Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov () (1678
Tula - 5 August 1745 Yatskoye Ustye, Menzelinsky Uyezd,
Orenburg Governorate) was a
Russian industrialist of the
Demidov
The Demidov family (Russian: Деми́довы), also known as Demidoff or Dimidov, is a prominent Russian nobility, Russian noble family that rose to immense wealth and influence during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Demidovs became a wealth ...
family.
Life
He was the eldest son of
Nikita Demidov and increased the family fortune, raising it to one of Russia's most important industrial dynasties. He studied the secrets of metallurgical production in
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
.
He zealously set to work and became the creator of the "empire" of the Demidovs, which by the middle of the 18th century produced 52% of all Russian metal. He set up at least nine steel foundries and munitions factories from 1717 to 1735, and had 25 by his death. He also created iron and copper mines in the
Urals and Western
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
to supply them and mines for precious and semi-precious stones, silver and gold.
Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov was a shrewd, energetic, yet ruthless and avaricious industrialist. His biography encompassed a remarkable range of endeavors: founding factories and even cities, navigating court intrigues and imperial power struggles, orchestrating aggressive business takeovers, and waging commercial wars - even against his own relatives. A chilling legend surrounds his name, alleging the secret smelting of silver and the clandestine minting of coins at his Ural residence. According to the myth, when imperial authorities uncovered the operation, they dispatched an investigator to Nevyansk. However, Akinfiy reportedly concealed his tracks by flooding the underground workshops where the illicit smelting occurred, drowning the craftsmen who possessed knowledge of the scheme.
In 1720, having bought from Nikolai Fedorovich Golovin an estate in the Barminskaya volost of the Nizhny Novgorod district, the Demidovs received a letter of nobility from Tsar
Peter the Great
Peter I (, ;
– ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
rewarding his services by making him a hereditary nobleman, as he also did with Akinfiy's brothers.
He commissioned the
Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, with its underground rooms and secret routes towards one of his factories. By the end of his life Akinfiy was the richest man bar the Tsar. In 1734 he founded the
Nicholas-Zaretsky Church in
Tula.
In 1740, Akinfiy Demidov received the rank of State Councillor (статский советник), and in 1744 a Privy Councillor (действительный статский советник). Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna granted a special patronage, that the Demidov brothers were exempted from compulsory military service and many taxes. The Demidovs turned out to be the freest, according to one of the biographers of the family, people in Russia.
Family
He married firstly Avdotya Jevdokia Tarassovna Korobkova (1688-1728), and married secondly in 1723 Jevfemia Ivanovna Paltseva (1713-1771).
He had five children:
* Maria Akinfievna Demidova (1706-after 1760), married Fedor Petrovich Volodimerov and had issue.
*
Prokofi Akinfiyevich Demidov (1710-1786); married firstly Matryona Antipovna Pastukhova (1711-1764) and secondly Tatyana Vasilievna Semyonova (1746-1800). Had nine children with the first wife and two children with the second wife.
*
Grigory Akinfiyevich Demidov (14 November 1715 - 13 November 1761), married 23 May 1731 Anastasia Pavlovna Surovtzova (16 December 1713 - 3 December 1763), and had issue;
*
Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov (1724-1789); married three times, had issue.
* Jevfemia Akinfiyevna Demidova (17??-1772), married Ivan Mikhailovich Serdukov and had issue.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demidov
1678 births
1745 deaths
18th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire
Inventors from the Russian Empire
Akinfiy
People from the Tsardom of Russia
Industrialists from the Russian Empire