Batashev Family

important Russian mining industrialists and factory owners in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Batashevs were descendants of blacksmiths from the Tula armorers’ settlement. Between 1711 and 1721 the founder of the family, Ivan Timofeevich Batashev (died 1734), built several plants that produced more than 3,000 poods (about 50 tons) of iron in 1720. The Batashev brothers, Andrei Rodionovich (died 1799) and Ivan Rodionovich (1741–1821) are also well known. In 1755 the Batashevs built an iron-smelting plant in Unzha with a powerful blast furnace and five hammers; in this way, they laid the foundation for the development of the iron ore industry of the Oka region. Between the 1750’s and 1770’s, the Batashev family built plants in Gusev (1758), Vyksa (1766), Zheleznitsa, Pristan’, and other places. In addition, the Batashevs bought the Eremish’ plant from the Repnin princes. In the 1780’s, the Batashev family founded plants in Verkhneunzha, Snovad’, Syntul, and other places. Later, they founded wire and cloth factories. By the beginning of the 19th century the Batashevs owned 14 metallurgical and metalworking plants in Tula, Kaluga, Riazan’, Tambov, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod provinces.

In 1770 the Batashev family was exempted from the poll tax and given the rank of titular councillors; in 1783 they were elevated to the nobility. In 1821 they owned 12,500 peasant souls. The plants owned by the Batashevs produced cast iron pots, boilers, axes, and so forth, as well as cannons, bombs, and cannonballs. In the first half of the 19th century the Batashevs began producing steam engines. Russian masters working at the Batashev plants made many inventions and improvements which made the products of these plants among the best in the world in quality (steam engines, steel ingots, tools for cutting cast iron, and others). In 1875, Manuil Ivanovich Batashev’s plant built a regenerative puddling furnace with two working spaces. This was the most advanced puddling furnace of the time. In the second half of the 19th century, with the development of the metallurgical industry in southern Russia, the Batashev plants, which had been partially acquired by other owners, gradually lost their importance.