Peter Smirnov is the vodka king of the Russian Empire. Mansion P.P

On the facade of this stone four-story house there was a large inscription “Petr Arsenievich Smirnov and sons.”
On the ground floor there was a liquor store, an office and a dining room.
The owners' living rooms were located on the second and third floors.
The extensions housed rooms for employees and a warehouse.

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Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831-1898) - Russian entrepreneur, vodka king of Russia,
founder and director of the Highest approved Partnership of Peter Arsenievich Smirnov (in Moscow),
supplier to the courts of His Imperial Majesty and His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Sergius Alexandrovich.
He enjoyed honor and was awarded high titles and orders - Anna, Stanislav, Vladimir.
He had a prestigious house on Pyatnitskaya, a rich carriage and a large family: five sons and seven daughters.
Born into a family of serfs in Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl province.
Having received his freedom, he moved to Moscow, where in 1860 he opened a small wine shop with 9 employees.
Three years later, in 1863, he built a small vodka factory in Moscow on Ovchinnikovskaya Embankment, near the Chugunny Bridge, which in 1864 employed no more than 25 people.

The plant immediately began to produce high-quality goods and its products found rapid and widespread distribution.
The principle of the plant is “to provide the best, produce products from first-class Russian materials and spare no expense and expense on the most advanced production equipment.”

In 1873, the product was awarded at the World Exhibition in Vienna.

In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, for excellent quality refined wine,
as well as excellent vodkas, liqueurs and liqueurs, for the development of production, with 250 workers,
and for the improvement of production at the vodka factory of P. A. Smirnov, in Moscow,
was awarded the right to depict the State Emblem.

List of awards awarded to the Highly Approved Partnership of Peter Arsenievich Smirnov:
1873 - Honorary diploma in Vienna.
1876 - Medal of the highest award in Philadelphia.
1877 - National emblem.
1878 - Two gold medals in Paris.
1882 - The State Emblem at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow.
1886 - Supplier to the Court of His Imperial Majesty and the State Emblem.
1888 - Spanish Order of St. Isabella and gold medal in Barcelona.
1889 - Great gold medal in Paris.
1893 - Great gold medal in Chicago.
1896 - Supplier to the Court of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Sergius Alexandrovich.
1896 - Repetition of the right to depict the State Emblem at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.
1897 - Gold medal at the Industrial and Art Exhibition in Stockholm.

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Born into a family of serf peasants Arseny Alekseevich and Matryona Grigorievna Smirnov in the tiny village of Kayurovo. All the residents were engaged in latrine work, and as soon as Peter grew up, he went to Moscow to earn money, where he began working as a sex worker in taverns.

In 1857, Father Arseny received “freedom” for himself and his eldest sons Yakov and Peter. In the spring of 1858, they left the village for Moscow, planning to open a wine shop and join the merchant class.

In 1860, the Rensk cellar of Arseny and Peter Smirnov was opened - after the name of the cheapest white grape wine with a sour taste. Peter worked as a clerk in his father's shop. It is said that one of the customers, a lady, liked him and gave him lottery ticket. The ticket turned out to be a winner. In the same 1860, Pyotr Smirnov bought another Rensk cellar with this money and became a Moscow merchant of the third guild. His Rensky cellar was located near a cast-iron bridge not far from Balchug, where the first Russian Tsarev Tavern was located.

In 1863, the first plant of Peter Smirnov opened on Ovchinnikovskaya embankment near the Chugunny Bridge, where 9 workers work and all products consist of several wine barrels.

In 1864, the production already employed more than 25 people. Production grew and soon Peter Smirnov acquired a corner house on Pyatnitskaya Street. This house was depicted on labels and became a trademark of the products of Peter Smirnov’s plant. In the early seventies, more than 70 workers already worked at the plant, and the merchant Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov joined the first guild.

In 1873, Pyotr Smirnov took part in the International Industrial Exhibition in Vienna - where he was unanimously recognized the best manufacturer, awarded an Honorary Diploma and a medal of the exhibition participant.

In 1876, the next level of recognition for product quality was achieved at the World Industrial Exhibition in Philadelphia. A large Philadelphia medal began to decorate the labels of all Smirnov bottles. As part of this success, in 1877 the Russian Ministry of Finance awarded the products of Peter Smirnov the State Emblem, giving the right to place it on the labels.

In 1878, his products won 2 gold medals in Paris. In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, with a whole collection of liqueurs, liqueurs, vodkas, liqueurs, his plant was awarded the right to depict the State Emblem.

In 1886, Pyotr Smirnov became the Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty - a note was preserved in the imperial papers: “The Moscow merchant Pyotr Smirnov was most graciously granted the title of Supplier of the Imperial Court. Gatchina, November 22, 1886." He was also awarded the Order of Stanislav III degree, which gave the right to hereditary honorary citizenship.

In the 90s, production grew, the number of workers increased to one and a half thousand: a plant, fifteen warehouses, 4 lithographs for printing labels and labels, seven glass factories. Up to 200 carts delivered orders throughout Moscow every day, and more than 700 people were engaged in collecting berries and herbs. The activities of Pyotr Smirnov annually brought the excise tax treasury about 5,000,000 rubles a year, and during the entire existence of the Smirnov factories, more than 30 million were contributed to the treasury for almost 30 years.

1888 - gold medal in Barcelona and the Spanish Order of St. Isabella. By a personal imperial decree “signed by His Majesty’s own hand,” he was awarded the general rank of Commercial Advisor;

1889 - big gold medal in Paris;

1893 - big gold medal in Chicago;

1896 - supplier to the court of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Sergius Alexandrovich. In the same year, the right to depict the State Emblem was repeated at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.

1897 - Gold medal at the Industrial and Art Exhibition in Stockholm.

Pyotr Arsenyevich Smirnov became one of richest people in Russia, his fortune was estimated at 8.7 million rubles. He died in 1898 in Moscow and was buried at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery.

His motto was “to give the best, to produce products from first-class materials and to spare no expense and expense on improved production equipment.”

Moscow is very fond of beautiful legends about mansions. And even if his true story is known to many, it is still distorted for the sake of a beautiful lie.
Tverskoy Boulevard cannot boast big amount buildings in Art Nouveau style. And this mansion, which stands almost in the middle of it, attracts special attention from walkers.

The gaze of passers-by always stops at the balcony with a fancy forged ornament, reminiscent of a ship sailing on the waves. True, now the lattice of this balcony is covered with ugly letters of the Empire restaurant. For many years, local historians have loved to say that this mansion was given to his mistress by vodka maker Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov. And none of them likes to tell the truth. But his story has nothing to do with this fiction, a lie erected for the sake of a catchphrase, about a good man, a caring family man, about a woman with a difficult fate, like everyone else at that time.

At the mansion interesting story. Back in the 1760s, it was mentioned as belonging to the horse guard captain Vasily Vasilyevich Istlentyev. In 1763, the house passed to the chamberlain, Lieutenant General Alexander Grigorievich Petrovo-Solovo.
After the fire, it belonged to Count Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov.
In the 19th century it had many owners and many renovations.
The result was a solid “empire mansion”, which in its internal structure retained traces of different eras with different floor levels, a labyrinth of rooms and services.

And so on November 28, 1900, the merchant Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov bought this mansion for his family from the hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Petrovich Malyutin for 299 thousand rubles. By that time, he had been happily married to Evgenia Ilyinichna Morozova for seven years. They raised three children: Tatyana, Arseny and Alexey. In 1900, another daughter, Olga, was born.

Pyotr Petrovich was the son of Pyotr Arsenyevich Smirnov, the creator of the famous Moscow vodka distillery in Sadovniki and his second wife Natalya Alexandrovna Tarakanova.
In his youth, Pyotr Petrovich himself was engaged in the tea trade in St. Petersburg and moved to Moscow only in 1893 at the insistence of his father, who sought to involve his son in the family business.
The next year (1894) the Partnership of a Vodka Factory, Warehouses of Wine, Spirits and Russian and Foreign Wines P.A. was established. Smirnov" in Moscow with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles, where Pyotr Petrovich became one of the directors. His family was growing, there wasn’t enough room for them all in his parents’ house on Pyatnitskaya, and Peter decided to buy a new house for them.

He invited the then famous Fyodor Shekhtel to be the architect. The Smirnovs were already familiar with him. He built for their family. Pyotr Petrovich set him the task of creating a decent and beautiful home for his family while preserving the multi-level quaint internal structure mansion. But Smirnov wanted his house to become a decoration of the boulevard and stand out from the rest of the development. Therefore, Shekhtel paid a lot of attention to the street facade, while his courtyard facade was extremely simple.

The dominant feature of the boulevard façade was, of course, a large forged balcony-ship, as if floating above the passers-by. The front hall opened into it.

The second dominant feature was a high attic with elongated stained glass windows and a cartouche with the owner’s monogram. The first floor was a utility floor, and on the second, Shekhtel created a magnificent suite of state halls and living rooms for Evgenia Ilyinichna and Pyotr Petrovich. The children's half was located in the attic. Servants lived in the courtyard buildings, there was a stable that overlooked Maly Gnezdnikovsky Lane.

The main staircase was made of white marble, its balustrade resembled an oncoming wave - the master’s favorite technique. On the second floor of the staircase there was a huge window with faceted glass, which shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow in sunny weather. In the lobby, guests were greeted by large ceremonial portraits of the owners of the mansion. All the halls of the front suite were made in different styles. Pyotr Petrovich’s son later recalled that he studied history and art history in these halls.

The formal dining room was in the Romanesque style with wood paneling on the walls, a barrel vaulted ceiling, and a powerful fireplace with two squat columns. Light entered the dining room through a triple lancet window with stained glass.

The large living room, where the owners held large receptions, musical and theatrical evenings, was made in classic style, richly decorated with stucco, painted greenish. In the painting of the ceiling, Shekhtel placed the monogram SPR - Smirnovs Peter and Evgenia.

A special ceremonial room was the huge Egyptian Hall, for which a special extension was even made from the courtyard. The hall was decorated with papyrus drawings in golden-beige tones.

Two powerful Egyptian columns separated the hall from the corridor. This hall was built specifically for art exhibitions.

The owners preferred realistic painting, which did not go well with the Egyptian decor of the hall, according to Ilya Repin. For Pyotr Petrovich Shekhtel made an office in gothic style, and for Evgenia Ilyinichna an elegant boudoir.

The dominant feature of the boudoir was the sail ceiling, all decorated with stucco ornaments of roses.
In the design of the pink living room, Fyodor Shekhtel used a then new lighting technique - light bulbs in the form of blossoming buds were inserted into the stucco ceiling with floral motifs along the perimeter.

This stucco depicted graceful female figures in tunics from two corners.

In all rooms there was beautiful furniture, paintings and other things dear to the heart. A large winter garden was created with strange plants and a small menagerie.

Tatyana Smirnova in the Winter Garden.
Children's rooms were decorated based on Russian fairy tales. The house had English radiators, water heating with its own boiler room. There was forced ventilation.

In this mansion, Pyotr Petrovich and Evgenia Ilyinichna’s last child, son Anatoly, was born in 1902. And in 1910, after a short illness, Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov suddenly passed away very young. He had a common follicular sore throat, complicated by swelling and suffocation. There were no antibiotics then and the heart could not withstand this disease. Evgenia Ilyinichna was left alone with five children. She had to continue her husband's trading business and raise children. Their financial situation became greatly complicated with the introduction of Prohibition and the state monopoly on vodka. But contrary to all rumors and later fabrications, Evgenia Ilyinichna’s family lived in this mansion until the revolution.
They didn’t rent it out to any club and she didn’t want to open any cinema here. By that time, the eldest daughter and son had created their own families and lived in a house on Pyatnitskaya. The revolution in this house was met by Evgenia Ilyinichna with her three youngest children. The house was occupied by cadets who fired from the house at the Red Army soldiers storming the neighboring mansion of the mayor.
The post-revolutionary fate of the family is very sad. Evgenia Ilyinichna, trying to save her family, married the Smirnovs’ Italian business partner and went with him to Japan. But they were not allowed to take the children, and they remained in Russia. Alexey and Anatoly died in the 1920s. Tatyana and her daughter managed to leave for Paris in 1926. Son Arseny wandered a lot around Central Asia, where he died in the mid-20th century.
During Soviet times, the mansion housed a people's court and a military prosecutor's office, court hearings took place in the Romansky Hall. In the 1990s most the mansion was given to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. In 1994, it was pushed out by placing the Melodiya company here, which was urgently evicted from the Anglican Church of St. Andrew's Church in Voznesensky Lane 8 (it was then occupied by Melodiya). Now in the right wing of the building and in the courtyard premises there is the Moscow branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. And the state rooms, restored in 2006 by a construction company, are occupied by restaurants that change each other every year. Last year it was the “Shekhtel Club”, now the restaurant (house of receptions and celebrations) “Empire”...
Which disfigured the balcony of the window.

Merchant of the 1st guild, hereditary honorary citizen of the Russian Empire, major benefactor, commercial adviser, “vodka king” of Russia Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov was born on January 21, 1831 (January 9, old style) in the village of Kayurovo in the parish of the village of Potapova, Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl province in to the family of serf peasants Arseny Alekseevich and Matryona Grigorievna.

In 1857, father Arseny and sons Yakov and Peter received “freedom”, and in the spring of 1858 they left their native village for Moscow forever, intending to join the merchant class and open what had long been a family business - wine trading.

In 1860, a new wine trading establishment of Arseny and Pyotr Smirnov was registered - the Rhine cellar (from a distorted name for Rhine wines). Pyotr Arsenievich serves as his father’s clerk, and after a few months he buys another Rensk cellar, becomes a Moscow merchant of the third guild and the owner of two wine establishments. But for the young merchant, trade was not the main thing. The words his father once said about poor quality vodka stuck with him: “It’s time to make our own, Smirnov’s!”

And now, three years later, Pyotr Arsenievich opens his own vodka factory, which still employs 9 hired workers and all the products fit into several barrels. Thanks to the tireless work of the company’s founder, his conscientious attitude to business and attention to the interests of the consumer, the matter is short term progressed so much that it became possible to set up your own factory for the production of various kinds of tips, liqueurs, liqueurs, etc., where there were already 25 employees and workers.

Gradually production became more complex and expanded. In addition to the rented premises of the plant, Smirnov acquired his own house (on Pyatnitskaya Street), which he had dreamed of for so long - near the Chugunny Bridge, which corners from Pyatnitskaya to Ovchinnikovskaya Embankment. This house subsequently appeared on labels and became a trademark. By it, any illiterate man could recognize Smirnovskaya among other bottles. The house on Pyatnitskaya became the ancestral castle of the Smirnov family, a reliable support in the expanding business. It was spacious, with an extensive courtyard and outbuildings, with deep vaulted cellars in which it was possible to keep barrels of wine or keep a Rensk cellar. On the ground floor there was a store and office space. Having bought up neighboring buildings along the embankment and Ovchinnikovsky lanes, Pyotr Smirnov created his own bridgehead for a large plant and warehouses attached to it, where the “Smirnov island” was formed. By the early seventies, the plant already employed seventy workers, and annual production had doubled.

In 1871, Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov joined the first guild. He was rich, belonged to the elite of the Moscow merchant class, had a beautiful house, a promising factory, huge warehouses and connections with many cities of the country. But the wine trade grew. Competitors, following Smirnov’s example, tried to make drinks purer in order to conquer the market with quality, and stepped on the heels. He needed to confirm his primacy, now with the recognition of specialists and experts. Therefore, in 1873, he decided to send his drinks to the International Industrial Exhibition in Vienna, at which the verdict was unanimous: the quality is excellent, the drinks are worthy of European attention - that is, an Honorary Diploma and an exhibition participant medal. This was the first official recognition of professionals. From that Vienna debut, the triumphant march of “Smirnovskaya” through the world's capitals began.

In 1876, they learned about “Smirnovskaya” in the New World at the World Industrial Exhibition in Philadelphia. After lengthy tastings by an international jury, Peter Smirnov’s strong drinks were recognized as among the best and awarded a medal of the highest award for the “high quality of products.” It was a louder success than Vienna! From now on, the Great Philadelphia Medal, as a sign of the winner, will adorn the labels of all Smirnov bottles. As a result of the exhibition, the Ministry of Finance of Russia in 1877 awarded the company of Peter Smirnov a high distinction, awarding it with the State Emblem, which gave the right from now on to place the Russian coat of arms on labels as a sign of achievements in national industry. This was a sign of guaranteed quality and opened up new opportunities for expanding the business. That coat of arms was worth a lot - it immediately put Smirnov’s company in first place among its rivals. Now he was becoming a recognized leader in the vodka industry and wine trade.

A year later - a new victory at the International Exhibition in Paris! Two gold medals - for vodka and for wine - in France, the country of winemaking! Now three medals and one State Emblem adorned the Smirnovskaya labels.

The success in Paris finally cemented Peter Smirnov's leadership among alcohol producers. This was also expressed in the scale of the business - 280 workers and products produced for more than three million rubles. Before the revolution, no one caught up with P.A. Smirnov’s plant in Moscow.

In 1882, for the first time in the years of its existence, Peter Smirnov’s company took part in the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition. The exposition of P.A. Smirnov’s plant was small, but the range of liqueurs, tinctures, and vodkas on display was amazing. But the experts, who met for a whole week, paid attention primarily to taste and laboratory research data, from which it was very clearly visible which of the winemakers thought about the health of consumers, and which only about their own income. In all respects, Petr Smirnov turned out to be the best.

Based on the results of the exhibition, the Ministry of Finance awarded the second State Emblem to P.A. Smirnov’s plant. This was the most respectable and coveted award - higher than it in the domestic industry was only the title of Supplier of the Imperial Court. The second eagle opened the way to this Olympus.

In the spring of 1885, Pyotr Smirnov submitted a second petition to the Ministry of the Court (the first in 1869 was rejected), which was brief and sincere, and vodka and wine were already known in the Moscow Palace Office. And in 1886, after a long circulation of papers among officials, Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov was awarded the Order of Stanislav, III degree, which gave the right to hereditary honorary citizenship, and after it the long-awaited decision. The Tsar personally wished that Smirnov become the supplier, which State Secretary Petrov noted in the papers: “The Moscow merchant Peter Smirnov was most graciously granted the title of Supplier of the Highest Court. Gatchina, November 22, 1886." It was a moment of greatest happiness; Peter Smirnov had been working towards this cherished goal for many years, defeating competitors, receiving applause and medals, but there was no main prize, which he had dreamed of almost since his youth. The third State Emblem soon followed, as confirmation of the high rank of the Tsar's Supplier.

By this time, the company P.A. Smirnov became the largest in production alcoholic drinks: 1.5-2 thousand workers, over 45 million “wares” of various drinks were produced annually, about 60 million labels were used, over 180 thousand pounds of birch charcoal were used to purify vodka. The company spent 120 thousand rubles on traffic jams alone. in year.

Relations with the Ministry of the Imperial Court were developing successfully: his drinks were really good - vodka, liqueurs and tinctures, cognacs and wines. But vodka was in particular demand - table wine No. 21 and table wine No. 20.

Purified No. 21 was indeed the most popular drink in Russia. And cheap - 40 kopecks per bottle. Table wheat No. 40 was a little more expensive - a ruble a bottle. And although it was famous for its purity, the popularly beloved “twenty-first” was not much inferior to it in taste. This was Smirnov’s success - to make vodka only good quality, be it first grade or third. And accessible not only to the Emperor and the Minister of the Court.

The extensive activities of Pyotr Smirnov in those years can be judged by the fact that his factories pay the excise tax treasury about 5,000,000 rubles a year, and during the entire previous period of their existence they contributed over 30 million to the treasury. And, despite such a huge production, which provides a secure income for many hundreds of employees at factories and management, Pyotr Smirnov for almost 30 years was never subjected to the slightest government penalties or even reprimands.

Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov was actively involved in charity work: since 1870 he was “an agent of the Committee on those asking for alms in the Pyatnitskaya part”, since 1873 - an honorary member of the Council of Orphanages of the Department of Institutions of Empress Maria.

He repeatedly donated to the needs of the Alexander-Mariinsky Women's School, and built one of its buildings with his own funds. He took part in the affairs of the Moscow Eye Hospital, Alekseevskaya Psychiatric Hospital, the Moscow Department of Care of the Blind, the Society of Military Doctors, the Iveron Community of Sisters of Mercy, etc. For the workers of his factory, Pyotr Arsenievich built several houses with free apartments, arranged for them kindergarten, laundry, bathhouse, pharmacy, established pensions for workers and employees who worked at the plant for 25 years.

In 1888, Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov, already very favored by fate and power, was awarded the general rank of Commercial Advisor by a personal imperial decree “with His Majesty’s own signature.”

In 1894, a partnership was established for a vodka distillery, warehouses for wine, spirits and Russian and foreign wines P.A. Smirnov in Moscow with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles.

The balance sheet for 1897, last signed by Pyotr Smirnov (a year before his death in 1898), amounted to a fabulous amount for those times: 19 million 713 thousand 955 rubles!

In 1902, due to a conflict between the heirs, the company was liquidated.