Savva Timofeyevich Morozov came from an
Old Believer merchant family which held the hereditary civil rank of honorary citizens (). His father was
Timofei Savvich Morozov, his mother
Maria Feodorovna Morozova. This gave him freedom from conscription, freedom from corporal punishment, and freedom from taxation (). He grew up at the Morozov house at Trehsvyatitelskaya Lane 1-3c1 () on Ivanovo Hill () in the
White City (), now the
boulevards, of Moscow. He later studied physics and mathematics at
Moscow University (1885) where he wrote a study on dye and met
Mendeleev. Savva Morozov married his second-cousin's former wife Zinaida Grigorievna, née Zimin (). They hosted lavish parties and balls which many distinguished Russians and Moscovites attended including
Savva Mamontov,
Botkin,
Feodor Chaliapin,
Maxim Gorky,
Anton Chekhov,
Konstantin Stanislavski,
Pyotr Boborykin, and others.
Olga Knipper recalled one of these balls: "I had to go to the ball at Morozova: I've never seen such luxury and wealth." During the summer of 1902, with participation of both
Ivan Fomin and
Alexander Galetsky, Savva funded
Schechtel's improvements to the
Lianozov-owned theatre built in 1890 at
Kamergersky Lane 3 in
Tverskoy. In 1903 he funded the electrification of the theatre with its own electrical power station, and added another small stage which is isolated from the main building to allow full rehearsals during performances on the main stage. According to the author
Suzanne Massie, writing in
Land of the Firebird, Morozov had approached his mother and family matriarch about introducing
profit-sharing with factory workers - one of the first industrialists to propose such an idea. His mother angrily removed Savva from the family business, and one month later the apparently despondent Morozov shot himself while in
the south of France. Morozov died from a
gunshot wound in
Cannes, France. His death was officially ruled a suicide but various murder theories exist. ==Gallery==