Baroness Amalia Georgievna von Mengden ( German: Amalia Eleonora Carolina Constantia Freiin von Mengden ; 1799, Courland - 1864, Kostroma Province ) is a factory owner, one of the first women entrepreneurs in the Russian textile industry. For more than 30 years (from 1830 to 1864) she managed the exemplary factory of her husband, General M. A. Mengden (1781–1855), in the village of Nikolsky, Kostroma province , which produced the highest quality table linen.
Content
Biography
Amalia Georgievna von Mengden (nee Baroness Völkersam ) was born in 1799 in Courland . By religion, Lutheran. Father - Baron Georgy Fedorovich von Fölkersam (1766–1848), was the Livonian civil governor in 1829–1847. Brother - Baron Hamilkar Georgievich von Fölkersam (1811-1856), "Livonian Mirabeau ", was the Livonian Land Marshal (provincial leader of the nobility) from 1848 to 1851.
The Baroness was famous for beauty, her portrait was painted by the famous German portrait painter Richard Laukert [1] (the fate of the painting could not be determined). She married another representative of the Ostseen nobility , Baron Mikhail Mengden (1781–1855), who owned the Nikolskoye estate with a patrimonial table linen factory , founded in the 1800s.
One of the regimental commanders in the division of General Mengden was the Decembrist Pestel , who often visited the general’s house. In conversations with Amalia Georgievna, as if joking, Pestel dreamed out loud that in time he would be a dictator in Russia. The Baroness stopped him, saying: "Pestel, Pestel, you will end badly," while she ran her fingers along her neck.
According to the recollections of the granddaughter of Sofia, after the death of her husband, Amalia Georgievna “lived all year round in the village, treated peasants, helped them, came into their needs”. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1861, after the abolition of serfdom, the estate of the Baroness (as well as in neighboring estates) caused mass unrest among the peasants. The peasants refused to go to the corvee and pay rent. To pacify the peasants, they had to call in troops and punish the ringleaders.
Amalia von Mengden died at the beginning of 1864 in the village of Nikolsky, Kostroma Province (now the village of Soshniki, Vichugsky District, Ivanovo Region , 4 km northeast of the city of Vichuga ). Immediately after her death, the youngest son Vladimir transferred her body to the Völkersam family crypt, located in the Steinensee family estate in the Kurland province (now it is the Stelmužė museumified estate in the Zarasai district of Lithuania , not far from the Latvian-Lithuanian border south-west of Daugavpas )
Children
- The eldest son is Alexander (1820-1903), a diplomat.
- The middle son is Nikolai (1822-1888), a lawyer, “the first Russian tourist in Brazil” [2]
- The youngest son is Vladimir (1825-1910), a member of the Council of State, one of the possible prototypes of Karenin [3] from the novel Anna Karenina .
- Daughter - Maria (1828-1902), was married to Count Dmitry Ianuaryevich Tolstoy.
See also
- Vichug factory owners
Notes
- ↑ See the German Wikipedia article
- ↑ The story of how Nikolai von Mengden in 1844 out of idle curiosity ended up in Rio de Janeiro (somewhat anticipating the image of Ostap Bender with a dream about this city) read in “Excerpts from the Family Chronicle” (from the memoirs of Baroness Sofia Mengden), first published in the journal Russian Antiquity, 1908, April). Of course, Nikolai von Mengden was not the first Russian to find himself in Brazil, but other visits were primarily of a scientific and state nature.
- ↑ The assumption that Vladimir von Mengden is the prototype of Karenin is in the memoirs of the son of Leo Tolstoy.
References and References
- “Excerpts from the Family Chronicle” (from the memoirs of Baroness Sophia Mengden), in the journal Russian Antiquity, 1908, April, p. 99.
- The factory in 1843 in "Research on the state of the linen industry in Russia", St. Petersburg, 1847