The Russian land has always given birth to talented and courageous people who made history and moved progress forward. One of them is Yakov Petrovich Garelin, a native of the Ivanovo province. They say about him that he “redrawn” the map of Ivanovo lands several times.
And he did it only with the help of charity.
Biography
Yakov Petrovich Garelin was born in 1820 in the village of Ivanovo, Shuisky district. His father Peter Methodievich was a serf peasant before the birth of his son, but he was set free. He was a quick-witted and enterprising person, and by the time Jacob was born, he was already the owner of a small cotton factory.
The Garelin family, despite their solid fortune, still lived as before, observing all rural customs and not striving to get into a merchant environment. Most of all, Pyotr Methodievich was afraid of literacy. He didn't want Jacob to study. And then, they say, you can reach nihilism.
Therefore, Yakov did not even receive a primary education - he was taught to write and understand his father's business, that's all science. From childhood, Garelin Jr. delved into the affairs of the chintz factory, and his soul asked for something completely different - she asked for knowledge, information, food for the mind and for the soul. But so far he himself did not understand this, he put all his youthful ardor into the business.
In those days, chintz had just begun to be produced, and all the equipment, and the fabrics themselves, were rather primitive. Jacob got down to business with intelligence, with youthful energy, and his natural ingenuity helped him find new ways in the production of fabrics. He invested boldly in innovation, and he always won. Apparently, a natural flair for innovation was passed on to him from his father.
A little time passed, and all the merchants who were engaged in the production and sale of fabric started talking about Garelin Jr., and then they heard about him abroad.
And then nature took its toll: as soon as things got better, Yakov Petrovich rented out his factory, and he himself decided to do completely different things. Production took up a lot of time, and he wanted to do something special for people, something useful. He began to read, making up for lost time and trying to fill knowledge gaps. He collected his library and read everything, but at the same time he remembered almost everything.
Public figure career
Gradually, Garelin entered the circle of educated people of his time, adopting something from them, and so he became a noticeable person in society. At the same time, his factory continued to give a solid income, and he began to help with money for various useful projects. Then they began to consult with him on a variety of matters, because his unrestrained mind often found ingenious solutions to questions. And he was always ready to help if he found reasonableness in this or that matter.
In 1845, he began to enter the class of honorary citizenship.
In 1847, at his expense, the Pokrovskoe parish school was opened in the village of Ivanovo.
In 1849 he invested in the construction of shops in the city of Yuryevets.
Beginning in 1951, Yakov Petrovich began to be elected a member of various societies and departments, which was very honorable and responsible.
In 1858, a hospital was built in Ivanovo, and it was Garelin who gave two-thirds of the money for the construction.
In 1865, he took an active part in the construction of the public library and donated all his books for it - 1,500 volumes of the most interesting and expensive publications.
In 1867, Yakov Petrovich took part in a grandiose project: the construction of a railway. Everything that the patron undertook was done very quickly, and in this case, soon after the beginning of the laying of railway tracks, the Ivanovo people began to travel by train to the Novki station, and then to Kineshma. And this is already a more serious matter than building a hospital or library.
He opened schools, supported the Pokrovskoe School at his own expense, improved working conditions for workers in his factory, modernized production and glorified Russia with new fabrics that were not found anywhere else.
It will take a lot of time to list all his merits, but it is not only these deeds that Garelin is remembered on the Ivanovo land: he won a dispute with Count Sheremetev for the land. He handed them over to the peasants for grazing, which was very important for their economy: at one time they simply had nowhere to graze the cows, and they were doomed to starve. Now the peasants could run their own farms and provide themselves with food.
He gave his lands to the Ivanovo people for free, so they said about him that he had redrawn the map of Ivanovo lands.
However, the greatest achievement of Yakov Petrovich is that, with his direct assistance, the village of Ivanovo turned into the city of Ivanovo-Voznesensk. Only Garelin alone knows how much effort it cost him with bureaucratic delays and all kinds of obstacles. He turned on all his connections, used authority, paid money where needed. And yet he achieved that in 1871 the city began its existence.
Personal life
In addition to all of the above, in the life of Yakov Petrovich there was another interest - literature. He began to write about his native land and the life of the Ivanovo people in his youth, and began publishing his works when he had already become a famous patron of the arts. He wrote about the geography of his native land, about its history and everyday life. All articles were published in local publications, and Garelin was very proud of them. And this is fully justified: not everyone succeeds in becoming a writer from an illiterate peasant son.
Yakov Petrovich's wife was also a writer: she created dramatic works and wrote poetry. True, it was published under different pseudonyms.
Yakov Petrovich's son German was an employee of the "Vladimirskie gubernskiye vedomosti", that is, he also had a connection to writing.
