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Documentary cinemaPatronage in Russia Genre: A documentary film
«For the art to thrive, not only artists but patrons too are required to be» K. S. Stanislavskiy
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a Roman poet, writer and political activist who lived in the 1st century BC would have been forgotten if not for his friendship with Horace, Vergil and other art and science figures and his patronage of them. With time, the name Maecenas in some languages became a common noun describing a person who has means and who supports others without financial remuneration or return or, in other words, is engaged in patronage. The patronage in Russia has a long tradition. Russian tsars, princes and nobles supported icon painters, chronicle writers, church and palace builders, book printers, poets and scientists. The real rise of patronage in Russia began with the Catherine II reign and its golden age was in the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.
History of Patronage It is accepted that the year 988, when Russ was christened, is the year when patronage practices in Russia began. With acceptance of Christianity and one of its fundamental commandments: “Love your neighbour as yourself”, they began to see the needs of the poor and it found its manifestation in giving to “orphans and cripples”. One of the old Russian chronicles read: “…he said to every poor and crippled to come to the prince’s court and receive every need, water and bread”. A distinguishing feature of charity in the pre-Peter Russia was that poor people mainly received food and clothes (money was given rarely), they received constructed households and they had free medical treatment. Often, on the eve of great holidays, tsars, disguised, clandestinely visited prisons, hospitals and orphanages, where they gave out alms. The charity without public knowledge was accepted as a real expression of the Christian love of the neighbour. Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible) took measures directed at making it legal to provide charities within the frames of the state law. The tsar himself had a habit to give money to the poor, to widows and orphans. In 1712, there was a decree about “Establishment of Hospitals in All Provinces” approved, according to which, those hospitals had to care for the needs of the disabled poor who were unable to provide for themselves, as well as for the old people and for the infants born out of wedlock.” Private contributions were the main source of charity financing in the Peter the Great time. The fact is that the tsar himself gave one third of his emolument for the same purpose. Fines levied from dissidents were also directed to charities. In 1802, under the umbrella of the emperor’s family, there was established one of the first humane societies: “The Imperial Humane Society”, whose purpose was to pay for educational institutions, hospitals and orphanages and provide help to fire victims and resettlers. In the end of the 18th century, a new social movement began in Russia aimed at patronage of arts, sciences and culture by way of collecting large libraries and art collections and founding art galleries and theatres. In the post-reform Russia numerous laws were approved and unofficial traditions created due to which the social policy of the state and private charities were systematized and got a powerful boost for new development. By the beginning of the 20th century, the social and private charities became a usual phenomenon in Russia, thus proving the openness and benevolence of the great Russian soul. Museums, libraries, schools, picture galleries and exhibitions are the range of the charitable activities of Russian patrons whose names entered the history for good. These are Tretyakovs, Mamontovs, Bakhrushins, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Schukins, Naydyonovs, Botkins and many others. The list of Russian patrons is very long and it is not possible to mention all of the Russian merchants, industrialists and the nobles giving a part of their personal worth to sciences, arts and other charities. It is good to note that the patrons were people with widely varying personalities but who were obsessed with the idea of Russia’s prosperity. Due to those people, the Russian culture had a powerful boost in its development. For the majority of the patrons, charities became the lifestyle and the character rather than the reaction to various economical crises. TheGreatPatrons
With grateful memory of those names, my generation grew. Patrons of Russia. Kozma Terentyevich SOLDATENKOV, 1818 - 1901 Kozma Terentyevich Soldatenkov, entrepreneur and book publisher, was a major cotton cloth salesman. He lived in a luxurious house on Myasnitskaya Street in Moscow and he had a summer cottage in Kuntsevo with vast lands. He was an owner of another fifteen summer houses and a school for sixty peasant students. In Ilyinka, on the premises of the guest house, he had a two-storey building. The first floor was occupied by I. I. Baryshev, a manager of the cotton trade company. The second floor was used as a study often visited by famous salesmen, literature people and culture activists. K. T. Soldatenkov was a book publisher and not in the ordinary sense of this occupation but as a patron who tried to assist writers and translators. He financed numerous publications. His money was also used for construction of two residence houses for the old, a vocational school, a big hospital for the poor (now S. P. Botkin Hospital). He bequeathed his collections of books and pictures to the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library). К. Т. Soldatenkov was an Old Believer and he followed all Old Believers’ customs but it was not an obstacle for him to meet progressive contemporaries and to go for European trips in summers. Patrons of Russia. Aleksey Petrovich BAKHRUSHIN, 1853 -1904 The family of Bakhrushin had a Tartar ancestor from Kasimov, who took Christianity. The family name originates from his father’s name Bakhrush. Since the 16th century Bakhrushins lived in Zaraysk. In 1821, Aleksey Petrovich and his family moved to Moscow. He was selling cattle. He supplied raw skins to leather producers but, after he accrued necessary funds, he opened his own leather factory. In 1834, he opened a larger leather plant. His entire estate, after his death in 1848, was inherited by his wife Natalya Ivanovna Bakhrushina and sons Petr, Aleksandr and Vasiliy. Аleksandr managed the leather plant. Petr managed the cloth factory and Vasiliy took care of sales of both products. The majority of their businesses were managed by the brothers collectively. The number of work force at the plant and factory by the turn of the century exceeded 1000 and the company capital measured more than 2 million rubles. The brothers were also involved in charities. They invested money in buying land plots, not only in Moscow but also in Zaraysk, the town of their ancestors. In that town, they built a church, a residence house for the old, and a vocational school. In Moscow, they built a hospital for incurable patients, an orphanage, a free tenancy apartment building and more. Their major contributions were more than3.5 million rubles. Aleksandr and Vasiliy were awarded with the honorary citizenship of Moscow for their charity activities in 1901. Petr had died earlier. The son of Petr Alekseyevich – Aleksey Petrovich Bakhrushin – was known in Moscow as a passionate bibliophile, a collector of antiquities, art, etc. He became a renowned connoisseur of ancient books, rare masterpieces, valued publications, antiquities and he owned a large ivory and bone miniatures collection. A. P. Bakhrushin’s home on Vorontsovo Field was transformed in a famous museum and a place of meetings of prominent culture figures to discuss cultural life events. Aleksey Petrovich was well informed about other Moscow collections. He gathered information about them. After his death in 1916, this information was published in a book, as a reference who was who in the collectors’ world and listed art collections. His cousin Aleksey Aleksandrovich, 1865-1929, collected theatrical items and founded the first theatre museum in Russia. He handed over this museum to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Later, the museum was named after him. Patrons of Russia. PavelMikhaylovichTRETYAKOV, 1832 - 1898 A founder of the richest and most prominent Russian paintings gallery, Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov was born in a merchant’s family in Moscow. His successful sales activity allowed him to spend large amounts to purchase pictures. Mostly, he was attracted to paintings of Russian artists of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. His collection contained 1287 works of Russian masters: A. K. Savrasov, V. I. Yakobi, M. P. Klodt, V. G. Perov, I. Ye. Repin, I. N. Kramskoy, N. N. Ge and others. Along with the paintings, the collection also contained 518 sheets of engravings and 75 pictures of foreign artists. The pictures were placed in a part of his mansion, which was modified for this purpose, involving adjacent older structures. A petition for a museum permit and for its transfer to the authorities of Moscow was applied for by P. M. Tretyakov in August of 1982. The museum opening ceremony took place on August 15, 1893. The main building façade was built in 1902, according to artist V. M. Vasnetsov’s design. The will of P. M. Tretyakov read that the gallery was to be located in the mansion he donated for that purpose for the eternal times for the free attendance by the public. As he learned about the establishment of a gallery with such a magnificent art collection, Russian Emperor Alexander I exclaimed: “This Moscow merchant did it before his tsar!” After his visit of Moscow In 1911, the French artist Henri Matisse wrote about the Tretyakov Gallery: “I was impressed with Russian paintings. I stood long in front of icons and literally was astounded". In 1926, Artist Nesterov said on Vasnetsov’s grave: “There wouldn’t have been Surikov, Repin, Vrubel, Vasnetsov or hundreds of other names of art in Moscow and in Russia, if there were no Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov.” Patrons of Russia. Pavel Mikhaylovich RYABUSHINSKIY, 1820 - 1899 The founder of the Ryabushinsky dynasty, Mikhail Yakovlevich, began his business with sales. In 1846, he purchased a small textile factory with 140 looms and 140 workers, producing wool and semi-wool fabric. In 1820, his capital was 1000 rubles and by the time of his death, in 1858, it reached two million. Pavel Mikhaylovich constantly assisted his father by organizing operations of factories, expanding sales. He had started his work as an errand boy at his father’s store. After his father’s death, his own activities coincided with liberal reforms of Alexander II. He joined the liberal group of salesmen, participating in various commissions and holding elected positions. He had six daughters from the first marriage who were sent to study at a boarding school. From the second marriage, he had 8 sons and 5 daughters. All children were good students and they took interest in the father’s business. In 1887, P. M. Ryabushinskiy established The P. M. Ryabushinskiy & Sons Textile Company, which capital was 2,416,656 rubles and 18 kopeks, plus lands, business facilities, equipment and other property. There always were funds allotted to charities (a hospital, an old aged residence home, a children daycare, a factory school, a free cafeteria, a refuge home for widows and orphans, etc.) Before his death, P. M. Ryabushinskiy purchased an estate from the noble family of Ryumin in Kuchino. According to his will, the estate was not to be divided and all the heirs were to be co-owners. No one lived in the central building of Ryumins. Children built their own mansions in different parts of that estate. They continued the family tradition of charities. Fyodor Pavlovich initiated a scientific expedition to Kamchatka. Dmitriy Pavlovich, with a physicist’s education, constructed an aerodynamics laboratory in Kuchino. Nikolay became a Russian art patron. He organized exhibitions and other cultural events. Patrons of Russia. Petr Ivanovich SCHUKIN, 1851 - 1912 Petr Ivanovich Schukin comes from a family of salesmen and is a son of Ivan Vasilyevich Schukin, 1818 – 1890, who was a key figure in textile industry and sales in Moscow. As a student of Girst’s boarding school, Petr Ivanovich thought of doing university studies, but his father interrupted his education and took him to business trips abroad to show him how foreign textile factories worked. When abroad, Petr Ivanovich purchased books, lithographies and engravings, He also continued his collecting by buying items at Nizhniy Novgorod Fair, though the majority of his purchases were made in Moscow. Besides books, he also paid interest to the Oriental art items from Persia, India, China and Japan. Topics of his collections were very diverse: weapons, porcelain, folk art, manuscripts, etc. In 1890, his father Ivan Vasilyevich Schukin died and left a large heritage to his son. Petr Ivanovich founded a museum on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street. In September 1893, the museum building was erected. It had a library, a picture gallery, a depository and some other premises. The best traditions of the Russian architecture were incorporated in the building design, inside and outside. In 1896, the museum was opened to the public but the collection continued to grow. In 1898, the second building by the same architect, Adolf Erichson, was constructed. In 1905, Petr Ivanovich transferred all his property as a gift to the Historical Museum, including his collection, which listed 23,911 items, whereas some items contained dozens of sub-items. Patrons of Russia. Savva Ivanovich MAMONTOV, 1841 - 1919 Savva Ivanovich Mamontov was closely connected with many distinguished activists in the matters of the national culture. He was a binding centre of a circle of some prominent Russian talented people. Savva Ivanovich Mamontov got his education at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, then moved to Moscow and studied at the law department of Moscow University. His building at 6 Sadovo-Spasskaya Street was a meeting place for I. Ye. Repin, V. M. Vasnetsov, M. A. Vrubel, K. A. Korovin, F. I. Shalyapin, K. S. Stanislavskiy and many others. В 1880s, Savva Mamontov founded the Abramtsevo pottery in Butyrki District. In 1885, Savva Mamontov founded a private Russian opera. He purchased the Abramtsevo Estate in the outskirts of Moscow in 1870. In summers, the same circle of Russian talents had its meetings at the Abramtsevo Estate. Savva Mamontov equipped art work studios at Abramtsevo. One of his aims was the development of the national crafts traditions. In order to improve himself culturally, Savva Ivanovich lived in Italy for some years where he took singing and art classes. Patrons of Russia. Ivan Abramovich MOROZOV, 1871 - 1921 The Morozov children’s father Savva Vasilyevich Morozov is a founder of this clan of salesmen. One of his sons, Abram Savvich was a head of the Tver Paper Items Manufacturing Company. His son married Varvara Alekseyevna Khludova, who, as a result of the husband’s chronic disease, took management of the Tver Paper Items Manufacturing Company in her hands. She also brought up three sons. Ivan Abramovich Morozov studied at the Zuerich Polytechnical School. Upon graduation, he settled in Tver and took controls of the Manufacturing Company. He acquired much success in his business and he continued philanthropic traditions of his family. He supported charity institutions at the Manufacturing Company. In 1905, he joined politics. He and other entrepreneurs took an active part in charity campaigns held in Moscow and around, for medical and educational institutions. Abram Ivanovich began collecting pieces of art, pictures of national artists: Korovin, Grabar, Vrubel, Somov, Shagal, etc., among the first ones. In 1906, he rendered a financial assistance to S. P. Dyagilev, who arranged a Russian art exhibition in Paris. After his brother Mikhail’s death, Ivan Abramovich continued the brother’s impressionists’ collection. All of his acquisitions were kept at his own mansion in Prechistenka. For a better suitability of the building to hold collections, it was reconstructed internally. The ground floor was redesigned for exhibition halls. The owners took premises on the second floor. When brother Mikhail was alive, the Morozovs held charity events together. They assisted Moscow University, the conservatoire, Moscow Commerce Institute, a clinic and other institutions. They continued charities for workers and their families of the Manufacturing Company, though in a lesser scale than their mother Varvara Aleskeyevna did. In December 1918, the Morozovs’ picture collections were nationalized and Ivan Abramovich was appointed a museum deputy director. In the end of 1918 he migrated to the West. He died in 1921 on his trip to Carlsbad. Currently, a part of the Morozovs’ pictures is at the Pushkin Arts Museum and another part is at the Hermitage. The great patron of Russia: Savva Timofeyevich Morozov Savva Timofeyevich, born on February 3, 1862, is a grandson of Savva Morozov, the founder of Orekhovo-Zuyevo textile industry. He became the most famous of the Morozov clan. Running one of the largest national companies, S. T. Morozov enjoyed a high level of authority in the entrepreneur circles and for some years he was a head of the Fairs Committee at the largest Russian commerce centre in Novgorod. He was the one who was chosen to bring the offering – bread and salt – to the Russian Emperor at the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in 1896. His life was not long, but S. T. Morozov left behind the memory of a generous philanthropist. He helped individuals, institutions and organizations. Sometimes, charities were quite large: dozens of thousands rubles for the construction of a maternity clinic at the Staroyekaterininskaya Hospital and ten thousand rubles for the development of an institution for mentally ill people in Moscow. These are not all of Morozov’s merits. He did much in the national culture, too. He rendered an invaluable assistance to Moscow Art Theatre in its hard period of establishment and development. K. Stanislavskiy’s memoirs contain many warm words about this generous patron. K. Stanislavskiy considered it as a great honour to mention Morozov’s name at the ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Moscow Art Academic Theatre in October 1928. When Stanislvskiy and Nemirovich-Danchenko asked Morozov for help, he contributed ten thousand rubles, without the second thought. He imposed only one condition: The theatre should not be under any “superior protection”. He was a passionate lover of theatre and was a regular spectator at theatres in Moscow, St. Petersburg and also Nizhniy Novgorod, where, at summer fairs, major theatrical groups from entire Russia staged their shows. There exist documents in proof of his earlier support for theatre initiatives, too. In the beginning of 90s of the 19th century, he gave funds to Moscow Private Theatre. Actor V. P. Dalmatov recalled that when Morozov had given the money he had insisted to keep that action secret. He had said: “You know, commerce has its own rules. I would ask you and your colleagues not to mention me in any aspect.” During the first year of the Art Theatre existence, S. T. Morozov spent almost 60,000 rubles for its support. Gradually, his contributions became the most important source of cash for the theatre. S. T. Morozov tried to maintain a collective form of charities. He convinced other businessmen to bring their contributions even though their much smaller amounts did not have much effect. His love for theatre was an indicator of Morozov’s high cultural demands. In the fall of 1900, M. Gorky wrote to A. Chekhov: “When I see Morozov backstage, in the dust, anxiously expecting a spectacle success, I am ready to forgive him all his factories and I actually do forgive. I like him because he selflessly loves art and I really feel it in this bumpkin, in this greedy merchant.” Morozov himself understood well that “the Art Theatre will play a decisive role in development of theatrics". Gradually, the Art Theatre obtained recognition, gained financial independence. At that period, Morozov decided to set up a joint stock company with participation of leading actors, theatre managers and other individuals close enough to the theatre. Many stockholders, including K. Stanislavskiy, received lines of credit from Morozov. Savva Timofeyevich Morozov belongs to a group of unusual and amazing people who should be remembered by the people. His lived in a turbulent complicated and ambiguous time. Old traditions and old popular notions were falling apart. New things implacably were rushing in. Brought up in a conservative salesman’s family, he managed to overcome some religious and corporate prejudices, managed to understand current problems of the social development. He stood high above many of his contemporaries in his deeds and ideals. However, his contradictions and explosiveness of a merchant led him to his personal catastrophe. Russian entrepreneurs were extraordinarily hard-working people. Even dynasty heads, immensely rich, continued to work much and hard because it was in the blood of Russian businessmen.
Modern Patronage: hope and reality The Russian charity traditions have been disrupted by the 1917 revolution. The revolution ideology denied any forms of charity. All funds of public and private charitable organizations were quickly nationalized and their property was transferred to the state. The organizations were closed by relevant decrees. The Bolsheviks began a ruthless campaign against the “bourgeois philanthropy”, which, according to their opinion, only masked the “exploitation nature” of the Russian entrepreneurship. In order to maintain the “revolutionary order”, any private (and public, to that effect) charitable activity was suppressed. Тhus, in 1921, writer M. Gorky was prohibited to organize a campaign to raise funds to help starving people of Povolzhye. International charity organizations were not permitted to supply food and medications to the starving people. The charitable activity was regarded as a “phenomenon relevant only to the classed society”, while “charities had no place in the social structure of the USSR”. However, in the years of the Great Patriotic War, there was raised 200 million rubles for the defense needs with the assistance of the church. A part of the money was spent to set the tank corps named Dmitriy Donskoy and another part was spent for the Aleksandr Nevskiy aircraft squadron. Along with money and jewelry people brought clothes, shoes, or anything else they could. Wealth is not the purpose in itself. The wealth should serve to establish a decent life for a human and for the people. A modern sponsor is a patriot creating an image of a new Russia, a high-cultured, unique and creative country. The modern patronage is a manifestation of love of the country. No doubt, one of the visible factors of today’s Russia is a development of private charities and private funds for the purpose. Recent years, major commerce companies have been among leaders in assisting the culture development. The film will run interviews about the modern patronage with: - descendants of great Russian patrons, who now live in Russia and abroad; - today’s sponsors; - art specialists and activists and managers of museums and theatres; - officials and politicians. In order to revive charity traditions in Russia, an active involvement of Russian sponsors is required. We see a paradox here. Even if an entrepreneur wants to assist an orphanage or a school, the implementation of this feat is quite complicated. The existing law system is quite stern to the patronage. So far, there are no tax exemption laws established for entities engaged in sponsorships. Rich people help only those who they like. While there is no relevant legal ground in place, our sponsorship actions will only be sporadic. The sponsorship will depend on the intellectual level of a sponsor and on the quality of the product. Just look how many theatres, museums and libraries had been created using the sponsor funds! Art and culture cannot exist without the material support. The more sponsors we have the more talents will be discovered in this country. These are the public support and corporate sponsorships that are able, have to and will create a new Russia, a strong, unique and high-cultured country. It seems to be useful for our today’s sponsors to fully understand the founder of the famous dynasty Vasiliy Ivanovich Prokhorov’s words he said before his death:
«Live not for riches but live for the God. Live not in luxury but in humbleness».
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