Grigory Grigoryevich takes pictures, 1895 or 1896, Privolnoe, Yekaterinoslav province.
A year ago, I didn’t know anything about these photographs, or about what was behind it, or about Grigory Eliseev (of course, except that he opened famous stores), or about his children.
I always thought that all my ancestors lived in Moscow, but to my surprise, it turned out that my great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather were born in St. Petersburg on the same line, and only after they retired bought a small estate in the Tver province, where they lived until the 90s of XIX in. Great-great-grandfather loved horses and loved to draw. And they never lived in Moscow and never had a house or an apartment here. In general, I had a very vague idea about this branch of my family. If it were not for the family archive, which my cousin put at my disposal, I would not know anything even now. Exploring the archive and searching for new material was like a detective at times. I think that many more can be found, especially in RGADA.
When and where mine met and became friends with Grigory Grigoryevich Eliseev and his wife Maria Andreevna is unknown. There is one photograph of the 1880s, taken on our estate - there Grigory Grigorievich is still quite young (there are two families on a picnic in the photograph). Judging by the letters and diaries, in which Eliseev's family relations are always mentioned, they were the closest. At some point, Grigory Grigoryevich invited his great-great-grandfather to the managers of his stud farms. Most likely, great-great-grandfather had some share in the enterprise. Well, since the Eliseevs did not use their dacha on Petersburg Highway, and, as I said, my great-great-grandfather did not have his own house or apartment in Moscow, the dacha was temporarily given to us and mine lived there for more than 10 years.
Most of the photos are from the 90s. XIX and the very beginning of the XX century and was filmed on the estates of Eliseev Druzhkovka and Privolnoye in the Yekaterinoslav province during business trips, in which families were also taken. All photos are homemade, taken by ourselves and for ourselves. There are many photographs in which the Eliseevs were taken together with mine, in 40 photographs only the Eliseevs.
Probably some of the photographs were taken by Grigory Grigorievich himself.
All the Eliseevs: Marya Andreevna, Gulya, Seryozha, Kolya, Sasha, and Grigory Grigoryevich himself. 1895 or 1896, Privolye.
From the same album.
The village of Privolnoye, Yekaterinoslav province, where the Eliseevs owned a stud farm. A general panorama of the stud farm, a recently built church in the distance, 1900-1905 Judging by the photograph, they knew how to manage the household.
Moscow, Petersburg highway, 24, Eliseev's dacha. This is the same house where my great-great-grandfather and his family lived in Moscow until his death in 1910. There are several photos taken in the house. What kind of hipsters are posing in front of the house - I don't know. Definitely not the Eliseevs and not mine.
Friendship between families also passed to children who knew each other from childhood. The fact that the Eliseevs lived in St. Petersburg, and mine in Moscow did not prevent this. They constantly communicate, in the summer of 1913 they even rented a dacha near St. Petersburg together. They communicated with those who left until the end of the 1920s, while they were allowed to go abroad (the last photo with Sergei Eliseev was taken in 1926 in Berlin). Those who remained were friends to the end.
Gulya Eliseev, the eldest son of Grigory Eliseev and his full namesake - Grigory Grigoryevich (1885-1938) with his wife Vera and daughter Tasya, 1911. In the photo he is in the form of a student of the Higher Imperial Military Medical Courses. Participant great war 1914-17 After the revolution, he worked as a surgeon in a hospital in St. Petersburg. In 1934 he was exiled with his family to Ufa. In 1938 he was shot.
The first European who graduated from a Japanese university, professor at Harvard University, Sorbona University, Sergey Grigoryevich Eliseev. In 1920, after a short arrest with his family, he illegally crossed the border with Finland and fled to Paris.
In a photograph taken in Japan in 1910 or 1911, Sergei is still very young.
In previous posts, I cited excerpts from the boy's letters and diary. Now he has grown up, moved to Moscow, where he lives with his father and sister in a house on Petersburg Highway and is torn between a sick father, studying at the university, helping his father manage a horse farm, a bride in Lausanne, who is about to arrive in Moscow. Well, my sister (Valentina) “threatens” with marriage and leaving home. A terrible tension, they even ask the price and discuss the possibility of buying a house in Switzerland in order to permanently transport the sick old man there. In August 1908, Vitaly wrote to his bride in Lozana:
“Yesterday I saw Serezha off to Tokyo for five years. It was sad. With him goes to Irkutsk to see off his mother - Marya Andreevna. They both loom, run from the house. The whole day yesterday was full of quiet talk, unspoken sympathy. When the train was already departing, and I kissed Marya Andreevna's hand, she hugged me, as she had done ten years ago, and said - "poor you, poor father, poor Valentina" - and there were tears in her eyes, both for us and for my family too."
Sergei Eliseev's sons Nikita and Vadim. Photo sent already from Paris.
Nikita Sergeevich Eliseev (1915-1997). He graduated from the Sorbonne and the School of Oriental Languages. During World War II, a member of the Resistance. Fellow (1950), General Secretary (1950-1956) and Assistant Director (1956-1965) of the French Institute for Arab Studies in Damascus (Syria). Since 1966 professor Arabic and Literature at the University of Lyon. Since 1980, director of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Christian and Muslim East of the Inter-University Center for Medieval History and Archeology.
Vadim Sergeevich Eliseev (1918-2002). He graduated from the Sorbonne and the School of Oriental Languages in Paris. Worked at the Fornet Library (1941). Member of the French Resistance during World War II. From 1942-1982 chief curator of the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. Founding member of the International Council of Museums. taught Chinese at the School of Oriental Languages. Professor at the School of the Louvre (1952-1956), School of Oriental Languages (1952-1956), National Institute of Political Sciences (1952-1972). Professor of the School of Higher Knowledge. Member National Commission on archaeological excavations under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1955-1968). In 1982-1986 he was the chief curator of the Musée Guimet in Paris. Inspector General of the Museums of the City of Paris (1983). Honorary General Curator of the Museums of France. Awarded with the Order Legion of Honor, Academic Palms, Order of Arts and Letters, Resistance Medal.
My favorite photograph is Marietta Eliseeva (Maria Grigoryevna Timofeeva), the youngest daughter of Grigory Eliseev, 1930s, Moscow. Her fiancé, staff captain G. N. Andreev-Tverdov, was arrested in St. Petersburg in 1918 and, along with other hostages, was placed on a barge, which was sunk. Maria Grigorievna lived in Moscow in a communal apartment, at one time she worked as a driver. In the late 60s, she was even released once to visit her brother in Paris.
Of course, when Sergei Grigorievich fled to Finland in 1920, there was no time for the archive. But Grigory Grigoryevich himself? Did he take his archive to Paris in 1914? If so, then there are almost certainly photos of mine.
I don't know anyone from the Eliseev family, and I never met them. Neither those in Europe and the USA, nor those here in Russia.
In Soviet times, it was difficult to find a person who would not know, would not have heard about the most delicious store in the country with the name caressing the ear - "Eliseevsky". From childhood, from the beginning of the 70s, I remember this absolutely fantastic aroma of coffee, chocolate, something else very tasty ...
And of course, everyone knew that this palace was called (there is no language to call it a store) in honor of the former owner, the merchant Eliseev, and officially called Grocery Store No. 1. It opened in Moscow 119 years ago.
Do you know that by the time of nationalization (expropriation) the Eliseev Brothers company had a glorious centuries-old history?
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However, Gastronome No. 1 had its own high-profile story - its director Yuri Sokolov for embezzlement in a special large sizes sentenced to the highest degree. Very revealing - oh times, oh mores!
But back to the origins. It turns out that the well-known throughout Russia "Eliseevsky" store could well have been called differently - "Kasatkinsky", if not for the love of the sons for their father, who, by his example and instructions, taught them hard work and thus brought them to people. In glorification not of their true surname - Kasatkina, but of the name of the priest, they named the business they founded by the common patronymic: "The Eliseev Brothers Partnership." And the grandchildren fixed the grandfather's name in the memory of Russia, passing half a century later this name to two stores, the most luxurious in the whole state and similar, like twin brothers, in St. Petersburg and Moscow. And the third - in Kyiv ...
It all started with Count Sheremetev. His serfs were the Kasatkins, and the head of the family, Pyotr Eliseevich Kasatkin, worked as a gardener for the count. According to legend, Count Sheremetev, famous for his extravagant deeds, was struck by fresh strawberries brought by a skilled gardener in the winter cold and exclaimed: “Ask for whatever you want!”
So Pyotr Eliseevich Kasatkin got his freedom and began an amazing, dizzying career, which was picked up by his relatives - brother Grigory, sons ...
Trade went uphill, oranges, overseas fruits, tobacco, and Pyotr Eliseevich, leaving Grigory on the farm, leaves for distant Spain, then to Portugal, to the island of Madeira. There he develops vigorous activity, studies the technology of making wine, opens warehouses and arranges deliveries of the best wine directly to St. Petersburg.
The company prospers, and suddenly Pyotr Eliseevich ... dies before reaching the age of 50 in 1825.
But the business develops, and the leading role passes to his middle son Grigory Petrovich.
In 1873, when Grigory Petrovich (already a real state councilor and vowel of the city duma) was at the head of all affairs, he presented his collection of wines in Vienna and received an honorary diploma, in London - a Gold Medal.
And the son of Grigory Petrovich, Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev, is already becoming the successor of glorious deeds.
It was under him that the company reached its apogee in its development, it was he who opened this very, very famous store on Tverskaya, and it was he who became the last owner of the famous company ...
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding, a photo booklet was published with very eloquent pictures.
And then came a serene summer day in 1901, on which a solemn prayer service was scheduled in honor of the opening of the "Eliseev Store and the cellar of Russian and foreign wines." By morning, the wooden box was dismantled, and the audience, full of curiosity, gasped when they saw the magnificent facade, and through the huge windows shining with cleanliness - the luxurious interior of the store: a high, two-story hall, magnificent crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a ceiling and walls decorated with fabulous decor . The store really seemed to have come from "1001 Nights".
Among those who entered the realm of gourmets through the carpeted Kozitsky Lane, was the entire Moscow nobility, headed by the military governor-general (son of Emperor Alexander II) Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife, vowels of the city duma. The variety of wine, gastronomic, colonial goods was beyond description. Everything could be learned from the gallant clerks, who respectfully answered all sorts of questions from buyers.
There were so many varieties of coffee that Muscovites were at a loss as to which coffee to buy - Arabian or Abyssinian, West Indian or Mexican. The clerks were inclined to believe that the most aromatic coffee from South America or at least from Central. Few people in Russia drank coffee then. There was hardly a hundred grams per inhabitant per year, in England at that time they drank five times more, but who really enjoyed the aromatic drink then was the Dutch - 81 times more than the Russians.
Tea was popular in Russia. And the Eliseevsky store offered the richest selection of teas from China, Japan, India, Ceylon. Subtle connoisseurs preferred to buy tea from Java from Eliseev.
A complex bouquet of aromas of the Eliseevsky store was created by spices: beautiful bottles with vanilla, cloves, cardamom, saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg nestled in the most fragrant corner of it ...
The buyers highly appreciated the cheese department. At any time of the year, the choice of various cheeses seemed endless. Solid - Swiss, Chester, Emmental, Edam and, of course, Italian "granite" parmesan. The counter of soft cheese appeared even more diverse: on waterproof parchment, “liquid” brie, Neuchâtel, Limburg, Edamer, Shakhtel lay side by side ... (By the way, Gilyarovsky noticed him, and it was he who was preferred by all rich Moscow.)
Grigory Grigoryevich Eliseev discovered “wooden oil” (as olive oil was then called) to Muscovites. It went from Provence through Odessa and Taganrog.
In the three halls of the store there were five departments: a gastronomic department, sparkling with all kinds of bottles and crystals of "baccarat", colonial goods, groceries, a confectionery and the most extensive - fruit. Confectionery products were extremely appetizing - large and small cakes or small "lady's cakes" (petit fours), which are good to treat a companion when passing Eliseevsky. This imperceptibly lured the future customer into the store: having enjoyed the treat, the lady noticed other products that she suddenly became necessary for her table ... Cakes were baked in their own bakery in the yard and seemed to keep her warm. They were not touched by the cold of the glacier - it keeps well, but does not add taste. Dozens of varieties of sausages were made in their own sausage shop, also in the yard, which Malkiel once cleared ...
Moscow also appreciated the novelty: mushrooms from France - truffles. They, of course, were expensive, but very suitable for a gala dinner. What about anchovies? So beautiful word called a small smoked, specially salted fish, brown on the back, with a silver belly. Looking at the enthusiastic people who duly appreciated its taste and scope, Grigory Grigoryevich calmly but meaningfully smiled, because he was preparing to surprise the audience with something even more significant.
Grigory Grigoryevich Eliseev had five sons, and he was proud of them. And he also had a favorite daughter, and the keeper of the hearth - the mother of his children, his wife, Maria Andreevna.
And suddenly a scandal broke out in the family. Everyone who knew and did not know the Eliseevs started talking about him. A great misfortune befell. The wife of Grigory Grigorievich, fifty-year-old Maria Andreevna, from the family of famous merchants Durdins, suddenly committed suicide - she hanged herself on her own scythe ...
It happened on October 1, 1914. And everyone immediately recognized the reason: the millionaire Eliseev had long secretly loved Vera Fedorovna Vasilyeva, a married young lady (she was almost twenty years younger than Grigory Grigorievich). Someone informed the sons, the rumor reached their mother, and she could not bear the shame.
A monstrous circumstance for the sons was revealed: on October 26, just three weeks after the death of his wife, Grigory Grigoryevich, who had just celebrated his fiftieth birthday, got married in Bakhmut with the culprit of the family tragedy. Against this background, they perceived the highest command to include a new wife, Vera Fedorovna, in the first, most honorable, part of the Noble genealogical book, as an insult to the deceased mother. Recently, a close-knit large family broke up. Only the youngest remained to live in her father's house - daughter Masha, who was fifteen years old. The brothers vowed to take Masha away from their father.
Grigory Grigoryevich, knowing the firm character of his sons - he himself had the same - hired bodyguards. They accompanied the girl to the gymnasium, on walks with the bonnet, sat in the entrance, walked round the clock near the empty luxurious house.
At this time the brothers made cunning plan kidnapping and carried it out successfully. At the turn of the street, when Mashenka with her tired bodyguards was returning home from the gymnasium in a carriage, a collision occurred: some reckless driver, like a blind man, ran right into the carriage. The guards jumped out of the carriage only for a minute to deal with the insolent, when hired fellows immediately jumped out of the entrance of the house, grabbed the girl and locked the door behind them. No one had the right to enter the house - private property. The police appeared, and soon Grigory Grigoryevich himself arrived, but he, now a hereditary nobleman, the head of all St. Petersburg merchants, the permanent vowel of the city duma, a man with connections in high society, rich and powerful, failed to return his daughter.
And then the revolution broke out. In 1918, Grigory Grigorievich was deprived of all his property and, of course, his favorite shops in Moscow, Petrograd, Kyiv, the New Bavaria chocolate factory ... Grigory Grigorievich left for France. He died in 1949 at the respectable age of 84, outliving his wife by three years. They are buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.
The life of the sons of Grigory Eliseev developed differently.
The eldest, Grigory Grigoryevich, became a surgeon. After the revolution, he did not leave Russia, for which he paid with his life: after the story of the murder of Kirov, he, along with his brother Pyotr Grigorievich, who also remained in Russia, was exiled to Ufa in 1934, where they were arrested in December 1937 and convicted under Article 58 -10 and 58-11 (counter-revolutionary activities and agitation), were promptly shot.
The most successful life of Sergei Grigorievich. Already by 1917, he was a well-known Japanese scholar, diplomat and Privatdozent at Petrograd University. In 1920, he managed to cross by boat from St. Petersburg to Finland, from where he moved first to France, and then to the USA.
And that same Mashenka Eliseeva lived a long life and died in the late sixties. Her first husband, Captain Gleb Nikolaevich Andreev-Tverdov, was shot by the Bolsheviks as a hostage in the second half of 1918.
This is how the famous Eliseev dynasty ended, and only their name still sounds loud, because until now people, with bated breath, go into this fabulous palace-shop!
(1864-08-21 )Grigory Grigorievich Eliseev(August 21, St. Petersburg - January 11, Paris) - Russian entrepreneur, horse breeder of Russian trotting breeds, Honorary Consul General of Denmark in St. Petersburg, Acting State Councilor (1914).
Biography
Got home education, 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 Cars "Frese and Co." , 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". AT 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
see also
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 there were 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.
But even an old woman has a problem… One morning, the Moscow Governor-General Zakrevsky drank his morning coffee, as usual, with Filippovskaya cod. And a baked cockroach was found in it. Not even an hour passed before the guilty Filippov was brought before the eyes of the authorities.
What kind of abomination is this?! roared the governor-general.
Something, - grumbled Ivan Maksimovich. - This is a highlight, sir!
You lie, bastard! Are there raisins with raisins?
But how? The range has recently been updated.
The king of Moscow bakers returned home at a run. Out of breath, he flew into the bakery, grabbed a sieve of raisins in the culinary shop and sank, to the horror of the bakers, into the sieve dough. An hour later, a basket of hot raisins with raisins arrived at Zakrevsky's house. And the next day there was no end to buyers!
After the death of Ivan Maksimovich in 1890, his business passed to his son Dmitry. It was he who opened the famous Philippian bakery on Tverskaya with its own coffee shop. There were huge mirrored windows, marble tables and footmen in tuxedos. This half-coffee shop-semi-shop prompted Grigory Eliseev's idea. He even bought a house next door for his shop.
Following the Moscow store, Grigory Grigoryevich set about creating the St. Petersburg store. At the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya (just where grandfather Pyotr Eliseevich walked with a tray on his head, earning the initial capital of the company), the architect Baranovsky - the one who rebuilt the house under the Moscow "Eliseevsky" - built a tall palace in the Art Nouveau style . It was not enough just to repeat the Moscow miracle in the capital - it was necessary to come up with something new, and Eliseev came up with it! He left the first floor for a shop, the second for a multiplex theater (the public should have a choice of what to watch!), and on the third he set up a cafe. Why not a prototype of modern shopping centers, perhaps replacing the theater with a cinema?
Grigory Grigoryevich was already developing a plan to create an international network of Eliseevsky, the first of which was supposed to open in New York, but World War, and the idea had to be abandoned until better times. Which, alas! - for the Eliseev clan they never came. And it's not even about the revolution ...
The collapse of the dynasty
On October 1, 1914, the wife of Grigory Grigorievich, Maria Andreevna, committed suicide. On the third try. A little earlier, she had already rushed into the Neva and opened her veins - unsuccessfully. She was locked in the house, taking away everything more or less dangerous, but she seized the moment and hung herself on a towel.
Maria Andreevna was the daughter of a merchant of the first guild Andrei Ivanovich Durdin, the king of breweries. Having married her at one time, Grigory Grigoryevich took a very successful step. First, the merger of capitals; second, good communications; thirdly, Maria Andreevna had no less commercial acumen than he himself. And, finally, she bore him five beautiful sons, heirs of the dynasty, and a lovely daughter ...
But approaching the age of 50, Maria Andreevna, and in her youth rather smart and decisive than graceful and beautiful, completely lost her feminine attractiveness. And Grigory Grigoryevich was still young and fit ... So he became interested in a young lady, the wife of a merchant of the 2nd guild, Vera Fedorovna Vasilyeva. A seemingly banal story, but with the Eliseevs it ended in tragedy. For six months, the lovers met secretly, maintaining decorum, then Vera's husband found out about everything and began the divorce proceedings ...
Grigory Grigoryevich threw himself at his wife's feet, begging for freedom, but heard in response: "Only over my corpse!" Worst of all, grown-up sons, who until recently revered their father as some kind of deity, turned away from him and rallied around their mother. Grigory Grigoryevich rashly deprived them of their financial support, Maria Andreevna made a retaliatory move, withdrawing her own capital from the company's accounts and giving it to Grigory Grigoryevich's brother, Alexander Grigoryevich, for preservation. The case came to a trial between the brothers (Grigory Grigoryevich lost) and an ugly, disgusting, public scandal. And then until the death of Maria Andreevna ...
Grigory Grigoryevich did not go to bury her, and did not even send a wreath from himself. On that day, he kept walking from corner to corner around the office and exclaimed: “Stubborn, self-willed woman! She did it her way! Well, so I am stubborn and self-willed and will also do it my own way. He married Vera Feodorovna three weeks after the funeral of his first wife. The sons on the same day went to the notary and issued an official renunciation of their father's inheritance. They never spoke to Grigory Grigorievich again and never saw each other again. Their main complaint against their father was not even the betrayal of their mother as such, but the violation of the merchant's word that he had once given to Maria Andreevna and her parents, starting a profitable deal called "legal marriage." Well! It was a sin for Grigory Grigorievich to complain - he himself brought them up like that ...
For some time, the 14-year-old daughter Masha remained in her father's house on the Exchange Line. Grigory Grigoryevich, fearing that her brothers would kidnap her, hired bodyguards - in vain! One fine day, a reckless driver collided with the carriage where the girl was traveling. The bodyguards pounced on the insolent man, while Mashenka disappeared in the meantime. An hour later, Grigory Grigoryevich received a letter with instructions. He arrived at the appointed place on Morskaya Street, where a line of lawyers and notaries was already waiting, in the presence of which the fugitive, leaning out of the window, shouted to her father: “I myself ran away from home. Because of my mother." And again Grigory Grigoryevich sued, and again lost the case.
Now even the young wife did not please him. Eliseev began to drink bitter and abandoned his business. After the revolution, the couple left for France, taking little with them. However, they had enough for a modest life. Vera became interested in painting, Grigory Grigorievich - in gardening. Despite the 20-year age difference, he survived it and died at 84, completely alone. More than once, Eliseev made attempts to improve relations with children, but they all failed.
More about children
Having quarreled with their father, all the sons of Eliseev lost interest in the merchant craft. Nicholas left with the first wave of emigration and became a stock market journalist in Paris. Sergey, an orientalist by education, got out of Russia only in 1920 - he just got into a boat and sailed to Finland, then he also moved to France, taught Chinese, Korean, Japanese at the Sorbonne. The third brother, Alexander, became an engineer - he stayed in Leningrad and lived until 1953. The fate of the eldest, Grigory, and the youngest, Peter, was the most tragic of all. They also stayed at home. Grigory chose surgery, operated on a lot, and in 1937, together with Peter, he was arrested. They were both rotted in the camp. And Mashenka on the eve of the revolution married a cadet, who was shot by the Bolsheviks very soon, on this her trace is lost.
Now the descendants of Eliseev live in France, Switzerland, America. There is still not a single businessman among them... They diligently look after the graves of Nikolai Grigorievich and Sergei Grigorievich on Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois. And the resting place of Grigory Grigoryevich with his second wife looks completely abandoned. His descendants never forgave him...