A Russian Merchant's Tale: The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchenov, Based on His Diary

352 Pages·2008·2.526 MB·English

by  David L. Ransel

A
Russian
Merchant’s
Tale
Indiana-Michigan Series in
Russian and East European Studies
Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg,
editors
A
Russian
Merchant’s
Tale
The Life and Adventures of
Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov,
Based on His Diary
David L. Ransel
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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∫ 2009 by David L. Ransel
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
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without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Ransel, David L.
A Russian merchant’s tale : the life and adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov,
based on his diary / David L. Ransel.
p. cm. — (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-253-35236-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-253-22020-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Tolchenov, Ivan Alekseevich, b. 1754. 2. Merchants—Russia (Federation)—Moscow (Oblast)—
Biography. 3. Merchants—Russia (Federation)—Moscow (Oblast)—Social conditions—
18th century. 4. Business enterprises—Russia (Federation)—Moscow (Oblast)—History—
18th century. 5. Moscow (Russia : Oblast)—Commerce—History—18th century.
6. Moscow (Russia : Oblast)—Biography. I. Title.
hf3630.2.z8m677 2009
381.092—dc22
[b]
2008023839
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
To Firuz Kazemzadeh and Marc Rae√
with thanks for the good start

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Maps xxvii
1 The Setting, Education, Youth, and Marriage 1
2 Local Politics during Ivan’s Youth 24
3 Junior Member of the Family Firm:
Merchant Life in Dmitrov 46
4 Young Paterfamilias 73
5 Leading Citizen 107
6 Eminent Trickster 152
7 Moscow Townsman 190
8 A New Equilibrium 223
Conclusion 252
Appendix: Genealogical Table for the
Family of Boris Tolchënov 257
Notes 263
Bibliography 291
Index 305

Acknowledgments
I first want to thank the Swedish historian Claes Peterson, who introduced me
to the diary of Ivan Tolchënov and furnished a copy of the portion of it printed
by Soviet scholars in the early 1970s. The Russian historian Boris Nikolaevich
Mironov was also helpful in obtaining additional materials and giving refer-
ences to sources. Leonid Romanovich Vaintraub provided a great deal of assis-
tance and advice when I began to do archival work, and he went with me to
Dmitrov and the surrounding district on several occasions to show me surviv-
ing architectural monuments from the time in which the figures in this book
were alive. He and Irina Piatiletova of Vesti Press in Dmitrov helped me to gain
entrance into and to photograph the interior of the Tolchënov house. Galina
Nikolaevna Ul’ianova shared with me her knowledge of Russian commercial
elites and their charitable practices. I also want to acknowledge the patience and
assistance of the sta√s of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, the Central
Historical Archive of Moscow, and the Archive and Museum of the Dmitrov
District, and the Slavic bibliographers at Indiana University’s Wells Library and
those at the Helsinki University Library’s Slavonic Division.
My colleagues at Indiana University, Nina Perlina, Dodona Kiziria, Michael
Alexeev, Galina McClaws, Jerzy Kolodziej, Larisa Privalskaia, Henry Cooper,
and Ronald Feldstein patiently responded to my questions about Russian usage
and Orthodox religious practices. John T. Alexander of the University of Kansas
read through much of the first draft and saved me from a number of mistakes.
Daniel Kaiser of Grinnell College and Alexander M. Martin of Notre Dame
University went through the entire manuscript and o√ered many helpful sug-
gestions for improvement. Dale Peterson of Amherst College and Laura Engel-
stein of Yale University provided helpful interpretive suggestions at an early
stage of the work. I am also indebted to Willard Sunderland of the University of
Cincinnati, Gregory Freeze of Brandeis University, and the participants of the
Midwest Historians of Russia Workshop for useful observations and bibliogra-
phy materials. Irina Piatiletova and Leonid Vaintraub kindly allowed me to
reproduce photographs taken by them, on page 87, and pages 110 and 111,
respectively. Janet Rabinowitch, director of Indiana University Press, o√ered
helpful suggestions for shaping the introduction, and Candace McNulty did
sensitive copyediting.
x acknowledgments
Financial assistance for research and travel was provided by Indiana Univer-
sity. A fellowship from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX)
in spring of 1999 allowed me to launch my initial archival investigations. I am
also grateful to the Bogliasco Foundation Inc. for a fellowship at its Liguria
Center for the Study of Arts and Letters near Genoa in the spring of 2007 that
gave me uninterrupted time to finish the manuscript.