Nikola Tereshchenko (also transliterated as Mykola Tereshchenko; 14 October 1819 – 19 January 1903) was a Ukrainian philanthropist, politician, and entrepreneur in the

sugar industry The sugar industry subsumes the production, Sugar refinery, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, about 80% of sugar is extracted from sugar cane, grown predominantly in the tropics, and 20% from sugar beet, ...

. Tereshchenko was well-known for being the mayor of

Hlukhiv Hlukhiv (, ; ) is a small historic List of cities in Ukraine, city on the Esman River. It belongs to Shostka Raion of Sumy Oblast of Ukraine. Population: It is known for being a capital of the Cossack Hetmanate after the deposition of Ivan M ...

for multiple consecutive terms and for his donations to many facilities in Ukraine, such as the

St Volodymyr's Cathedral St Volodymyr's Cathedral ( ) is a cathedral in the centre of Kyiv, and one of the city's major landmarks. Since the unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine in December 2018, it has been under the ecclesiastical jurisdictio ...

, Taras Shevchenko National Museum, and the

National Art Museum of Ukraine The National Art Museum of Ukraine ( ) is a museum dedicated to Ukrainian art in Kyiv, Ukraine. History The National Art Museum of Ukraine, which was the first museum in Kyiv to be freely open to the public, was founded at the end of the 19th c ...

among others. Tereshchenko was born in Hlukhiv, which was then part of the

Chernigov Governorate Chernigov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796-1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Cher ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Despite financial difficulties at the time, he first started business by carrying bread to the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

on oxen, in addition to salt and fish later. In 1851 he became senior

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

of Hlukhiv, and by 1861 became the Mayor of Hlukhiv which he did for the next 14 years. In 1855 he built his family's first sugar factory, which gained more success after the

Emancipation reform of 1861 The emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, ( – "peasants' reform of 1861") was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. T ...

, and with funding, he was also able to found a

beet sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

factory. In 1870 the family founded a society for the capital of the sugar factories, which he worked with until the end of his life. Due to the accumulation of capital he amassed during his time in business, Tereshchenko then decided to fund numerous places toward the end of his life. He provides lots of financial contributions to gymnasiums around Ukraine, and also established the

Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University of Oleksandr Dovzhenko Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University () is a university in Hlukhiv, Ukraine. The university was founded in 1874 as a teachers institute. It was awarded the status of pedagogical university in 2001. Hlukhiv University is an ...

and the

Kyiv Polytechnic Institute The Kyiv Polytechnic Institute ( KPI, ; official full title National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute") is a national public technological university in Kyiv, Ukraine. Name In the long period of existenc ...

. With other money, he funded multiple museums, the

Kyiv National Academic Theatre of Operetta The Kyiv National Theatre of Operetta () is a theatre in Kyiv in Ukraine. It was founded in 1934. External linksKyiv Academic Operetta Theatre (Kyiv)
Opera houses in Ukraine Theatres in Kyiv 1934 establishments in the Soviet Union Thea ...

, and churches. He died in 1903.

Early life

Tereshchenko was born on 14 October 1819 in

, which was then part of the

in the

. He was named after St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. He was born as the child of Ukrainian Cossack Artemy Tereshchenko, who was nicknamed "Karbovanets", who at the time was a small shopkeeper who was having financial difficulties. His mother was a merchant's daughter named Euphrosyne Grigorievna Steslyavska. Due to this, Nikola had a difficult childhood, and as he later recalled, went through the Hlukhiv District School on pennies.

Career

He first did entrepreneural activities when he was in school, carrying bread to the

on an

oxen An ox (: oxen), also known as a bullock (in BrE, British, AusE, Australian, and IndE, Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castration, castrated adult male cattle, because castration i ...

and also delivered salt and fish from

Taurida Oblast Taurida Oblast () was an administrative-territorial unit (''oblast'') of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of the Crimean Peninsula and parts of the Southern Ukraine regions. It was created out of territories of the Crimean Khan ...

to his hometown. He was soon after the main producer of bread and seller of salt and fish. With the money he earned from the grain business, he built stone barns to store grain and put some of the operating profit into circulation. He then involved his two younger brothers, Fyodor and Semyon, in the business and began to send hired workers to Crimea. In the 1840s he also came up with a new business, which was a trade credit scheme. When manufacturers arrived at the city's fair, he bought their products with deferred payment at a low price, and the manufacturers would receive the money when they returned to Crimea. In 1851 he became senior

of Hlukhiv, which he did in addition to his grain business until 1860. After serving as senior burgomaster for 9 years, he became Mayor of Hlukhiv for the next 14 years. He was elected to the position 7 times in a row. However, he initiated the main family business in 1855 when he built the family's first sugar factory near the city. The

only helped the profits of the starting sugar business, as the family bought or leased land and small sugar factories from bankrupt landowners and started modernizing the factories. That same year in the village of Tyotkino he also founded a

factory, which processed almost six thousand berkovets of beets and also created 21.5 kg of sugar for his sugar plants. In 1870, the Tereshchenko family founded the "Society of Sugar Beet and Refinery Plants of the Tereshchenko Brothers" with an initial capital of 3 million rubles. The company started with five refineries: two in the

Glushkovsky District Glushkovsky District () is an administrativeResolution #489 and municipalLaw #48-ZKO district (raion), one of the twenty-eight in Kursk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south-west of the oblast, on the border with Ukraine. The area of the dis ...

, a refinery called Tula, a leased refinery called Cherkasy, and the last in Pytalovsky District. In 1870 he moved to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

with his brothers. However, he returned in late 1874 to Kyiv after becoming disgusted with the "pompous capital" due to his uprbringing in Hlukhiv and became during his time away the city of Kyiv had constructed a new railroad and opened a

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

which lent it to becoming known as a sugar capital. His entire family then moved into house No. 12 on Bibikovsky Boulevard. In Kyiv he became a member of the City Duma, and was also nominated multiple times for

Mayor of Kyiv The Head of Kyiv City (), unofficially and more commonly the Mayor of Kyiv (), is a city official elected by popular vote who serves as a head of the Kyiv city state administration (the capital of Ukraine) and a chairperson the Kyiv City Counc ...

. By the end of his life, he owned about 80 thousand

dessiatin A dessiatin or desyatina () is an archaic, rudimentary measure of area used in tsarist Russia for land measurement. A dessiatin is equal to 2,400 square sazhens and is approximately equivalent to 2.702 English acres, 10,925 square metres, or 1.0 ...

s of land, five personal sugar refineries, distilleries, and steam and water mills.

Philanthropic activities

Tereshchenko provided financial assistance to build the Mariinsky Orphanage, a hospital for laborers, an overnight shelter on Basseyna Street, the Trinity People's House (now the

), and

among other buildings. In total, he spent around 5 million rubles on philanthropic activities. Towards the end of the 19th century, Tereshchenko's main concern was the founding of a women's gymnasium that was a full eight-grade gymnasium in Hlukhiv, for which he pledged 118,000 rubles, and it was built in 1894. He was then appointed honorary guardian of the First Gymnasium, and so he gave large annual donations to the ten gymnasiums in the city, including building more like the Fifth Male Gymnasium in Kyiv. Other schools that he donated to create was the

as a teacher's institute at first. In addition, he provided the funding for the establishment of the

. One of his more significant creations was the sponsorship for four state museums: the historical Taras Shevchenko National Museum, the Russian Art Museum, the

, and the Kyiv Museum of Western and Oriental Art.

Personal life

Tereshchenko was married to Pelageya Georgievna Tereshchenko. They had three children: Varvara Khanenko], Ivan Tereshchenko, and Alexander Tereshchenko.

Death

He died on 19 January 1903 in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. He distributed most of his real estates' holdings to Ivan, but also gave portions to Alexander and Varvara. His funeral lasted two days, and his coffin which was surrounded by more than 100 wreaths was carried throughout Kyiv from St. Vladimir's Cathedral to his house and then to Hlukhiv where he was buried at Three Anastasievskaya Church.

Honours and awards

In June 2009 an unveiling ceremony was held for a monument honoring him, which was installed on the grounds of the Scientific and Practical Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, which he funded. In August 2014 in the city of

Andrushivka Andrushivka (, ) is a city in Berdychiv Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Prior to the 2020 administrative reform, it was the administrative center of the former Andrushivka Raion. The population in 2023 is 8669 people. The city is located in the ...

, a monument was unveilved dedicated to him, which was placed in the local park funded by Tereshchenko. He also was awarded the following: * Raised to

Russian nobility The Russian nobility or ''dvoryanstvo'' () arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914, it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members, out of a total population of 138,200,000. Up until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian noble estates staffed ...

for special merits and charitable contributions (12 May 1870) *

Honorary citizen Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of Hlukhiv *

Order of Saint Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, on 14 February 1735, in hono ...

, 1st class * Order of the White Eagle *

Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (, ), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It remained under the Congress Poland, Kingdom of Pola ...

, 1st and 3rd classes * Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd and 3rd classes *

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tereshchenko, Nikola Ukrainian philanthropists Ukrainian businesspeople Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire 19th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire Tereshchenko family People from Chernigov Governorate 1819 births 1903 deaths