Andrej and Matvej Frjazin: the First Italians in Moscow

The arrival of Italian architects and masters of art and other skills in the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the second half of the 15th century, and the businesses of the “Frjazins” in Moscow and other cities, make up a bright page in the history of Italian-Russian relations. However, it is not common knowledge that the first Italians came to Moscow a century earlier. Between 1363 and 1389, the Grand Duke Dmitrij Ivanovič gave a charter for hunting to a certain Andrej Frjazin. According to the charter, Andrej Frjazin’s predecessor was his uncle, Matvej Frjazin, who arrived in Moscow during the great reign of Dmitrij Ivanovič’s grandfather, Ivan Danilovič Kalita, between 1328/1331 and 1340. The businesses of the uncle and nephew in the Arctic North region were encouraged by the grand dukes of Moscow and carried out with their financial participation. Apparently, Matvej and Andrej Frjazin had trading relations with the Venetian trading post Tana, and they were likely not the only Italian merchants in Moscow in the 14th century. Among the citizens who defended Moscow from the attack of the Tatar troops in the summer of 1382, Russian chronicles mention a certain cloth merchant, Adam, who was most likely an Italian, and who could have had some trading relations with the Genoese colony of Kafa in the Crimea.