Zlobin, Vasily Alekseevich

The son of a poor specific peasant in the village of Voskresensky Alexei Nikiforov Polovnik, nicknamed Zlobin. His father served as a village clerk in Voskresensky, then in the same position in the richer village of Malykovka. After the death of his father, his eldest son became a scribe in the Malykovsky order, and the youngest Vasily became a clerk of clerks in the village of Baranovka. Later, when Ivan first became a volost clerk, and then his head, Vasily became his assistant, and then a clerk in the Malykovsky volost government. He was a quiet and modest man, ready to help and help. The villagers loved him and the whole world interceded for him in front of the father of his bride, Pelageya Mikhailovna Kuzmina. The wealthy peasant, who later became a merchant Volkovoinov, opposed marriage, not wanting to give his daughter for the poor and suffering from stuttering Zlobin, but in the end succumbed to the coexistence of fellow villagers.

Soon after the wedding, in 1780, Prosecutor General Prince A. A. Vyazemsky drove through his Malykovka estate to his estate in Tsarevshchina in order to choose the lands just granted to him by the Empress. Among those who presented gifts to the distinguished guest was Vasily Zlobin, who attracted the attention of the prince with his mind. From him, Vyazemsky learned about good meadows on the Mayang River with numerous fish lakes. Having examined them, the prince was pleased with the advice and appointed Zlobin to take these lands from the treasury first, and then manage them and the distillery in the Tsarevshchina.

Convinced of Zlobin’s dexterity and honesty, Vyazemsky called him to St. Petersburg , where he instructed to carry out the purchase in his own name, but with the money and bail of the prince: “You will be my weapon, you will be the full master of the withdrawals; my capital and pledges; common benefits. " The patronage of the Prosecutor General was worth a lot, so when Prince Vyazemsky died, the clever and enterprising Zlobin was already a millionaire, had farms in many provinces and took large contracts for the supply of breech salt to various cities and provisions for the army.

On November 7, 1780, by the decree of Empress Catherine II, the village of Malykovka was transformed into the county town of Volsk . Ivan Zlobin became one of the Burmeseurs , and Vasily became one of the ratmans . In the new elections of February 7, 1784, the society unanimously elected Vasily Zlobin as mayor. Under him, a city council was formed and began to work, in 1786 a local census was carried out, and land belonging to Volsk was measured. In 1787, he was chosen by his head a second time. And on January 27, 1789, Zlobin sent a notice to his fellow citizens that he would not participate in the next elections, entrusted his head with the duties of the head, and asked him to elect a new worthy citizen in his place.

By that time, Zlobin’s affairs constantly demanded his presence in Moscow and Petersburg, then in Siberia, then in Astrakhan and Odessa, and he could no longer pay enough attention to the city. He became a very famous person in Russia, many were looking for his location, he was close to people like Kochubey , Kozoddevlev and Speransky , whose sister-in-law, Englishwoman Stephens, married his son.

In 1796, Zlobin had the title of eminent citizen and eighteen registered highest orders issued for his charity work. He kept the wine farms, kept official fisheries in Astrakhan , kept all playing cards of the empire at the mercy, delivered food to Moscow and St. Petersburg and salt to twenty provinces of Russia. According to F. Vigel , Zlobin received a net income of up to 1000 rubles a day, while remaining a fairly simple person. He did not pursue fashion, did not shave his beard , did not seek attention from the powerful, did not seek ranks and nobility. However, he had a passion to luxuriously treat St. Petersburg to know the people he needed. In St. Petersburg, he hired a three-story house, where he was visited by many representatives of high society. According to the description given to him by one of his contemporaries who met him in St. Petersburg in 1802, Zlobin was a type of Russian peasant, a person both good and cunning; he kept both the tread, and the speech, and the sayings of his primitive state, in a word, everything, even clothes and a beard. In the rich Russian caftan, he appeared on big holidays in the palace, and there was not a single person in Petersburg who would not know him. His friendliness, good-naturedness and sumptuous dinners attracted crowds of guests. He refused ranks and orders when everyone chased them, he especially treasured the title of eminent citizen and was content with three gold medals: on the Anninsky ribbon, granted by Catherine II , on Vladimirskaya ribbon by Paul I and showered with diamonds depicting Alexander I on it.

Zlobin did not forget about his homeland and did a lot for the Saratov province and Volsk in particular, the Saratov authorities bowed to him, and he made friends with the governor A.D. Panchulidzev . Living in a magnificent house in St. Petersburg, he dreamed, however, when he was old, he settled in his native Volsk, which he constantly cared for: he built a cathedral and churches, hospitals, planted gardens, and private houses were built with his money, he even wanted to wall the whole city with a wall and turn it from county to provincial.

The wife of Vasily Alekseevich Pelageya everywhere accompanied her husband, living in luxury and wealth. She, adhering to the strict rules of the Old Believers , was unable to recognize her son’s marriage with the Englishwoman and left Petersburg first to Volsk, and then to the Irgiz Old Believer Monastery , where she died in 1803.

Zlobin patronized those who served with him, and tried to bring promising people, so that many later became rich and famous themselves, such as Sapozhnikov, Rastorguev, Ryumin, Bryukhanov or even nobles (such as Ustinovs ), he considered stupid who failed, being in his service, to make a fortune.

The complexity of the enterprises conceived by Zlobin, the loss of income and the supply of salt in 1812, excessive trust in people, and abuses of workers gradually brought his business into decline. Some influentially carelessly offended by him harmed him out of revenge and envy. The death of his only son Konstantin greatly affected the health of Zlobin. He became thoughtful, forgetful, depressed, left completely alone. The Saratov governor Panchulidzev called him to entertain him, but a week after his arrival in Saratov, Vasily Zlobin died. He was buried in Volsk on the Sokolovy hillock, where he once built a church and a family crypt.

In Volsk, for a long time, his portrait was kept, the work of Kiprensky , who in 1880 was donated to the city by the merchant T.Z. Epifanov.

After the death of Vasily Alekseevich, a huge arrears were revealed, and although Alexander I forgave part of it, all the assets of Zlobin went to cover the rest and other debts. The foreclosure proceedings lasted for many years, including the sale of land and 5000 acres of land that was once acquired by the son of Vasily Alekseevich Konstantin. Zlobin’s grandson began a lawsuit about returning his father’s estate as illegally sold to him, the case was investigated for several years and ended up with the fact that Emperor Nicholas I had already ordered 100,000 rubles to be given out instead of the estate, which ended up.

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• Popov K. Volsky eminent citizen V.A. Zlobin. - Volsk, 1892.
• Russian portraits of the XVIII — XIX centuries . - SPb .: Ed. Led. Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich, 1906. - T. 2, no. 3, No. 122.