This is the certificate, thanks to which the merchant Alexei Turchaninov became a nobleman. He received the new title from the Empress Catherine II in 1783, as a reward for diligent service in the interests of the state. Alexey Turchaninov was the owner of the Sysert and Polevoy plants in the Urals, producing cast iron and copper. During Pugachev’s Rebellion, he organized the defense of his enterprises and rebuffed the detachment of ataman Ivan Beloborodov.

The certificate consisted of four filigree sheets edged with a gold frame with flowers and embroidered with pink silk. In addition to the certificate, its wooden case contained a wax seal in a round box. The case was upholstered with scarlet velvet and put into a bag of the same velvet decorated with a golden braid. Together with the noble title, the empress granted Alexei Turchaninov a noble coat of arms. In the upper part of the coat of arms, a wing is depicted as a symbol of imperial patronage, and in the lower part, a heron holding a stone, as a symbol of vigilance.

Alexey Turchaninov became a successful manufacturer. In 1742, he restored a burned-out brass-ware factory. Copper dishes of its production were delivered to the courtyard. So the young merchant won the favor of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and was granted the title of titular adviser in 1752. Shortly afterwards, Alexei Turchaninov acquired three Ural plants and the Gumoshevsky mine. He bought these enterprises from the state into “eternal and hereditary possession” for 145.5 thousand rubles (eighty million rubles in modern terms). 

Under Alexei Turchaninov’s management, the Sysert, Polevskoy and Seversky plants purchased from the treasury doubled the production of copper and iron, bringing income not only to the owner, but also to the state. The Sysert mining district grew from these factories. In pre-revolutionary Russia, it had factories and plants, forests, mines and diggings.

The nobility certificate granted by Empress Catherine II to Alexei Turchaninov came to the museum from the private collection of his descendant, the last owner of the Sysert plants, Dmitry Solomirsky.