Dobachevsky, Nikolai Nikolaevich

Nikolai Nikolaevich Dobachevsky came from the nobility of the Kharkov province, studied in Volsk military gymnasium near Saratov . Then, in October 1880 , he passed the exam at the Technical and Construction Committee of the Ministry of the Interior and received a certificate for the right "to carry out the construction of buildings and in general to supervise the civil construction and road parts ... which, however, does not give the right to be called in the Russian Empire engineer or architect. " With this evidence, Dobachevsky departed for Panama .

Just at that time, the construction of the Panama Canal began , and this allowed the young specialist to gain unique experience. The Russian showed enough ability to the government of Colombia (Panama was then a member of the Colombian Federation) in September 1883 marked him with the title of civil engineer.

Soon Dobachevsky returned to his homeland. Here he also proved to be quite good and received a gift from the imperial family for his merit — gold cufflinks with diamonds and sapphires. For some time, "foreign engineer" Nikolai Dobachevsky worked in the distant Irkutsk province . From there, at the beginning of 1892, the 32-year-old engineer moved to Kiev, where his professional abilities were quickly appreciated. He received several significant orders. So, the famous homeowner Friedrich Mikhelson instructed him to expand the revenue complex at present Pushkinskaya , 35-37.

But the most prestigious victory was Dobachevsky at the competition of plans for the agricultural and industrial exhibition of 1897 in Kiev. The exhibition was supposed to form a whole town on the slopes of Cherepanova Mountain . In February 1896, the chairman of the Kiev Agricultural Society, Prince Nikolai Repnin, concluded an agreement with Dobachevsky, according to which the latter was tasked with developing a project for planning the exhibition area, drawings of all pavilions, as well as managing their construction.

Probably, at that time Nikolai Dobachevsky met Mikhail Podgorsky, an exhibitor of the exhibition, a well-known agrarian, arborist and fish farmer. Local architectural leaders were not particularly happy with the newbie’s success. And the head of construction in the region - the provincial engineer Vladimir Bessmertny found fault with the fact that in some official documents Dobachevsky was referred to as an engineer. The investigation began.

Dobachevsky explained that he never called himself a “Russian engineer”, and the Colombian patent granted him the right to be called a “foreign engineer”. However, the enemies continued their onslaught. In April 1896, Vladimir Immortal was appointed head of the construction department of the Kiev exhibition. Soon, the Immortal made it so that the design of individual pavilions for the exhibition was entrusted to a large group of Kiev architects - his friends. Dobachevsky would have a poultry farm for waterfowl .

Meanwhile, details of the grandiose scam that was exposed during the construction of the Panama Canal, which gave a satirical connotation to the very word “Panama,” reached Russia. This was immediately taken advantage of by the ill-wishers of Nikolai Nikolaevich, in every possible way mocking his "Panamanian merits." Further career of the architect in Kiev, in fact, was broken. The houses of Podgorsky on Yaroslavovy Val and Ippolit Dyakov on Nikolaev Square (now Ivan Franko Square , 5.) were the last of the famous Kiev structures of Dobachevsky.

In Kiev construction documents after 1898, his name did not appear.

The name of Nikolai Dobachevsky still surfaced in connection with the bloody Jewish pogrom that occurred in Kiev in October 1905 . The district court conducted an investigation, finding out the names of the most active rioters. Numerous witnesses were interviewed. One of them - the tradesman Nokhim Itskovich - showed the following about the October events:

At about 12 noon, when I was on the corner of Khreshchatyk and Proreznaya St. , a patriotic demonstration approached here, which was heading to the Duma. At the head of the procession ... there was a gentleman unknown to me, dressed in a black coat with silver buttons and silver long epaulets, on his head was a cap with a red band; perhaps this is the form of the quartermaster. At that time, before the demonstration appeared, the crowd was smashing the Haskelman store, but when the demonstration appeared, the crowd stopped, and then the gentleman in the uniform I mentioned spoke to the hooligans with the words: “Why did you stop working? What is so weak? much! We are allowed! " I remembered the official I was talking about and can recognize him: he is a tall brunette, with a black mustache and a black beard ... After the pogrom, I described to some acquaintances the signs of this man, and they told me that it was probably the commissary official Dobachevsky .

Since Itskovich himself was not sure of the identification of Dobachevsky, his testimony was verified. The city police have set up a surveillance engineer. And he compiled such a bunch of incriminating data that almost every second article of the “Code of Punishment”, the then Russian criminal code, would have suited him.

From the report of detectives, it turns out what Dobachevsky did after the collapse of his architectural designs. He sold his wife’s estate and lost the money in cards. Then the engineer generally abandoned his wife with four children, without giving them any help. As reported in December 1905, police agents:

About 6 years ago, he lived in house number 47 on Aleksandrovskaya Street (now 4 Grushevsky St. ). One night he, having met a stray young girl on the street, persuaded her to spend the night with him, and in the morning he would take her to her parents. The girl agreed, but when Dobachevsky came into the room, he attempted to rape her. In desperation, the girl wanted to jump out into the street through the window of the third floor, but when she screamed, the servant held her back ... From the second half of 1904, Dobachevsky lived at great intervals at the Bristol Hotel, on Nikolayevskaya Square (he built the building on the current Ivan Franko square , five). In this hotel, just like in the previous apartments, Dobachevsky pays nothing ... Once Dobachevsky attempted to rape Goethe’s number card “Bristol”, but the servant who ran to her cry prevented him. According to the reviews of all apartment owners, Dobachevsky led a shameful lifestyle while living in them, did not do anything and lived on credit.

At the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Dobachevsky agreed to leave for Manchuria as a “civilian military official” to work on field road management. He was given a uniform and more than 800 rubles of "running and lifting money." He did not go to Manchuria, he wasted money, and bragged about it with pleasure. When one day a fellow demanded from him a document on the right to wear a uniform, Dobachevsky presented a certificate that turned out to be fake. Therefore, he really could be seen in the days of the pogrom in a cap and in a coat with epaulets.

Political views, according to police, also made it possible to suspect Dobachevsky of condolences to the rioters:

In Kiev, as you know, the party "Legal Order" arose ... Members of the party signed up people from different walks of life, from some intelligent people to workers and watchmen. Also enrolled in this party and Dobachevsky, who, being in the meetings of the party of legal order, often made speeches aimed at inciting hatred among Jews among Christians.

Thus, the investigation did not have direct evidence against Dobachevsky in connection with the pogroms, but there were as many indirect ones. It was proposed to deprive him of the right to attend party meetings and wear military uniforms. In addition, it turned out that:

he is now under investigation by a judicial investigator of the 1st section of Kiev on charges of embezzlement of the property entrusted to him for storage described for private debts.

Materials about the engineer break off in 1906. The lack of information about him suggests that he either moved to another city (he had a very bad reputation in Kiev), or he was nevertheless exiled for proven misconduct.

Here is an excerpt from N.S. Romanov’s "annals of the city of Irkutsk": "... on January 18, 1888, engineer N.N. Dobachevsky arrived, invited by the Governor-General of Irkutsk, Count Ignatiev, to repair and arrange the Moscow highway between Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. Last summer, he was part of the railway party, conducting surveys on the section between Tomsk and Achinsk ... "And he left Irkutsk also in January, but in 1892.

• Chimeras in stone and in the soul: how the Kiev architect became a pogromist (inaccessible link)
• Roadside plot
• arch. Dobachevsky N.
• House with a spire
• Kiev "castle of the baron"
• Chimeras in stone and in the soul: how the Kiev architect became a pogrom