An exhibition in the Reserve Center of the Presidential Library to highlight the prominent industrialist Nikolai Vtorov

On April 14, 2021, the Reserve Center of the Presidential Library (Moscow, Slavyanskaya Square, 4, bldg. 1) will open the "Vtorov and His Time" exhibition. It marks the 155th anniversary of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vtorov, the founder of the city of Elektrostal (Moscow Region).

The exposition's location is not accidental. It was Nikolai Vtorov, the prominent industrialist of the early XX century, who sponsored the building of the Delovoy Dvor (Business Court) ensemble on Varvarskaya Square, where the Reserve Center of the Presidential Library is currently located.

The exhibition's organizers are the Presidential Library and the Electrostal Museum and Exhibition Centre. It will feature archival copies of photographs, documents, and reproductions from the private archive of a Vtorov's descendant, who lives in France.

The Vtorovs were the big entrepreneurs of the early XX century, whose wealth could be considered with the properties of the Shchukins, the Ryabushinskys, the Morozovs. The Vtorovs invested money in large financial enterprises and high-tech industries.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vtorov was very famous. He headed the Siberian Trade Bank, and was the owner of the Moscow Industrial Bank, the Russian company "Koksobenzol". He controlled such giants of the domestic industry as the Society of the Bryansk Plant, the Donetsk-Yuryevsk Metallurgical Society.

In 1911, Nikolai Vtorov invested a lot of money in the construction of the Delovy Dvor on Varvarskaya Square (now Slavyanskaya Square. 4). Its building was designed and constructed by the famous architect Ivan Kuznetsov.

Before the First World War, Vtorov and the Knop brothers organized the "Partnership for Domestic and Import Trade". When the war began, Vtorov's business was also successful. The Vtorovs became the creators of large enterprises connected with the production of chemical dyes, cement, and military equipment. In 1916, in Zatishye (Bogorodsky District), which is the current territory of a large industrial centre of Elektrostal in Moscow Region, Nikolai Aleksandrovich founded two large military enterprises - the Bogorodsky Equipment Plant and the Electrostal Metallurgical Plant.

The "Vtorov and His Time" exhibition about the life and career of the prominent Russian industrialist will run until May 24, 2021.

It will be available in the electronic reading room in the Reserve Center of the Presidential Library. The exhibition is open for all the employees of organizations located in the building at 4 Slavyanskaya Square, bldg. 1, as well as the visitors via prior registration (with passport).