The Trapeznikovs are a dynasty of prominent Irkutsk merchants who made an invaluable contribution to the economic and social development of both Irkutsk and the entire Siberian region. Members of the Trapeznikov family participated in a merchant marine partnership, engaged in fishing along the shores of Russian America, owned gold mines and a steamship company on the Lena River, conducted a lively trade with China via Kyakhta, offered Siberian goods at fairs in Nizhny Novgorod and Irbit, from where they brought goods in demand in Siberia .
Trofim Yakovlevich Trapeznikov (1679—1745): Founder of the dynasty, hailed from Pomor peasants. He was born into the family of the peasant Yakov Ivanovich Trapeznikov and his wife Anna in the village of Ulyanovskaya-Rakulskaya volost, Kivokursky camp, Dvinsk third of Velikoustyuzhsky uyezd.
In 1706, Trofim “because of the scarcity of bread and cattle dying off went into Siberian towns.” His parents and his older brother Nazar stayed on the Northern Dvina.
In Irkutsk, Trofim married Fevronya Stepanovna Vlasova (1695), a peasant girl from Verkhneangarskaya village. In 1723, he was counted the Irkutsk townspeople. Trofim and Fevronya Trapeznikovs had six children: Matrena, Irina, Dmitry, Praskovya, Pelageya, Maxim.
By this time, Trofim had become a leading citizen and gave away his two daughters in marraige to local merchants and fellow countrymen: Matrena to Prokopiy Belosludtsev, a native of Solvychegodsk, and Pelageya to Vasily Balakshin, a native of Velikoustyug uyezd. Shortly before his death Trofim Yakovlevich became a merchant (1745).
After the death of his father, Dmitry Trofimovich became the head of the family. He had an undivided capital with the family of his younger brother Maxim. The brothers were engaged in petty trade, but by 1780 they became bourgeoisie.
Dmitry’s wife, Anna Maximovna Volodayeva (died in 1789), was the daughter of a local Cossack. Their children were: Peter, Ivan, Marfa. Maxim had a son Maxim.
One of the leading representatives of the Trapeznikov family was the eldest grandson of Trofim, Peter Dmitrievich (1747—1815).
Thanks to his endeavors, brisk trade activity and placement of capital in industry, Peter’s family became merchants of the first guild. He made his capital in the fur trade, which he brought from Kamchatka and sold in Kyakhta to Chinese merchants. The size of the declared capital in 1807 amounted to 50 thousand rubles. He owned several shops in the Stone Parlor Row and six shops in the Meshchansky Row. He built a large stone house.
Peter’s younger son Konstantin (1790—1860), merchant of the 1st guild (1849), hereditary honorary citizen, was mayor of Irkutsk (1829—1831), who was re-elected to this post in November 1846. He was member of the Trading House, “Peter Dmitrievich Trapeznikov and Sons.”
Konstantin belonged to the highest strata of the Irkutsk merchant elite. He successfully traded in Kyakhta. He was one of the first to develop the gold-bearing areas of the Olekminsky district, which became a major gold producer. According to legend, he learned about this area in the summer of 1846 from a Tungus who met him at the fair in Zhigalovo with a gold nugget in his hand. Without much difficulty Konstantin Petrovich found out from him the place of the find and took him on as a guide. The native Siberian led the expedition, organized by Trapeznikov to the valley of the Khomolkho River to rich gold deposits. The application for the first Voznesensky mine was registered by K.P. Trapeznikov on September 7, 1846. This date is considered to be the official date of discovery of gold in the Lena gold mining district.
In total, Konstantin Petrovich owned ten mines on the Khomolkhodochod river as private property, while he leased three mines more from other owners. Among his substantial donations were the construction and repair of sidewalks in Irkutsk (1858), for the decoration of the Cathedral with gold rizos and the repair of the Cathedral itself (1859), for the decoration of the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, presented to Irkutsk from the Abalatsky Monastery by Tobolsk Metropolitan Ioann Maximovich, with 25 pounds of pure gold. The Siropitelnaya craft school (1866) was named after K.P. Trapeznikov.
He was closely acquainted with the Siberian Governor-General M.M. Speransky when he was in Irkutsk.
A representative of the fifth generation of merchants Trapeznikovs, Alexander Konstantinovich (1821—1895), was Irkutsk merchant of the 1st guild, hereditary honorary citizen, commercial advisor. He graduated from the Moscow Commercial School in 1840 with a gold medal “with his brilliant abilities among the best.”
From the very beginning of gold mining on the Khomolkho River, Alexander helped his father directly at the mines. As was later written about him, “in a very short time, he became his father’s best assistant. Alexander Konstantinovich became acquainted with all the harsh conditions of life in the taiga… But, having endured all the difficulties of this fabulous hard life, he returned to Irkutsk, enriched with practical knowledge and experience.”
In 1859 he moved permanently to Moscow, where he developed extensive commercial activity, and as the owner of large commercial and industrial capital, a significant part of which was invested in the gold industry and tea trade. He was among the co-founders of the “Coastal-Vitimsky partnership” (1865), which owned mines along the Vakh and Gorbyli rivers and in the Olekma district. He was also founder and head of the A. Trapeznikov and Co. Trading House.
He was also owner of an iron foundry in Tyumen for the production of “steamboats and other machines,” and he engaged in shipping. At the end of the 1870s, he undertook a number of trade voyages from Siberia to Europe (London), through the Kara and Barents Seas, at which time he became Member of the Society for the Promotion of Russian Merchant Shipping, and member-competitor of the East Siberian Branch of the Russian Geographical Society.
He was a large real estate owner in Irkutsk, having amassed a multimillion fortune. In Moscow, he lived in his house on Nikolo-Yamskaya Street (the house has been preserved). He also owned a house on the Bernikovskaya embankment of the Yauza River.
“Ready always, to the extent of his means, to participate in meeting the needs of his native city,” he was a member of the City Duma (1885—1897), was a trustee of the Duma in Moscow, a member of the Society to Help Students in Eastern Siberia. By the decision of the Irkutsk City Duma, he was awarded the title of “honorary citizen” (1886).
A.K. Trapeznikov: one of the founders of the “Anchor” insurance company, foreman of the Moscow Exchange Committee, member of the Council of the Moscow Trade Bank.
He was known as a generous philanthropist and patron of the arts. For example, he donated money for the construction of the Chapel of the Savior in memory of the miraculous deliverance of Emperor Alexander II on April 4, 1866; for the development of the Znamensky Women’s and Ascension monasteries—3 thousand rubles (1866) and kindergarten (1871); for the construction of the first Siberian Tomsk University—110 thousand rubles (1880); for the construction of the Kazan Church in the Workers’ Sloboda of Irkutsk—3 thousand rubles (1886); for the victims of the Irkutsk burn victims—10 thousand rubles (1886). rubles (1880) ; to the Kazan Church in the Rabochaya Sloboda of Irkutsk—3 thousand rubles (1886); to the burn victims of Irkutsk—10 thousand rubles (1879); donatation to the city for the development of the network of public schools—80 thousand rubles (1888); transferred 3 thousand rubles for the construction of a stone theater building. He was awarded the Order of Anna of the 2nd degree (1885).
He showed considerable interest in his genealogy, publishing in 1883 to 1886, at his own expense, books compiled by I.N. Nikolev: Veliky Ustyug: materials for the history of the city of the XVII and XVIII centuries; Irkutsk: materials for the history of the city of the XVII and XVIII centuries; Tobolsk: materials for the history of the city of the XVII and XVIII centuries; Siberian cities: materials for the history of the XVII and XVIII centuries. Nerchinsk. Selenginsk. Yakutsk.
Alexander Konstantinovich died on July 4, 1895 “of heart disease.” He was buried by His Eminence Nestor, Bishop of Dmitrov, with a council of clergy and the local parish. He was buried in the Andronikov Monastery.
There is little information about Alexander Konstantinovich’s son Konstantin. He died quite early, on November 17, 1900, at the age of 46 “from paralysis of the brain,” and was buried next to his father in the Andronikov Monastery. Konstantin was married to Olga Ivanovna, who after her husband’s death, became the owner of houses on Nikolo-Yamskaya Street and Bernikovskaya Embankment. She was engaged in the tea trade.
The seventh generation of Trapeznikovs is represented by Alexander Konstantinovich, born in 1881, the full namesake of his grandfather.
A.K. Trapeznikov graduated from the Imperial Moscow Technical School in 1906, becoming a technical engineer. A year before graduation, January 16, 1905, he married Maria Mikhailovna Ovchinnikova, born in 1885, who came from the family of the famous jewelers, Ovchinnikov.
He took part in the First World War. As a warrant officer of the reserve, he was mobilized and served in the 81st Artillery Brigade, 4th Army, in South-Western Front.
Maria Mikhailovna, who received a higher medical education in 1912, also participated in the war, working as a doctor in the field military sanitary trains No. 202 and 180 of the All-Russian Zemsky Union. During the first year of the war alone, sanitary train No. 202 made 49 trips, transporting 17,580 wounded.
Maria Mikhailovna, as well as the entire staff of Sanitary Train No. 180, was awarded the St. George Medal in 1916.
From 1918 to 1920, A.K. Trapeznikov served in the Red Army. After demobilization, he carried out scientific and teaching work in his almamater at the Department of Physics.
Alexander Konstantinovich is one of the first Russian scientists who began systematic study of the physics of X-rays and realized their technical application. He was a pioneer of industrial X-ray defectoscopy.
An erudite theorist, Alexander Konstantinovich was at the same time a master of physics experiments.
Alexander Konstantinovich published more than 40 articles and wrote major monographs: Fundamentals of X-ray Radiography (1933), Structural X-ray Analysis of Metals and their Binary Alloys at Elevated Temperatures (1936—1937), Illumination of Materials by X-ray Beams (1939). This book, which was widely used in universities, research institutes and factory laboratories, was republished in a revised and supplemented form under the title, X-ray Defectoscopy in 1948.
In 1951, Alexander Konstantinovich published a popular brochure, Control of Materials and Products by X-rays, and in the same year, together with other authors, published a textbook for universities under the title, Radiography.
All these works and research activities of A.K. Trapeznikov created his well-deserved fame as a major scientist in the field of X-ray physics and technology. In 1944, Alexander K. Trapeznikov was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, without defending his dissertation, on the recommendation of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, S. I. Vavilov.
Alexander Konstantinovich was an outstanding teacher, the creator of the school of Soviet radiologists-defectoscopists. He personally trained many radiologists who became heads of X-ray laboratories of large plants.
A.K. Trapeznikov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1944) and many medals. He died on January 10, 1953 and is buried in the Vvedensky cemetery.
And, finally, the eighth generation of Trapeznikovs. The brightest representative of the dynasty is Vadim Alexandrovich Trapeznikov.
Vadim Alexandrovich was born in Moscow on November 28, 1905. He studied at the famous 1st Moscow Gymnasium on Volkhonka. But in 1918 the gymnasium was closed, and Vadim at the age of 13 became a laboratory assistant of the cooperative “Association of Chemical-Pharmaceutical Production,” better known as “Cooperative Chemistry;” then he became a leveler of the survey party, then a meteorologist of the Moscow Regional Agricultural Experimental Station “MOSKHOS.” Alingside his work, he also studied, and in 1921 graduated from the Secondary Unified Labor School. In the same year, he entered Moscow State University, but in 1923 he transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School, in the Electromechanical Faculty, which he graduated from in 1928. His diploma work was entitled, “Electric Lighting of Trains.”
From 1928 to 1933, V.A. Trapeznikov worked at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI). These years he called the period of “frenzied” enthusiasm for work. In 1929, he published his first paper, “Study of the Rosenberg Machine.” The main direction of his scientific activity in VEI was the search for optimal parameters of the most mass production of the electrical industry—induction motors. In 1941, he moved to the Institute of Automation and Telemechanics, with which all his future activities and destiny were connected.
Vadim Alexandrovich himself considered 1935 as the beginning of his serious work in automation. In 1936, he received the first copyright certificate for “Device for automatic regulation of temperature, pressure and other quantities.”
By 1930, he was teaching, first as an assistant and then as a teacher and professor at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI). At the beginning of 1938, he was awarded the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences at MPEI without defense, and at the end of 1938 he defended his doctoral dissertation, “Fundamentals of Different-Field Design of Asynchronous Machines.”
Finally, on July 5, 1941, Vadim Alexandrovich was transferred to the Institute of Automation and Telemechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the V.A. Trapeznikov Institute of Control Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences), as a senior researcher. Soon he created a new laboratory of technical means of automation. V.A. Trapeznikov’s work during the war years was marked by many distinctions, and in 1946, by the medal “For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
Vadim Alexandrovich combined scientific work with a large amount of pedagogical work. This included:
In 1951, he was elected Director of the Institute of Automation and Telemechanics, which was later renamed the Institute of Control Problems, as it significantly expanded the scope of its research in the field of control science. During the years of his 36-year leadership, the Institute turned into a world-famous scientific center with modern materials base, which did a lot for the development of domestic management science, for the training of highly qualified scientific personnel throughout the country.
In 1951, V.A. Trapeznikov received the State (then Stalin) Prize for the creation and implementation of analog electronic modeling devices. In 1953, he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1960, a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
For thirteen years, from 1965 to 1978, without leaving the post of Director of the Institute, he worked as First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology (SCST).
In 1965, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the gold medal, “Serp i Molot.”
In 1981, he was awarded the Lenin Prize for scientific leadership of the work on automation of the first nuclear-powered fighter submarine in Russia (Project 705).
In 1983, his famous monograph, Management and Scientific and Technological Progress, was published.
In 1987, at the age of 82, he resigned as Director of the Institute, worked as Chief Scientific Officer for several months and was soon confirmed as Honorary Director of the Institute, in which he remained until the last day of his life on August 15, 1994.
Vadim Aleksandrovich’s diligent all-round activity was widely known and highly recognized. In addition to the Order of Lenin, which he received together with the Gold Star Hero, Vadim Trapeznikov was awarded the Order of October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, and the Order of Friendship of Peoples. The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences awarded him the Leonard Euler Medal.
Vadim Alexandrovich was an honorary member of the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian Academies of Sciences and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences “For Services to Science and Humanity.”
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