Danila Kondratyevich Zverev is a specialist in the extraction and evaluation of precious and semiprecious stones in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. He lived in the Urals. He took part in the creation of works of art from stones. Became the prototype of Danila the master in the works of Bazhov.
Biography
Danila Zverev was born in 1858 in the Urals, in the village of Koltashi. The house where the famous master lived has not survived; now there is a pit on this place. In this village Zverev lived most of his life.
As a child, he was a shepherd, but he coped with this business poorly, and dreamed of something else. He was not attracted by agriculture either.
There is a version that Zverev became a maid in order not to get into the army. According to the family legend, the prospector's grandfather became a soldier at a mature age and returned home as an old man. Since then, military service in the Zverev family was considered a heavy punishment and tried to avoid it.
At that time, miners were not taken into soldiers, because good specialists brought a good income to the state treasury. Here is Danila and went to the mountaineers.
Zverev was personally acquainted with Bazhov. This is evidenced by a photograph that has survived to this day in the family archives of descendants.
Danila Kondratyevich's family was large. He was married twice and had nine children from two marriages. They had a two-story house, with a workshop on the ground floor. Danila Kondratyevich passed on his skills to his sons.
They turned out to be talented followers worthy of a father.
The sons of the master were engaged in the selection of stones with which the stars are laid out on the towers in the Kremlin. In addition, Grigory and Alexey Zverev took part in the creation of the most expensive map in the world - the map of the industrialization of the Soviet Union, which also uses gems.
However, over time, Danila Kondratyevich was increasingly drawn to the big city, to new places. In the end, he left his family and went to Yekaterinburg, but he always helped the family.
In 1935, Zverev fell seriously ill, perhaps he had a stroke, because the master's speech and consciousness were damaged, and the entire left half of the body was paralyzed.
He died on December 8, 1938.
Danila the master
He studied the "stone" business from Samoila Prokopyevich Yuzhakov, from whom the image of Prokopich from Bazhov's "Ural Fairy Tales" was copied.
As in these fairy tales, local residents often worked in the mines and believed in signs indicating successful places, treasures, and deposits of stones. Unlike most of his “colleagues,” Zverev relied solely on his own knowledge, experience and hard work. And they did not let him down. As soon as the snow melted, Danila Zverev left the village, wandered in the forests, near rivers, in protected areas - looking for rare stones.
He did not dig holes, like many mountaineers, but went through the dumps left over from gold mining, and there he found many valuable stones. I noted the places, looked for signs indicating the deposits of stones. Danila never returned home without loot.
Unlike many prospectors, who immediately lowered everything they found, Danila was prudent and quick-witted. He bought up the sand remaining after gold mining, and in it he often found large and valuable stones. He also did not squander the finds from his own "excavations", but kept them, then sold them profitably. The fame of him quickly spread far beyond the borders of his native village. The master was known throughout the Urals.
But the famous master did not make wealth. He willingly helped fellow villagers, shared with many. There is a known case when he successfully sold an order in Yekaterinburg, he brought two carts of gingerbread to his native village and distributed it to neighbors. Some considered him an eccentric, but most of his fellow countrymen loved the generous master.
In 1912, Zverev met Academician A. E. Fersman, who came to Koltashi to study local deposits. This meeting later greatly influenced the fate of the master.
Before the revolution, Zverev moved to Yekaterinburg, where he settled with the son of his teacher Prokopy Yuzhakov.
After the revolution, Zverev continued his work. In 1920, the Ilyinsky Reserve of the Earth's interior was opened in the southern Urals. One of its founders was A. E., who was well acquainted with Danila. Fersman. He contributed to numerous development of new deposits, and here Zverev's knowledge and experience proved to be irreplaceable. He became an appraiser for mining companies and banks. Appreciated the jewelry left in the city after rich people who fled from the Bolsheviks left it. Many treasures have been donated to museums or donated for scientific research.
As long as his strength allowed, Danila Zverev was doing what he loved - evaluating and studying the stones.
Contribution to the creation of masterpieces
Shortly before the First World War, a large-scale art exhibition was held in Paris. Especially for her, a map of France was made in Russia using the Florentine mosaic method. Danila Zverev was involved in the selection of stones. He was also directly involved in the creation of the exhibit.
Zverev advised specialists in the selection of a stone for Lenin's mausoleum.
Memory
One of the streets of Yekaterinburg is named after Danila Zverev. Also in the city there is a memorial plaque in his honor.
Not far from Koltash there is a stone with a funny name "Hedgehog". They say that Danila Zverev loved to rest around him as a child. The stone is still in place.
There is a legend that in the homeland of the master - in Koltashi - a treasure is kept, consisting of the most valuable stones found by the master. As if before leaving for Yekaterinburg, he hid them just in case. There were many hunters to find the treasure, but so far no one has succeeded.
