Tifontay, Nikolai Ivanovich

Little is known about the early years of Tifontay. According to Chinese sources, Ji Fengtai came from Huangxian County , Shandong Province ^[1] . In 1873, he came to Russia as a translator with the first batch of Chinese workers recruited by the government of the Russian Empire in Shandong, who were involved in the construction of ports and cities in the Far East . After some time, he began working as a translator in the administration of the Primorsky Region and Khabarovsk . In 1886, he participated in the Russian-Chinese negotiations on the specification of the border in which he defended the interests of Russia. For his activities, he is still unloved by Chinese historians. During the negotiations, Ji Fengtai deceived his fellow tribesmen, which led to the fact that they put the border post in the wrong place, as a result of which a significant territory near Khabarovsk moved to Russia (China was able to return it only in 2005 ) ^[2] .

In 1882, Tifontai participated in the investigation of the murder of Eugene and Joseph Cooper, the sons of a local merchant, a companion of this merchant Zhong Xi-Ching and clerk Ma in Plastun Bay. Tifontai managed to protect four innocent Chinese from police harassment. Subsequently, it was found that the murder was committed by seven Chinese employed by the merchant Cooper from neighboring fanz ^[1] .

Information about the trading activities of Tifontay vary. According to some information, he arrived in Russia as a merchant , according to others - he saved up money in Russia and opened a trading shop and workshop. Having subsequently become a fairly large entrepreneur, Tifontai tried to help his compatriots, for example, as far back as the mid-1880s, many Chinese traded in the Far East according to the powers of attorney received from him ^[1] . On March 21, 1889, in report No. 777 on the Chinese community engaged in tilling and furs , Colonel Glen noted:

Since the mid-1880s, Tifontay tried to become a subject of Russia. In July 1885, Major General Baranov , the military governor of Primorsky Region , was asked to accept Russian citizenship, which was rejected because Tifontay did not convert to Orthodoxy . In March 1891, the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich (future Nicholas II ), arrived in Vladivostok . During a walk, he accidentally went into the workshop to Ji Fengtai and met him. Nikolai asked him to help in choosing fur. When Tifontai fulfilled his request, not knowing who Nikolai was, he offered him an official position, to which the merchant refused. Then Nicholas awarded him the highest merchant title ^[1] .

On July 20, 1891, Tifontay wrote a second petition for his acceptance into Russian citizenship.

The request was granted. Tifontai was invited to be baptized and cut the braid, which, according to the laws of the Chinese Empire, was a grave crime. On October 7, 1891, he appealed to the Governor General, Baron Corfu, with a petition in which he asked permission not to cut his braid, but was refused. Having completed all affairs with the Chinese, Tifontai was brought to Russian citizenship on December 18, 1893. In February 1895, Tifontay became a merchant of the 1st guild. Being an enterprising merchant, he did a lot to establish trade relations between the Russian Empire and Manchuria . In 1895, together with the Khabarovsk merchant Bogdanov, he equipped the Russian steamer Telegraph, which went on a commercial voyage along the Sungari River ^[3] . Tifontai was also known as a generous donor for charitable and social needs. By the end of the 19th century, he had three medals, including one for services to the department of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, Tifontai himself remained a Buddhist , wore a Chinese dress, but he baptized his children in the Orthodox rite and sent him to study in European Russia ^[1] .

For 1891, the property of Tifontay, according to his request, was estimated at 20 thousand rubles, but officially the value of all the land plots belonging to him in Khabarovsk, together with the buildings, was at least 50 thousand. The turnover of the merchant’s company ranged from 100 to 153 thousand rubles ^[1] .

The diversified business activity of Tifontay was often of concern to the Russian Far Eastern public, who saw in the expansion of his business evidence of the Sinization of the Russian Far East. So, in 1896, the correspondent of the newspaper Vladivostok wrote about his impressions of the trip on the steamboat Graf Putyatin on the river. Ussuri :

... On all the steamboats of the [Amur] partnership, the Chinese are holding the kitchen and buffet, according to rumors - the dummies of the almighty Khabarovsk Tifontai, who takes pride of place everywhere among the good-natured Russians, and the residents of Khabarovsk are completely dependent on him, since he alone delivers bread from China for food . ^[four]

In 1901 , after the suppression of the Boxer Uprising, Russian troops plundered a large number of values ​​in the palaces of Beijing. Tifontai bought some of them with his personal money, after which he sent them to his wife, Yang, who lived with her parents in the city of Chifu . It is possible that he planned to return them to China ^[1] .

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Tifontay was engaged in the supply of Russian troops. At his expense a whole detachment was equipped, horses and ammunition were purchased. A general of the Japanese imperial army, Oku, once said: "Capturing Tifontai is like winning a battle." The Japanese command appointed a reward for the capture of the merchant, after which he moved to the north and continued his activities. When the Japanese increased their rewards, several attempts were made on Tifontay. In those years, Tifontay, according to contemporaries, never slept two nights in a row in the same place ^[1] . One Russian officer described his meeting with Tifontay as follows:

In the notes of General M.V. Grulyov (well acquainted with the merchant) you can find an ironic review of Tifontai himself and his activities during the Russo-Japanese War:

In recent years, I had to read a lot in newspapers about Tifontay, whose name is ringing in the Far East. He conducts his policy well with the local top administration and easily makes a million after a million. They pointed out to me that Tifontay was completely Russified, that he accepted Russian citizenship and even “married” the Russian. But during a trip with me through Manchuria, Tifontai found himself a wife with children in almost all cities of the Sungari: how could he not have a Russian “wife” in Russia!

Now in Mukden, Tifontay is busy with big things. Probably more than one million from the Russian treasury falls into the Chinese pockets of Tifontay. He supplies anything to the army. They say that he proposed even for 1 million rubles to take the intelligence unit into his own hands in order to free the officers of the General Staff from a difficult and responsible task; and they assure us that they were inclined towards this idea at headquarters. They still complain about the lack of information about the enemy and the difficulty of obtaining it, and - what good - it seems tempting to forbid Tifontay to be the head of the intelligence department. I believe that for the second million he would agree to be the chief of staff. We probably would not mind giving Typhonthaus all the waging of the war - just give us victory ... '' ^[5]

After the war, it turned out that the company of Tifontay suffered catastrophic material and property losses. After the war, he tried to recover his losses, initially sending petitions to various authorities, and then personally going to St. Petersburg ^[1] . An officer of the Russian army Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote:

In 1907, Tifontay began to have problems with creditors and contractors with whom he collaborated during the war. On their initiative, the “Administration for the affairs of the trading house Tifontai and Co.” was created in Khabarovsk, which turned to the government for assistance in returning its money. On August 12, 1908, Typhonthaus was given a “loan-like recovery from the treasury” in the amount of 500 thousand rubles, but it did not cover all the losses.

In 1906, Tifontay was awarded the Order of Stanislav of the third degree, and in 1907 - the Order of Stanislav of the second degree ^[6] . In May 1910, he died in St. Petersburg. He was buried in Harbin according to the will ^[7] .

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