For other persons with the same name, see Alexander Grigoriev (disambiguation)

Alexander Grigoriev (disambiguation)

Alexander Grigoriev may refer to:* Alexander Grigoriev, Russian cannon and bellmaker* Alexander Grigoriev , current president of the Eurasian Patent Organization * Alexander Grigoryev, Russian security services official...

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Alexander Grigoriev, son of Lykov (1634? - after 1676) was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 and bellfounder

Bellfounding

Bellfounding is the casting of bells in a foundry for use in churches, clocks, and public buildings. A practitioner of the craft is called a bellmaker or bellfounder. The process in Europe dates to the 4th or 5th century. In early times, when a town produced a bell it was a momentous occasion in...

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In 1651, Alexander Grigoriev was accepted to the Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 Cannon Yard as a "bell person" (колокольное лицо) at the recommendation of a bellmaker Yemelyan Danilov

Yemelyan Danilov

Yemelyan Danilov was a Russian bellmaker.Yemelyan Danilov was born to a famous family of Muscovite bellmakers, the progenitor of which was Danila Matveyev. The latter was an apprentice to Kirill Samoylov, who, in turn, had once been a student of Andrey Chokhov...

 and a number of Muscovite

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 cannonmakers. Soon, Grigoriev was given seven apprentices, with whom he would recast the Annunciation Bell (Благовестный колокол) for the Church of Saint Antipius in Moscow and cast six spare alarm bells for other fortresses. In 1654, Alexander Grigoriev and Feodor Motorin

Motorins

The Motorins, also spelled Matorins were a famous Russian family of bellfounders.-Feodor Dmitriyevich Motorin :...

 were sent to Novgorod, where they would cast a 16-ton bell for the Saint Sophia Cathedral

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

The Cathedral of St. Sophia in the Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.-History:...

. Their assignment in Novgorod allowed them to escape the fate of some 150,000 Muscovites, who would die from bubonic plague

Bubonic plague

Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

 that year.

Upon his return to Moscow in 1655, Grigoriev succeeded to the deceased Yemelyan Danilov and continued his work on creating the most important bell in the country, namely the Big Assumption Bell (some 160 ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s), which had been shattered before during a religious celebration. Grandiose work on casting of this bell took place in the Moscow Kremlin

Moscow Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...

 from May until late fall. Many of Grigoriev's apprentices took part in this assignment, some of whom would become famous bellmakers themselves (Khariton Ivanov, Pyotr Stepanov, Fyodor Dmitriyev). The Big Assumption Bell would only be hung in 1668 in a custom-built wooden belltower. The bell was lost in a Kremlin fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

 in 1701. Its metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

 was later used for the casting of the Tsar Bell.

In 1655, Alexander Grigoriev founded an alarm bell for the Frolovskaya (Spasskaya) Tower

Kremlin towers

The following is a list of towers of Moscow Kremlin. The Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognizable by the characteristic notches and its towers...

 of the Moscow Kremlin (approx. 3 tons) using the remains of a shattered bell and increasing its weight from 150 to 194 pood

Pood

Pood , is a unit of mass equal to 40 funt . It is approximately 16.38 kilograms . It was used in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Pood was first mentioned in a number of documents of the 12th century....

s. In 1656, Alexander Grigoriev and Feodor Motorin were sent to the Iversky Monastery

Iversky Monastery

Iversky Monastery is situated in Novgorod region, district of Valdai....

 in Valdai, where they would cast a 11.5-ton bell at the request of Patriarch Nikon

Patriarch Nikon

Nikon , born Nikita Minin , was the seventh patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church...

. The bell did not survive to this day. The legend has it, however, that Alexander Grigoriev gave out the remaining bronze to his local assistants, giving birth to a tradition of making the now famous little Valdai bells (Валдайские колокольчики).

In 1657, he cast a bell weighing 0.75 tons for the Kotelniy ryad (Котельный ряд; one of the sloboda

Sloboda

Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....

s in Moscow). In 1665, Alexander Grigoriev founded a 5-ton bell for the Simonov Monastery

Simonov Monastery

Simonov monastery in Moscow was established in 1370 by monk Feodor, a nephew and disciple of St Sergius of Radonezh.The monastery land formerly belonged to Simeon Khovrin, a boyar of Greek extraction and progenitor of the great clan of Golovins. He took monastic vows in the cloister under the name...

, on which the inscription called him "cannon and bell master of the state" for the first time. In 1668, he cast his best bell ever, namely the Big Annunciation Bell, for the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Zvenigorod

Zvenigorod

Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:The community has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is based either on a personal name or on a hydronym Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia....

, which would be considered the most sonorous bell in Russia. The work was done in 130 days (a very short period of time in those days). For this bell, Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 Alexis I

Alexis I of Russia

Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov was the Tsar of Russia during some of the most eventful decades of the mid-17th century...

 rewarded the master with a big piece of cloth along with money and bread allowance. It is said that Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...

 used to admire the sound of the Big Annunciation Bell. Unfortunately, the bell was shattered to pieces in 1941 as the Soviets were trying to take it down due to the threat of the approaching German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 army.

Alexander Grigoriev was last mentioned in 1676, when ten of his apprentices assisted Khariton Ivanov in casting ten harquebuses at the Cannon Yard. Alexander Grigoriev's outstanding work allows historians to speculate about the existence of Grigoriev's school of casting in the 17th century. There were 21 known apprentices of Grigoriev, many of whom would become famous, as well. Upon Grigoriev's death, his nephew Grigory Yekimov (garnet

Garnet

The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. The name "garnet" may come from either the Middle English word gernet meaning 'dark red', or the Latin granatus , possibly a reference to the Punica granatum , a plant with red seeds...

 master) inherited his household in the Pushkarskaya Sloboda, which he would later sell to Feodor Motorin.