Savva Morozov

Savva Timofeyevich Morozov (Russian: Са́вва Тимофе́евич Моро́зов, 15 February [O.S. 3 February] 1862, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Bogorodsky Uyezd (Russian: Богородский уезд), Moskovskaya Guberniya (Russian: Московская губерния), Russian Empire – 26 May [O.S. 13 May] 1905, Cannes, France) was a Russian textiles magnate and philanthropist. Established by Savva Vasilievich Morozov (Russian: Савва Васильевич Морозов), the Morozov family was the fifth richest in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Savva Timofeyevich Morozov came from an Old Believer merchant family which held the hereditary civil rank of honorary citizen (Russian: Почётные граждане). This gave him freedom from conscription, freedom from corporal punishment, and freedom from taxation (Russian: Подушный оклад). He grew up at the Morozov house at Trehsvyatitelskaya Lane 1-3c1 (Russian: Большой Трёхсвятительский переулок) on Ivanovo Hill (Russian: Ивановская горка) in the White City (Russian: Белый город), now the boulevards, of Moscow. He attended nearby gymnasium at Pokrovsky Gates. His family home was the most expensive home in Moscow and its Morozov gardens (Russian: Морозовский сад) were a favorite place of S. Aksakov, F. Dostoevsky, A. Ostrovsky, L. Tolstoy, and P. Tchaikovsky. Later, he studied physics and mathematics at Moscow University (1885) where he wrote a study on dye and met Mendeleev. Beginning on January 7, 1885, at 10 o'clock in the morning, textile workers at the Morozov factories in Bogorodsk, especially Orekhovo-Zuyevo, went on strike for several weeks. In 1885-1887, he studied chemistry at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). While he was in England, he studied the structure of the textile industry in Great Britain, especially Manchester.

He married his second cousin's wife Zinaida Grigorievna née Zimin (Russian: Зинаида Григорьевна Зимина). They hosted lavish parties and balls that many distinguished Russians and Moscovites attended including Savva Mamontov, Botkin, Feodor Chaliapin, Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Stanislavski, Pyotr Boborykin, and others. On one of these balls recalled Olga Knipper, "I had to go to the ball at Morozova: I've never seen such luxury and wealth."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Morozov was the largest shareholder of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) under Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko. During the summer of 1902, Savva funded Schechtel's, with participation of both Ivan Fomin and Alexander Galetsky, improvements of the Lianozov owned theatre built in 1890 at Kamergersky Lane 3 in Tverskoy. The renovations incorporated Anna Golubkina's high relief plaster of The Wave above the right entrance of the theater. In 1903, he funded the electrification of the theatre with its own electrical power station and added another small stage which is isolated from the main building to allow full rehearsals during performances on the main stage. All of this made the MAT the most advanced theatre in Russia. For the fifth and sixth seasons (1902-4), Morozov funded the entire cost of the equipment and the operating costs of the building, too. This new theatre had seating for 1200 which was a third more than the older building and greatly enhanced its profitability. However, the rent increased for the seventh season (1904-5) and Morozov ceased paying for the leasehold and the operating cost. He would only pay back the principle for the cost of the improvements which took 9 years. When Gorky's Summerfolk was not well received by Nemirovich-Danchenko and Stanislavski, Gorky left the theatre and Morozov followed.

Influenced by Maxim Gorky, he and his nephew Nikolai Pavlovich Schmit were significant financial contributors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party including the newspaper Iskra.

According to the author Suzanne Massie, in Land Of The Firebird, Morozov had approached his mother and family matriarch about introducing profit sharing with factory workers, one of the first industrialists to propose such an idea. His mother angrily removed Savva from the family business and one month later apparently despondent Morozov shot himself while in the south of France. Morozov died from a gunshot wound in Cannes, France. His death was officially ruled a suicide; however, various murder theories exist. His mansion became the headquarters of the Moscow Proletkult.