Swiss F.I. Yaggi as the Perfect Executive Manager of the Noble Estate in the Post-Reform Period

Based on published and archival sources, the biography of I.F. Yaggi, a Swiss businessman, is reconstructed in the article. He came to the Russian Empire in the late 1850s and worked as a cheese maker and cattle breeder in the estates of Kaluga, and then Smolensk Governorates. From 1878 to 1903 F.I. Yaggi was manager of the estate belonged to Princess E.P. Urusova in Masalovo (Mosalovo, Mosolovo) in the Vyazem- sky district of Smolensk Governorate. Like many of his compatriots, Yaggi was not a landowner, he rented the estate. The article provides examples of Yaggi’s skillful housekeeping. An analysis of the reports of local and capital exhibitions shows that Simmental cattle, crops, Russian-Swiss cheese from Masalovo received awards and gained high appreciation of experts. Due to his business reputation, Yaggi managed to become a cattle supplier from Switzerland by orders of the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Empire. The Smolensk estate was mentioned as exemplary in publications at the national level. After the death of the children and his wife, Yaggi returned to his homeland. The article contains information about F.I. Yaggi’s nephew, who also worked for a long time as a cheese maker in Smolensk Governorate.