Imperial Russian Water Rescue Society Badge of 2nd Guild Merchant Alexander Stepanovich Batashev

Badge of excellent workmanship made by an unidentified Moscow workshop.

Silver, gilt, enamel.

Collection of State Historical Museum, Moscow.

 

Alexander Stepanovich Batashev (Александр Степанович Баташёв; March 28, 1848 – October 28, 1912) was a Russian businessman and philanthropist. He was an honorary citizen of Tula and a public figure. He was also an honorary member of the Kazan Temperance Society. One of the founders of the Moscow Zoo , founder of Russian poultry farming , the so-called “Batashev” chickens and ducks.​

Even as a child, he loved feeding songbirds. At age five, he was given a pigeon. Later, he had chickens, geese, and ducks. Sometimes, the money his father gave him for school lunches was spent on buying a feathered pet or on birdseed. At age nine, having just finished parochial school, he went to work in a factory on his father's orders, but he never abandoned his passion for birds.

Batashev read extensively about bird breeding and, once he got his footing, spent considerable money on them. In 1881, Alexander Batashev organized a bird exhibition at his dacha, displaying a wide variety of bird species, both domestic and foreign. Admission fees to the exhibition went toward establishing a separate shelter for juvenile delinquents. Batashev later donated the estate itself to the shelter.

In 1882, Batashev participated in the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow as a samovar manufacturer. He also established a poultry department there.

Emperor Alexander III took notice of Batashev's birds, and by special invitation, Alexander Batashev presented his pets at the Gatchina Imperial Palace.

For his "tireless efforts to improve and develop poultry farming," Alexander Stepanovich received several valuable gifts - diamond and sapphire rings - from members of the royal family. Developing and spreading poultry farming in Russia became an obsession for Alexander Stepanovich during those years. He took up the breeding and selection of rare bird species, corresponding with Russia's leading zoologists.

The "Batashevskaya chicken," a breeder bred by himself, became the true pride of the samovar poultry farmer. The bird was unafraid of snow or rain, ate anything, and was disease-resistant, earning it a gold medal from the Russian Society for Animal Acclimatization.

Batashev's second life's work was charity. His funds were used to build a community center, a shelter for juvenile delinquents, a hospital for the blind, and a chapel at Vsesvyatskoye Cemetery.​

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Display with awards of Alexander Stepanovich Batashev on the exhibition in Tula branch of the State Historical Museum.

 

Russian-made Persian order of the Lion and Sun.

 

Portrait of Alexander Stepanovich Batashev.