The name of the Russian woman we are going to talk about today is Zinaida Zimina-Morozova-Reinbot. By the time she was 40 she had already divorced two husbands and buried a third.  She had three surnames, 1.5 million rubles (an unbelievable sum of money by her day’s standards) and dressed in Paris. 

After an official reception marking the opening of a trade fair in Nizhny Novgorod in 1886 which was attended by Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and the entire royal court, the master of ceremonies told Zinaida’s husband that his wife had breached the protocol because the tail of her dress happened to be longer that that of the Empress. Zinaida’s husband, Savva Morozov, one the Russia’s richest men, was angered by the reprimand. And with good reason too because he too often allowed himself an occasional liberty signing business paper just “Savva” as if he were a king... After his death Zinaida inherited a lot of real estate, securities, factories, mines and estates. 

Zinaida Zimina was born into a family of Russian merchants.  As a 17-year-old girl she married Sergei Morozov who would often prefer his friends’ company to that of his young wife. Once, as everyone was dressing up for a Christmas ball, Sergei went off hunting and Zinaida went alone ignoring the gossipers whispering behind her back.  It was then and there that she met her husband’s uncle, Savva Morozov who later admitted he fell in love with her the very moment they met. Discarding the harsh dictums of religious morals, Zinaida divorced her husband and married Savva.  Her father said he would better see her dead than marrying a second time. In Savva’s house Zinaida was immediately handed to the cares of tutors, tailors and hairdressers and before long the smart young merchant woman had turned into a real lady. In the posh Moscow mansion presented her by Savva, Zinaida was entertaining popular actors, singers and lawyers with parties and balls.  Fully aware of the fact that her money had much to do with the love and respect lavished on her by her guests, Zinaida, dark-skinned and brown-eyed and not exactly in line with the beauty standards of her time,  focused more on such strong points as intelligence, sense of purpose and hard-headedness…

Zinaida and Savva lived together for 19 years until Savva’s death 1905. The reason of Morozov’s death was attributed to politics and big money but the official reason was suicide.  Zinaida inherited her late husband’s wealth but did not feel happy because in that troubled time she would rather have a husband by her side… Having four kids to care for, Zinaida was no longer attending parties, only showing up at occasional theater premieres, meeting friends and making thrifty use of her assets.  All of her children received good education and she was an avid collector of china and engravings. 

In 1907 Zinaida Morozova married again. Walking down the street in St. Petersburg one day she met her longtime admirer Moscow Mayor Reinbot.  After a brief period of courting, the General proposed to Zinaida and she said ‘yes’.  That was a marriage of convenience: the financially strapped General was marrying to money and the rich merchant woman was gaining a noble title. Despite his newly-acquired wealth, General Reinbot stuck to his old ways of taking bribes. Each time the owner of a local casino or store failed to pay up on time, the Mayor’s secretary would give him a call saying, “General Reinbot asked to remind you that he still lives on the Tverskoi Boulevard. Reinbot was eventually accused of embezzlement, forced to retire and face a long trial.  Zinaida Morozova hired the best lawyers money could buy and Reinbot was pardoned.  Her pride severely hurt, in 1916 Zinaida asked for a divorce…

After the 1917 Bolshevik revolution Morozova-Reinbot was miraculously spared prosecution but lost all her estates. To make ends meet she was selling off her family jewels and personal effects. Her great granddaughter recalled, “In 1944 when the war was drawing to a close, they took me, then a little girl, to meet my great grandmother. There was something majestic in that old woman dressed in a beautiful light-colored dress and with a full head of bluish hair. I called her a kind old fairy.” 

“You shouldn’t say “old” even to your great grandma, darling” Zinaida muttered unsmilingly.  “Life was so hard on us all,” that’s the last words she said that I still remember…”

Zinaida Morozova died in 1947 and was buried in the Morozovs’ family vault in Moscow.
 
 
 

03/20/2006