Moscow Merchant Bank

It was founded in 1866 in Moscow in the form of a partnership on the initiative of 77 local entrepreneurs headed by I. A. Lyamin (1822-1894), who became chairman of the bank’s council ^[1] , T. S. Morozov and N. N. Suschov . The charter of the bank was approved by Alexander II on June 1 (13), 1866 ^[2] . The initial pooled capital was 1.26 million rubles, the charter allowed its increase to 5 million rubles without special permission from the government . The list of first shareholders ^[3] included 90 items, some of which were family groups of individuals. The largest shares belonged to Baron A. L. Stiglitz and S. P. Malyutin (100 thousand rubles each), large shares to A. N. Vlasov, V. S. Kanshin (60 thousand rubles each) and philanthropist V. A. Kokorev ( 50 thousand rubles). Among the first shareholders were also E. I. Lamansky , E. I. Armand , I. F. Bazilevsky , I. K. Babst , Baron A. I. Delvig , E. G. Gunzburg , M. G. Rukavishnikov , N. G. Ryumin , P.P. Sorokoumovsky , Prince A. A. Shcherbatov , His Serene Prince V. A. Menshikov , S. Yu. Samarin, Countess M.F. Sollogub , P.M. Tretyakov , I.O. Utin , F.V. Chizhov , V.I. Yakunchikov .

The bank financed mainly textile enterprises of the Central Industrial Region and until the beginning of the 20th century was the second largest asset among private banks in Russia ^[4] . In 1899, I. I. Bilibin became the chairman of the bank’s board, N. Ya. Malevinsky (1889-1906), D. T. Nikitin, A. I. Svetlitsky, D. E. Kurilenko and V. Ya. Kovalnitsky headed the Moscow office ^[5] . Private securities transactions were non-core for the bank, but in 1896 the bank acquired 500 shares of the newly established Russian-Chinese Bank in the amount of 62.5 thousand rubles ^[6] .

For 1917, the director of the bank’s board was state adviser Nikolai Nikolaevich Malevinsky, a special-purpose official of the Ministry of Finance ^[7] .

Together with other private banks, it was liquidated ( nationalized ) by accession to the State Bank by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of December 14 [27], 1917 . By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 23 [ February 5 ] 1918 , the bank’s share capital, along with the share capital of other private banks, was confiscated in favor of the State Bank of the Russian Federation ^[8] .

Nevsky Prospect , Building 46, 1901 - 1902 architect L.N. Benoit .

The first house on the site was built in 1745 - 1746 . In 1750 - 1760, F. B. Rastrelli lived here. By architectural decision, the building was an analogue of the neighboring one, which belonged to another great baroque master - Mikhail Zemtsov (Nevsky Prospekt, 48).

In 1823 - 1824, according to the project of M. Liven , a new four-story house was built on the site of the former for the merchant Likhachev. In it in the 1830s there was the famous lithographic workshop of K.P. Beggrov , which printed a great many images that brought to the descendants the views of St. Petersburg of the 19th century. Later, the Swedish firm N. Nordenström was located in this house, making custom-made military uniforms of the highest quality, including for members of the imperial family. On May 6, 1896, in the converted shop, which later became the first Russian cinema, a cinema session of Lumieres took place - the first in Russia and one of the first in general.

In 1895, a house on this site was bought by a St. Petersburg private commercial bank for 680 thousand rubles to place its board. However, then the plans of this bank changed, and in 1899 the building was resold for 1 million 140 thousand rubles to the Moscow Merchant Bank ^[9] . In 1901 - 1902 , according to the project of Leonty Benois , the current house 46 was built - especially for the St. Petersburg branch of the Moscow Merchant Bank. This is the earliest Art Nouveau building on Nevsky Prospekt. The construction was conducted by the military engineer N.V. Smirnov, the facade with reliefs and masks was finished by the plastering firm Chakhotin, the lattice of the front staircase was made by the workshop of E. A. Weberg, the premises were furnished with Meltzer furniture. The bank didn’t occupy the entire building - at the beginning of the 20th century there was the office of the Volga insurance company, the dental school I.A. Pashutina's hospital, the music and drama courses of B.V. Pollak; on the ground floor, with its huge display cases, there were shops (including the optics of I.E. Milka) and an automatic buffet of the Quisisana partnership.

In Soviet times, some of these institutions did not disappear, but changed their name: instead of a private dental school, the Dental Institute was located for a long time, and later to this day - Dental Clinic No. 1; a self-service cafe Neva settled on the site of Kvisisana, subsequently, after the reconstruction of 1955, the restaurant of the same name.

In 1997 - 2004 there was a nightclub "Hollywood Nights", a store "Colins Loft". The building is a local architectural monument and is protected by the state.

• Petrov, Yu. A. Commercial banks of Moscow. The end of the XIX century. - 1914 - M .: ROSSPEN, 1998 .-- 368 p. - (Economic history. Documents. Research. Translations.). - ISBN 5-86004-135-7 .
• Charter of the Moscow Merchant Bank