This article is the first publication of excerpts from the «Autobiographical Notes» of N.P. Vishnyakov, a prominent Moscow businessman and politician of the early 20th century. These fragments of memoirs are devoted to the biographies and personalities of two major Moscow merchants and deputies of the City Duma, N.A. Naydionov and S.T. Morozov. They belonged to various sectors of the political spectrum of pre-revolutionary Moscow. Naydionov was a conservative, opposed to the involvement of business in politics. Morozov, on the contrary, became known as one of the flagships of the business liberal opposition to the autocracy, who had close informal relations with the revolutionary forces. The published sources are provided with a detailed commentary and an introductory article.