Russia best store Eliseevsky was opened in 1901. The famous grocery store “Eliseevsky Store” remains the best shop in Moscow till now. House number 14 on Tverskaya Street, where the store is located, was built on the corner of Tverskaya street and alley, then named St Sergius, in the late 80s of the XVIII century. Secretary of State of Catherine the Great invited architect Matvei Kazakov, to build a Palace for his beautiful wife, Kozitzkaya. Named in honour of its former owner and millionaire, Grigory Eliseev, the store became famous not only for its big variety of products, but for luxurious decoration of sales areas in Neo-Baroque style. Huge crystal chandeliers resemble bunches of grapes, decorated high archs of the sales area are just impressive.
In 1824 princess Zinaida Volkonskaya, the granddaughter of Kozitzkaya, opened a literary salon here, which was visited by famous artists, poets and publicists – A.S. Pushkin, E.A.Baratynsky, D.V. Venevitov, P.A. Byazensky, A. Mitzkevich.
At the end of nineties of the 19th century the house was bought by the millionaire Grigory Eliseev, the tradesman of wine and the owner of the biggest grocery store in St.Petersburg, on Nevsky avenue. The “Eliseev Store and Russian, Foreign Wine Cellars” was opened. Counters in the store were full of different kinds of food. Eliseev who established friendly relations with european countries, sold various sorts of tea and coffee, different kinds of cereals, butter, cheese, sausages, rum, fruit, truffles and anchovies.
Archive Photos to the opening of the store Eliseevsky in 1901:
After the revolution
After the revolution of 1917 the store continued to work not losing its popularity. The portrait of Grigory Eliseev, painted by the self-taught artist Alexandr Romanov, still continues to decorate the wall of the main sales area in the grocery store. After the Revolution Grigory Eliseev moved to France, and his former store became “Gastronome #1”. Judging by the number, even Bolsheviks respected the place.
However, despite their attempts, even during Soviet times people continued to refer to it with its original name – Eliseevsky Store. Many came from the farthest places in USSR to just look at the former Russia’s most famous gastronome, and although the decor was slowly deteriorating, Eliseevsky still retained its original charm.In 2004 there was a serious restoration of inside premises in the store. Politics of assortment, the industrial base changed, new corporate standards of serving were introduced. But “Eliseevsky” remains a traditional, old store, the same as it was earlier.
Grigory Eliseev had five sons, and he was proud of them. And yet his favorite was the daughter, and the mother of his children, his wife, Maria. And suddenly the family was struck by scandal. All rumored about the Eliseevs. Great misfortune happened. Grigory’s wife, 50-year-old Maria, heart broken couldn’t cope with the situation, she committed suicide – hung on her own spit. It happened on October 1, 1914. And all at once found out the reason: the millionaire Eliseev, who was long secretly in love with Vera Vasilyeva, married the young lady (she was 20 years younger). He married her on October 26, 25 days after the death of his wife. Grogory’s sons could not bear the shame, they tore relationship with their father. The youngest child – his daughter stayed with him.
Grigory knowing tough character of his sons – he himself was the same – hired bodyguards. They accompanied the girl to school, at home, everywhere.
At this time, the brothers made a cunning plan to kidnap and completed it successfully. At the turn of the street, when Masha bored with her bodyguards returning home from school, the guards only for a moment lost the girl out of sight… and the plan had been fulfilled successfully. Grigory himself, a hereditary nobleman, member of City Duma, a man with connections in high places, the rich and powerful, failed to return his daughter.
The life of his sons was different. Senior, Grigory, became a surgeon. After the Revolution, he didn’t leave Russia, for which he paid with his life: after the story of the murder of Kirov, he and his brother Peter, who also remained in Russia, in 1934 was sent to Ufa, where in December 1937, was arrested and condemned on Articles 58 -10 and 58-11 (counter-revolutionary activities and propaganda), promptly shot.
The most successful was life of Sergei. In 1917 he was a famous scientist and Japan expert, diplomat and assistant professor at the University of Petrograd. In 1920, he managed to cross by boat from St. Petersburg to Finland, where he moved first to France and then to the United States.
And Maria Eliseeva lived a long life and died in the late sixties. That was the end of the famous dynasty of the Eliseevs, and only their name still sounds loud because people still breathlessly go to this fabulous palace shop.