church and the Family Memorial

For many years the Vyakhirevs were the principal patrons and parishioners of the Transfiguration of the Savior Karpovka Church; the family necropolis has been preserved in its churchyard.[2] During the preparatory work ahead of the church's 200th anniversary (2017), the family memorial was refurbished.[2] In April of that year, the church hosted a presentation of the book "The Vyakhirevs. A Family Tree Across Three Centuries, 1686–2016" by Vladimir Vladimirovich Vyakhirev, a descendant of the family, on which the author had worked for more than 35 years; the initiator of the book was his wife, Galina Vasilyevna.[2]

The Estate on Chernigovskaya Street

The Vyakhirev Estate (also known as the Shchepetova Residential House) at 12 Chernigovskaya Street remains one of the few surviving building complexes associated with this merchant family.[3] The site is freely accessible and forms part of the architectural fabric of the historic Blagoveschenskaya Sloboda district.[3]

Sources

  1. mapy.com
  2. nne.ru — The Family's Contribution to History — Nizhny Novgorod MetropolisNizhny Novgorod Metropolis (archive)
  3. autotravel-nn.ru — The Vyakhirev Estate in Nizhny Novgorod — The Vyakhirev Manor House on Chernigovskaya (archive)