It is now worth paying tribute to the remarkable people who glorified Russia, Finland, and Sweden, giving us an example of entrepreneurial activity and even nobility. The Sinebryukhovs – a merchant family known throughout Russia – are one of the world’s successful entrepreneurial dynasties. This family is known worldwide by the brand “Koff,” under which beverage producers operate in dozens of countries. The National Gallery of Finland is the main collection of Western European painting left to its new homeland by Pavel Sinebryukhov, along with the palace and park built by his elder brother Nikolai… (Such large-scale philanthropy was not typical of Scandinavian merchants and entrepreneurs). A Russian-born entrepreneur and his wife created a precedent here…

The origins of this family can be traced back to the first quarter of the 17th century. The homeland of the Sinebryukhov merchants is the town of Gavrilov Posad (formerly Suzdal district of Vladimir province, now the district center of Ivanovo region). Until 1789, it was the Gavrilov palace settlement of unplowed peasants – the largest and central settlement of the palace volost near a horse breeding farm founded in the mid-16th century by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. This is the very farm where the giant horse – the famous Vladimir heavy draft horse – was bred. The settlement did not know serfdom. Its inhabitants were not only engaged in horse breeding and preparing horses for cavalry service (a very responsible task!) but also involved in trade, distilling, carriage services, and… hop cultivation, the cones of which were used in the production of kvass and beer with unique properties. It was in the Russian Opolye region that this plant was grown on an industrial scale.

Probably of interest is the origin of this famous surname. We must immediately discard the anecdotal version about the whim of Emperor Paul I, who supposedly ordered to change the surname of the offensively fattened merchant Krasnobryukhov by writing on the merchant’s petition the resolution: “Change the color, keep the belly!” But Russian merchants never appealed to emperors to change their surnames! This is simply a historical nonsense. The nickname Sinebryukhov, as follows from the notes of the researcher of the history of this surname, Gavrilov-Posad native Boris Alekseevich Volchenkov, most likely comes from an element of the uniform clothing of the harnessed coachmen who transported goods and government cargoes along the Moscow, Vladimir, and Yaroslavl routes in the 17th and 18th centuries. Government coachmen were issued, as a mark of distinction, a hood or apron of blue color. Having such a sign in the peasant environment was prestigious – those who had it were the first to be hired for government contracts. It is quite likely that the ancestors of the merchant family began as government coachmen.

One way or another, by the beginning of the 19th century, the Sinebryukhov family was known both in Gavrilov Posad and far beyond. As early as 1707, Grigory Sinebryukhov is mentioned as the settlement’s burgomaster – an elected position responsible for tax collection. Merchants, townspeople, and free peasants could be elected to the position of burgomaster. During the reign of Catherine II, the Sinebryukhov family, along with most residents of Gavrilov Posad, moved from the townspeople and peasant estate to the merchant estate. It was then that commercial interests led representatives of this family to the Northern capital and Kronstadt, and later to Finland. In Gavrilov Posad, a stone house built at the beginning of the 19th century by the actual founder of the merchant family – Vasily Ivanovich Sinebryukhov – has been preserved.

It is reliably known that the Sinebryukhovs supplied provisions for the first Russian circumnavigation expedition in 1803, and in 1818-19 supplied dried (jerked) meat in quantities up to 700 poods during the preparation of the first Russian Antarctic expedition on the sloops “Vostok” and “Mirny.” Dozens of poods of dried hop cones were also purchased, the decoctions of which were drunk by expedition participants as an anti-scurvy remedy. During more than 750 days of sailing in the sloops’ crews, no cases of scurvy were recorded. Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, on behalf of Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, who prepared the expedition, was a fellow countryman of Pyotr Vasilyevich (the future Admiral Lazarev, like his brothers, was born in Vladimir), and their father – Senator Pyotr Gavrilovich Lazarev – knew the Sinebryukhov family well and corresponded with Pyotr Vasilyevich. (A remarkable, let’s say, democratic communication between a senator and nobleman with a representative of the third estate).

However, the work of some Sinebryukhovs in supplying the fleet and their participation in the St. Petersburg business community urgently required their personal presence on the banks of the Neva.

…For the first time, Pyotr Vasilyevich applied to the Gavrilov-Posad town hall on November 29, 1816, with a petition to transfer to the merchant class of Kronstadt. In the petition, he stated that “he, together with his brothers Afanasy, Mikhail, and the nephew of his deceased brother Dmitry, Grigory, are residents of this settlement with hereditary capital of the 3rd guild, but according to his commercial acquisition in the city of Kronstadt, he wishes to transfer with his brothers and nephew, with the same capital, to the city of Kronstadt.” For a positive decision on this matter, consent was required on one hand from the merchant society of the settlement, and on the other from the provincial treasury chamber, which (and the society) were reluctant to lose one of the most reliable taxpayers in the person of Pyotr Sinebryukhov. Correspondence and debates on this issue dragged on until July 1820, when finally a decree from the Provincial Chamber arrived at the town hall. According to it, the Sinebryukhovs, consisting of 6 souls (including newborn sons), were transferred to the Kronstadt merchant class. Apparently, the “help” of Senator Lazarev was not without influence here.

Pyotr Vasilyevich Sinebryukhov and his relatives engaged in entrepreneurial activities of various kinds on Kotlin Island. Along with large-scale wholesale trade both within the empire and abroad, they were involved in contracting, maintained postal stations, revenue houses, baths, public transport, and even a theater. Some of them were awarded the title of commercial advisors, and several heads of families were elevated to hereditary honorary citizenship. Perhaps the secret of their commercial success, passed on to subsequent generations, lies in the diversity of their commercial activities and interests. About a dozen houses in the historic part of Kronstadt were built by representatives of this merchant family. Brewing beer by malt merchants was also established in Kronstadt. But they brewed not only beer, but also… medicines. The Sinebryukhov beer was supplied to the Naval Hospital and issued by medical prescription.

…Pavel and Nikolai, around the same time, moved to Finland, founding the first brewery in the province annexed to the Russian Empire. By the way, the construction of this brewery and other beer establishments was approved at the highest level. Thus, the government of Alexander I sought to combat the local population’s craving for strong drinks…

In conclusion, it can be noted that representatives of this surname remained in Gavrilov Posad in the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, Nikolai Sinebryukhov created the first power station in this city at a weaving factory in the early 1920s. And representatives of this family were involved in organizing the first collective farms. One of their distant descendants (through the female line), a native of the village of Skomovo, Gavrilov-Posad district of Ivanovo region, Major General – Engineer Leonid Nikolaevich Kartsev – became an outstanding designer of Soviet tanks, including the main battle tank T-72. According to information from the local registry office in this city of Ivanovo region and its surroundings, no fewer than a dozen families with this famous and, at the same time, rare surname still live there. In Kronstadt, there are no bearers of this name anymore.

In Kronstadt, there are actually several houses built for the Sinebryukhovs: Lenin Prospect 49, Ammerman Street 21, and so on. However, only one of them, where the family lived and the office was located, has a memorial plaque – Lenin 49. This house was built in 1838-1839. The architecture of this large three-story building allows it to be classified as an example of late classicism.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house20267.html

http://kanoner.com/2015/12/31/148579/

https://kotlin.ru/news/2020/03/05/news_26624.html