“There were much more fables about the merchant than his tricks” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Pyotr Voronkov talks about the manufacturer, philanthropist and Honorary Citizen of Tula.

We are leaving for Tula today, to Oktyabrskaya Street. It was once called both Moscow and Millionnaya. Only the richest townspeople settled here, for example, the “samovar king”, manufacturer, poultry farmer, one of the founders, by the way, of the Moscow Zoo Alexander Batashev.

He was distinguished by his generous charity and eccentricities: he would hide in a doghouse, then suddenly bark at guests from there, or ride a camel through the streets. And one day he took off a stroller, exactly like the priest’s, and rode it around the houses of brothel at night. Many actually believed that the local priest was a real go-getter.

And in Moscow, somehow Batashev didn’t get a ticket to the Maly Theater, there were no seats, and he was offended. He persuaded all the cab drivers nearby and took them (for a fee, of course) away from the theater. It was cold and raining. Oh, and the spectators cursed when they went out into the street; there was nothing to go home with.

Of course, there were much more fables about the merchant than his tricks. He himself sometimes played along with rumors: he would tell something to the journalist who was writing his biography, or he would start a story that he had bred a special breed of chickens that not only laid eggs, but also crowed like a rooster.

And behind these stories and jokes, we somehow forgot that the chickens (the famous Cochins he bred) are really the best, his fighting geese are the strongest, his tumbler pigeons are the most beautiful in the world, and almost every year another international one appears on the Batashevs’ samovars. medal.

He donated his other house – on Demidovskaya Street with outbuildings and a factory building – to the city so that the first shelter for the poor could be opened there.

In general, if we talk about how much he did for the city, for the country, for the people, no amount of time, no program is enough.

In the last years of his life, Balashev suffered from a severe form of diabetes; he even had his leg amputated, which, due to his tendency to shockingly, he decided to bury separately. He died in 1912.

Writer Vikenty Veresaev said: “No one remembered his donations, no one appreciated them, no one blessed his name. Only the memory of his funny quirks and mischievous antics, which did not awaken respect in anyone, lasted for several years.”