Industrialist and philanthropist Vasily Kokorev.

Russian entrepreneurs and manufacturers often considered it their duty to direct part of their profits to charity or support the arts. Their names were once known throughout Russia, but over time they have been forgotten. It is time to bring them back from oblivion, and today we will tell you about merchant Vasily Alexandrovich Kokorev. He came from an Old Believer family that owned saltworks.

By 1841, having experience in trade, Kokorev decided to engage in oil production, which at that time was a risky business. In 1858, when there were few specialists in this field, he founded the Transcaspian Trading Partnership near Baku. However, the business was not profitable, and the factory was suffering losses. Then Kokorev decided to modernize production and invited the outstanding chemist Dmitry Mendeleev for this purpose. Under his guidance, the factory achieved significant success and began to generate income, despite falling kerosene prices. Soon Kokorev built a pipeline to the Caspian Sea, established maritime transport, and acquired barges. He only invited Russian specialists for engineering positions, striving to make them world-class professionals.

Now let's return to the beginning. Earning profits from oil refining, Kokorev began to support artists. With his own funds, he built a dacha for the Academy of Arts near Vyshny Volochyok for young talents, and at his Moscow home, he completed an annex, turning it into an art gallery. There, works by Levitan, Aivazovsky, Venetsianov, Bryullov, and other masters were exhibited. The gallery was open daily and accessible to all: on regular days, admission cost 30 kopecks, on holidays, 10. Unfortunately, by the end of his life, Kokorev went bankrupt, and some paintings nearly disappeared. Fortunately, other patrons managed to buy them and preserve them to this day.