Nikolai Vtorov was the richest man in the Russian Empire. He was called "Russian Morgan" and "Siberian American". The annual profit of the Vtorov concern before the revolution reached $ 660 million in terms of the 2000 exchange rate.
Hereditary rich man
The father of the "Russian Morgan", Alexander Fedorovich Vtorov, was a philistine from the Kostroma province. At 21, he decided to go into business. For this, he went to Irkutsk. Trading opportunities there were not the most favorable (there was no Transsib yet), but Vtorov managed to play on this too. He began to visit the fair in Verkhneudinsk and began to deal with the logistics of goods.
Soon Vtorov opened his own shop. The famous "vtorovsky passage" in Irkutsk. The network of Vtorov's passages expanded. Stores appeared in 13 cities.
Alexander Vtorov felt cramped in Irkutsk. In 1897, he and his family moved to Moscow. Nikolai Vtorov at that time was already 31 years old.
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Faithful to the cause
Nikolai Vtorov, by the time he moved to Moscow, was already an accomplished person. He knew his father's business thoroughly and initially developed in him. In 1900 he entered into an organized partnership on shares "AF Vtorov".
The fame of the younger Vtorov in Moscow is growing. Behind his back they call him "Russian Morgan".
Vtorov's father died in 1911. Of the thirteen million, Nikolai got eight.
Nikolai Alexandrovich, after the death of his father, did not retire. He worked with renewed vigor. He was engaged in tea and manufacturing, organized the "Export and Domestic Trade Partnership", joined the board of large banks, was engaged in lending to factories, shipping companies and railways, was one of the first in Russia to play on the real estate market.
From tea to city
Nikolay Vtorov's business was developing rapidly. Yesterday he traded in tea, and today he is the owner and founder of factories, a prominent manufacturer, on whom thousands of people depend in one way or another. Being engaged in industry and gold mining, Nikolai Vtorov did not forget about his soul either - at one of his factories there was even a capacity for the production of photographic plates.
In 1917, Vtorov built a plant in the Moscow region "for the manufacture of special higher grades of steel, including instrumental, automotive and spring steel." It became a city-forming one and today the city of Elektrostal is located on this place. Together with the merchant Ryabushinsky, Vtorov founded the AMO plant.
During the First World War, Vtorov's factories worked for the defense industry. Two of his factories began to produce grenades.
Luxury and style
In 1914, Nikolai Vtorov built a mansion in Moscow, which became one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow in the neoampiric style. The Vtorov House became a hero of Russian literature. Woland's ball, described by Bulgakov in The Master and Margarita, takes place in this building. Since 1933, Vtorov's mansion, the famous Spaso House, has been the post-US residence in Moscow.
A year before the completion of the construction of his own house, Vtorov opened the Delovoy Dvor. He also built a hotel for business colleagues. The advertisements promised that inside the visitors “elevators, luxurious furnishings, electric lighting” await visitors. At the railway stations, Vtorov's guests were greeted by "omnibuses".
Mysterious departure
Vtorov's empire flourished, but in the spring of 1918 he was killed. According to some sources - on May 20 in his office in Delovy Dvor, according to others - on May 5 in his house. The killers were not found.
According to the Irkutsk chronicler Nita Romanov, Vtorov was killed by his bastard son because of personal relationships: "he asked to provide for his mother and give him the opportunity to study." There are also versions of a conspiracy - that Vtorov paid off and fled abroad.
At the tycoon's funeral, which was attended by the entire financial elite of Russia, the workers carried a wreath with the inscription "Great organizer of industry."