The Lazarev family (in Armenian –Aghazarian, Egizarian, Lazarian) came from Old Julfa on the Arax. In old times this city was part of the Armenian kingdom Vaspurakan (908 - 1201) located near Lake Van. In 1375, Armenia was forced to submit to the Sultan of Turkey, and, as a result, it became the battle field for fighting Persian shahs and Turkish sultans. During this war, the life of the Armenians was so unbearable that they had to flee from their native land in other countries.
The peak of the internecine struggle for Armenia between the Turks and the Persians was in the 16th-17th centuries, when the Turks began to besiege the Persians and managed to conquer several areas of Transcaucasia. Abbas I razed Nakhichevan to the ground, and in 1605, the wealth ancient Armenian city of Julfa was turned into ruins, and all the inhabitants were massacred. Abbas I offered the rich Armenians to settle in Persia, providing them with lands near the capital city of Isfahan, where the Armenians founded New Julfa. This “grace” of Shah Abbas I was caused by the fact that the rich Armenian merchants played an important role in the international trade of Persia, and he could not afford to ignore that fact.
Among the rich Armenian merchants who had settled in New Julfa, Manuk Lazarian was the most outstanding person. Lazarus, the son of Manuk Lazarian, became the head of the Persian mint and the state treasurer. According to A.P. Baziyants, the Lazarevs moved to Russia in 1747 during the political disturbances in Persia caused by the death of Shah Nadir, the patron of Lazarus Nazarovich.
After moving, the Lazarev family lived in Astrakhan for some time. The city was regarded as a major transit point on the “silk road”, and many Armenian merchants had settled there long before the Lazarevs’ arrival.
In Russia, the Lazarevs quickly became famous thanks to their huge fortune brought from Persia to Russia. Soon they moved to Moscow and invested here part of their capital in silk production. The Lazarevs’ business activity was soon spotted by Catherine II, who came to the throne in 1762. For “having a wonderful manufacture and providing many useful services”, on May 20, 1774 Lazarus Nazarovich received the right of the hereditary Russian nobility, and on October З, 1776 - a noble rank that gave more rights to expand the business and increase the land holdings.
Soon the Lazarev Fryanovskaya Manufactory became well known not only in Russia, but also abroad. Here the outfits for the magnificent palaces of Catherine II were sewed, and those dresses were also in great demand abroad. Lazarus Nazarovich was considered as a major supplier of cotton to Germany. From Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa he received the honorary title of Baron of “the Holy Roman Empire”. This title was confirmed by Joseph II, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
On April 20, 1778 Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev bought the Stroganovs’ Chyormozsky iron-copper plant with 777 230 tithes of lands as well as 7142 people for 450 thousand rubles. With the purchase of the plant and the lands, the Lazarevs turned from merchants to the owners of huge property and became landowners (“Chyormozsky plant owners and landowners” by M.N. and V.I .Chupriyanovs).
In 1770, Anna Ovagimovna (Ekimovna) Lazareva, the wife of L.N. Lazarev, died; and in 1782 the head of the family died. They both were buried in the Lazarevs’ family tomb, in the Armenian Resurrection Church in the Armenian Vagankovskoye cemetery.
After his death, L.N. Lazarev left four sons: Ivan, Mina, Khristofor and Joachim. In this generation the oldest son, Ivan (Ovanes) Lazarev (1735–1801), was the most outstanding person – he was a prominent political figure, educator, successful businessman, banker and landowner. After moving to St. Petersburg, he quickly made friends with the royal dignitaries and began a promising career. Soon I. Lazarev bought the Ropsha estate near St. Petersburg and turned it into a center of hospitality and Oriental splendor. Here they began to receive honorable guests, both Russian and foreign. The name of I. Lazarev is also connected with the purchase of one of the largest diamonds - "Orlov”.
As a political and social activist, I.L. Lazarev and his companion diocesan Bishop Joseph Argutinsky were the leaders of the Armenian liberation movement and its representatives in Russia. The envoys of the Russian emperors were negotiating only with them when the question of Armenia appeared on the agenda for the Russian Court; and in 1779, Russian military campaign in Transcaucasia was planned. It was they who offered the idea of the Armenian-Georgian Union, and made sensible steps to Georgian king Teimuraz II and his son Irakliy (1762). Ivan Lazarevich helped in solving the problem of the resettlement of Armenians from the Crimea to Don and developed the Armenian colonization project after the annexation of Crimea to Russia (1783). On the river Don the following new cities emerged: Armenian Nakhichevan, Kizmer, Grigoriopol, and others.
His name is also related to the construction of several Armenian churches in St. Petersburg and Moscow: the Church of St. Catherine (1771 - 1780), the Church of Jesus Christ on Vasilevsky Island (1791г.). This idea was caused by the fact that in terms of the time the Armenian Church mobilized the national consciousness of the Armenian people and contributed to the consolidation of its national liberation movement.
In Moscow, the third of the Lazarev brothers (Khristofor) sponsored the construction of the Armenian Exaltation Church in Stolpov (later Armenian) Lane. In 1815, his brothers Mina and Joachim (Ekim) built the cemetery church at Vagankovskoye field, and the remains of the Lazarevs’ relatives were transferred from the first Armenian Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Presnya (1746) to that church. The Lasarevs also sponsored the construction of the large churches in Friyanovo (1797), Nizhny Novgorod (1824), and Chermoz (1829).
In the history of Armenia and Russia I.L. Lazarev also left mark as an educator. He invested a lot of power, energy and money in building Armenian schools and printing offices in various Russian cities, subsidized schooling, considering it as part of the Armenian liberation movement. He is also considered as a founder of the historical Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow (1815), which was built after his death (1801) by his younger brother Joachim.
Having exceptional organizational skills, I.L. Lazarev made a significant contribution to metallurgical work. He perfected the process of metal production at his plants and built Kizelovsky and Polazninisky factories. The production of these factories was sold on the domestic and overseas markets.
Before his death, Ivan Lazarevic bequeathed his estates, including the Perm estate with Chermozsky, Kizelovsky, Polazninsky, and Khokhlovsky plants to his younger brother Joachim, since his direct heir - son Artem and the second brother Khristofor had died before him, and the other brother Mina Lazarevich, who had no special aptitude for entrepreneurship, received annual lifetime money issues under the will and was an active member of the Armenian liberation movement. As Lieutenant Colonel, Mina Lazarevich served under General Field Marshal G.A. Potemkin-Tavricheskiy, who organized the resettlement of Armenians to Russia.
Unlike the other Lazarevs, Joachim and Anna Lazarevs had 11 children: Anna I (1781 - 1793), Elizabeth (1783 -1868), Maria (1784 - 1868), Ivan (1786 - 1858), Catherina (1787 - 1811), Marpha (1788 - 1844), Khristofor (1789 - 1871), Artemy (1791 - 1813), Lazar II (1797 - 1871), and Anna II (1799 - 1804).
Unlike his older brother, Joachim Lazarev was more a philanthropist than an administrator, and he spent the biggest part of his capital on charity - on the construction of the Lazarev College (to 1817 the school capital was over 600 thousand rubles) and Armenian churches in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Deteriorating financial situation was saved by the sons – Ivan and Khristofor Lazarevs, who took the baton from their parents to make donations to the College fund, which became known as the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in 1828.
You can read more about the Lazarevs in the following books: “The Secret of the Lazarev House”, “All for You”, and “Armenian Lane 2” by А. Amirhayan; “Obelisk” by A. Baziyants and R. Martirosian; “Chyormozsky plant owners and landowners” by M.N. and V.I .Chupriyanovs (this book was published with the help of the local public organization “Armenian Center of Perm region”).
During his lifetime, Khristofor Lazarev knew about the inevitable intersection of his family name (he was the last of the male representatives of the Lazarev clan) and applied for a transfer of custody of the Lazarev Institute to his son-in-law Privy Councilor I.D. Delianov, married to his daughter Anna Christophorovna, and in the event of the extinction of that male line – to another son-in-law, Prince S.A. Abamelek, who finally became the owner of the Chyormozsky plant. The Abamelek-Lazarevs were from the old Georgian Abamelek family of the Armenian religion. This great clan has rich and interesting history, and you can read about them in the above-mentioned books.
Years went by, but the Lazarevs and Abamelek-Lazarevs took their rightful place in the history of the Armenian and Russian peoples.
On September 7, 2002 in the town of Chyormoz (Perm region) the Festival of the historical settlements of the Kama Region took place. The festive event was attended by high-ranking Armenian officials: Gagik Kimovich Galachyan, Counselor to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia in Russia; Aped Floberovich Dapaltsyan, Vice President of the Union of Armenians of Russia; Father Marcos, hieromonch of the Armenian Apostolic Church; delegation of the Armenian Cultural Centre of Perm region headed by President Sargsyan Vagharshak; representatives of the Armenian Sunday School. The town of Chyormoz has historic significance for the Armenians: the famous Lazarevs were among the founders of this town.
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