Michael Wawelberg (Михаил Ипполитович Вавельберг; 1880 – 19 July 1947) was a Polish-Russian banker, one of the best known members of the

Wawelberg The Wawelbergs were a History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jewish family whose banking house was active in both Congress Poland and the Russian Empire. Hyppolite Wawelberg The Russian branch was founded by Hyppolite Wawelberg (1843–1901). ...

banking family. Michael Wawelberg received a classical educational at the St. Nicholas Imperial Gymnasium in

Tsarskoe Selo Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the town of Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo forms ...

(Царскосельская Императорская Николаевская гимназия), from which he graduated in 1899. His father Hyppolite Wawelberg donated 500 roubles for the gymnasium's own charity, which at the time was a considerable sum of money. in 1903 Michael Wawelberg graduated from the

University of St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

. That year he also took over the management of the Wawelberg Bank, which in 1912 was renamed the St. Petersburg Commercial Bank (Петербургский Торговый банк). In 1913 a branch was founded in Poland and became a publicly traded company – the Western Bank (''Bank Zachodni'') in Poland. According to the legend after one of his new bank buildings was constructed and Michael Wawelberg inspected it and could not find any deficiency with the work, he ordered to change the doors anyway because the door sign said "push." That's not what I do in life, said Wawelberg, I only pull things toward myself. In 1917 on the eve of the Bolshevik putsch Michael Wawelberg lived in Czarskoe Selo at 66 Boulvardnaia ulitsa (66 Boulevard Street, ул. Бульварая, 66, Soviet name Октябрьский бульвар, Oktiabr'skii Boulevard). He was the chairman of the Commercial Bank and director of the board of Donetsk and Grushev Coal and Anthracite Mines (директор правления Донецко-Грушевского акционерного общества каменно-угольных и антрацитовых копий). He fled Russia after 1917 and then disappears from the public view. Most likely he settled in Poland or spent some time there, because in Andrei Serkov's book on Russian

Free Masonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

he mentions that two free masons, Alexander Erdman and Michael Wawelberg (М. И. Вавельберг), as they considered themselves Russian, petitioned Grand Manster of the Polish Lodge with a request to allow them to found the Russian Lodge in Warsaw.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wawelberg, Michael 1880 births 20th-century deaths Bankers from the Russian Empire Polish bankers Saint Petersburg State University alumni