Savva Mamontov in 1900 was brought to trial on charges of abuse and embezzlement for a huge amount. The court decision practically ruined him.
In the wake of this process, a separate book was published in 1900, which was called “Judicial Dramas. The trial of Savva Mamontov and others. Theft and embezzlement. Well, the title did not disappoint expectations: the case is presented quite in the spirit of theatrical drama. And it was furnished accordingly. After all, the largest businessman of his time was in the dock. And the sums involved in the case are impressive even today.
So, one cannot do without quoting the "Judicial Drama".
“On June 23, in the Mitrofanievsky Hall, the hearing of the case of commerce of adviser Savva Mamontov, his brother, hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Mamontov, two sons of the first - Sergei Mamontov and Vsevolod Mamontov, nobleman Konstantin Artsybushev and hereditary honorary citizen Mikhail Krivoshein, accused of numerous abuses …
Savva Mamontov with a gendarme officer accompanying him and Artsybushev and Krivoshein, accompanied by gendarmes with their sabers bald, were placed behind the iron bars.
The situation is the harshest. And what was the essence of this high-profile case? In a nutshell, Savva Mamontov redirected financial flows for the benefit of business. However, considered in detail, the case turns out to be so simple.
Railways are a profitable business
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We are used to mentioning Savva Mamontov as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. However, first of all, he was the largest Russian entrepreneur who had an interest in, among other things, the construction of railways.
On the construction of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk railway.
The construction of railway lines in the 19th century was not only profitable, but extremely profitable. The first road, Tsarskoselskaya, was opened in 1837 and had a length of only 25 versts (26.3 km). Behind it was Nikolaevskaya, opened in 1851, and domestic steam locomotives manufactured by the Aleksandrovsky plant (St. Petersburg) were already running on it, and soon they began to produce cars on it. In the 1870s, more than 1,500 km of roads were built in Russia per year; in the 1890s, the railway network grew by 2,500 km per year. The rapidly developing business could not fail to interest such a large entrepreneur as Mamontov. Moreover, his father was engaged in it: he financed the laying of a branch to Sergiev Posad, was the director of the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway Society, financed it. After the death of his father, the company was headed by Savva Ivanovich.
In the early 1890s, it was decided to continue the Moscow-Yaroslavl road to Arkhangelsk in order to somehow revive the northern regions. In 1897, the 595-verst road was opened - construction took only 3.5 years. At the same time, by 1900, the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway Company managed to build three more roads; the company's "park" had more than 200 steam locomotives, about 4,000 freight cars and about 400 passenger cars. The profit of this entire business at that time was colossal - more than 5 million rubles a year.
Nevsky plant: problems and losses
The railway needed locomotives and carriages, and Mamontov decided to establish their domestic production. His company rented the state-owned Nevsky Mechanical Plant, acquired a metallurgical enterprise in the Irkutsk region, and thus the formation of an industrial concern began. Experts note that usually large banks were part of such conglomerates, providing financial stability. But Mamontov did not have a bank.
On the construction of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk railway.
Nevsky Zavod was in need of re-equipment, and besides, it could not manage to get out of debt. Bonds were issued in 1898 to raise funds, but this was not enough.
In 1899, a shortage was discovered at the box office of the Moscow-Arkhangelsk railway: money was invested in the arrangement of the Nevsky plant. The enterprises entered into agreements with each other, but the plant was unable to fulfill its obligations, and its debts grew again. Mamontov hoped to cover them with income from the construction of other railway lines, but the concessions received were suddenly revoked. By mid-February 1898, the long-suffering plant's debt to the railway reached almost 9 million rubles.
Mamontov, meanwhile, continued to look for sources of funding. Using his influence and the capabilities of his other companies, he obtained a loan from the International Commercial Bank of St. Petersburg (some historians say that Sergei Witte himself advised this bank to Mamontov). Various securities were involved in the multi-pass transaction, but by that time rumors had already spread that not everything was going well with Mamontov's railway company. As a result, the bank closed the loan, and demanded to return the amount already received by Savva Ivanovich. The business empire, as they say, crumbled before our eyes.
Last hopes
Mamontov's last hopes of staying afloat were associated with Witte. At the trial, which we already mentioned at the beginning, Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky, a well-known writer and engineer, said that at the request of the entrepreneur he turned to the Minister of Finance for support of the Nevsky Plant - a state loan secured by the shares of the enterprise. But Witte also refused, speaking extremely dismissively about the prospects of getting the plant's papers as collateral. There are different versions of why Witte did not help Mamontov: according to one of them, Justice Minister Nikolai Muravyov knew about the impeccability of the railway business and wanted to use this in the fight against Witte. The finance minister, seeing no other opportunity to protect himself, sacrificed the Mamontovs.
Mamontov and Witte among railway engineers.
Savva Ivanovich decided to sell the property, but it was too late. In September 1899, he was arrested on charges of illegal transactions and abuse. He spent the next six months in prison: a bail of 5 million rubles was assigned for his release, and the family could not contribute it in the current financial situation.
However, the relatives could hardly collect even a smaller amount. As they write in the "Judicial Drama", during the arrest Mamontov, after hearing the demand to immediately return 700,000 rubles, presented all the cash he had - 53 rubles with kopecks and 100 German marks. No more money was found during the search in the house. And in Mamontov's pocket they found a loaded revolver and a note about the intention to commit suicide.
What is called, humanly, many sympathized with Mamontov. In the memoirs of the artist Konstantin Korovin we read: “I came to St. Petersburg and saw Sergei Yulievich Witte, who was a minister. Sergei Yulievich, to my surprise, told me that he, too, did not know the act of accusation against Mamontov. - I know that Mamontov is an honest man, and I am absolutely sure of this.
Serov Valentin Alexandrovich was painting at this time a portrait of the sovereign and, having finished, said to the tsar:
- Here Mamontov is arrested, and we, his friends, do not know why.
“Everyone tells me that he is to blame,” said the emperor. “But I'm sorry for the old man and for me. And I will immediately give the order that he be placed under house arrest.
Mamontov among the participants of the exhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists.
Protection of Plevako
But back to the beginning of the story - to the judicial drama. From 23 to 31 June 1900, in the Moscow District Court (or rather, in the Criminal Chamber), the jury considered the Mamontov case. Also in the dock were his brother, two sons and two heads of the railway.
The defense was represented by the leading lawyers of the time. Savva Mamontov was defended by Fyodor Plevako, his sons - Mikhail Bagrinovsky, Nikolai Mamontov, brother of Savva Ivanovich, - Vasily Maklakov, Artsybushev - Nikolai Karabchevsky, in fact, the second most important lawyer in Russia after Plevako, and Krivoshein - Nikolai Shubinsky. The head of the Moscow District Court, Nikolai Davydov, presided over the process. But the prosecution was represented by Pavel Kurlov, assistant prosecutor of the Moscow District Court. Prosecutor Alexei Lopukhin himself refused to accuse Mamontov. He noted that his abuses were obvious, but they were made as a result of mistakes in business: the Mamontovs did not put this money in their pocket. “It was, of course, impossible to defend the morality of their actions,but the choice of them by the Ministry of Finance as a tribute to justice seemed incomprehensible,”Lopukhin later wrote. As Garin-Mikhailovsky said at the trial: “Anyone who knew Mamontov's perspective drew for themselves any perspective, but not this one. This Savva Ivanovich did not deserve."
Fyodor Plevako.
Plevako understood that with any outcome of the process, Mamontov would lose his fortune. The task of the defense was to free him from criminal charges. The strategy was based on convincing the jury: the entrepreneur committed abuses, but did not receive any personal benefit. Savva Ivanovich was unable to raise the Nevsky Zavod and caused damage to the railway, and these were strategic mistakes, not a desire to get rich. “The damages of his mistakes are not the fruits of crime. He died from the impatience of those who quickly reaped the fruits of his successes, but were faint of memory when the defendant staggered."
Plevako, without exaggeration, was an outstanding lawyer of his time, and his speeches became a model of judicial rhetoric. At the same time, he knew how to address the jury in such a way that his words made the greatest impression: he strove to restore justice, and did not rest against only the letter of the law. In approximately the same vein, Karabchevsky maintained his defense, speaking of Artsybushev: “His property was taken away from him, he is a beggar. His life is prematurely broken, he is an old man. An old beggar with a whole family behind him. If you raise your hand, sign his conviction."
Savva Mamontov with his family.
As a result, Savva Ivanovich Mamontov and all the other defendants in this case were acquitted in the criminal court, but civil claims in the amount of more than 9 million rubles were satisfied. Mamontov had to sell most of his property and collection, leaving only one small ceramic factory.
Author: Elena Minushkina