Nikolai Von Meck
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Nikolai Karlovich von Meck (; 28 April 1863 – 24 May 1929) was a Russian engineer and entrepreneur involved in the development of Russia during the first part of the twentieth century. He was put on trial as part of the
Shakhty Trial The Shakhty Trial () was the first important Soviet show trial since the case of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1922. Fifty-three engineers and managers from the North Caucasus town of Shakhty were arrested in 1928 after being accused of c ...
and executed in 1929.


Life

Nikolai was the sixth son of
Karl Otto Georg von Meck Karl Otto Georg von Meck (; 22 June 1821 – 26 January 1876) was a Russian businessman of Baltic German descent who was one of the founders of Russian railway transport. Family Baron Karl von Meck came from an old Baltic-German noble family o ...
, who came from an old
Baltic-German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have drastically decli ...
noble family originally from
Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
, and
Nadezhda von Meck Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck (; 13 January 1894) was a Russian businesswoman who became an influential patron of the arts, especially music. She is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, supporting him fin ...
out of eleven children in total. His father, Karl, was among the Russian Empire's first railroad builders after Russia's defeat in the Crimean War motivated the tsar to modernize. Karl died suddenly in 1876. Nadezhda inherited a substantial fortune and became a patron of the arts. Alongside her intense but platonic relationship with
Pyotr Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
, she also brought Nikolai into contact with such people as
Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
, who stayed with the family as a young man. Nikolai recorded that Debussy acquired the family nickname "le boulliant Achille". In 1883, Nikolai married Anna Davydova, the niece of
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
. He entered the Imperial College of Law in
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
. Deciding to give up a career in law and devote himself exclusively to the railway business, he asked his mother permission to leave school without receiving his degree. His lack of higher education did not stop him; having worked as a depot fireman, engineer, and clerk on the Nikolaev Railway, in 1884, he was named a candidate member of the Board of the Moscow-Ryazan railway. On November 1, 1890, he was named a full Member of the Board. In April 1891, he was appointed chairman of the Moscow-Kazan railway. For more than a quarter-century, up to the nationalization in 1918, his name was linked to actively expanding the company and its involvement in developing the Russian transport system. For the first nine years of his management the length of the lines of the Moscow-Kazan railway increased from 233 kilometers to 2,100 kilometers. This included constructing the Ryazan-Kazan, Ruzaevka-Penza-Szyran-Hinds, Inza-Simbirsy and Timiryazevo-Nizhny Novgorod lines. Achievements of the company were due to von Meck's technical policy to ensure the professionalism of staff, modernization of technical equipment, the thoroughness of the design and survey works. He enjoyed a well-deserved reputation not only from its own employees and business partners, but also in government circles and among members of the ruling house. The composition of the company's shareholders included major banks of Russia. In 1903, as chairman of the Board of the Moscow-Kazan Railway, responsible for organizing the pilgrimage of Nicholas II and his family in the Sarov monastery. Nikolai von Meck at the beginning of
Russian-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
led charity cargoes sent to the Far East Department of the Committee of Grand Duchess to raise funds in aid of the army under the shadow of the Russian Red Cross Society. To promote training, he opened technical schools and the Company participated in the dissemination of educational books. It supported the organization of consumer cooperatives for the supply of railroad products. In 1912, the Moscow-sorting station began to build an apartment building, and the station Prozorovskaya founded a settlement, offering employees loans for purchase of plots in the amount of three-year salary for a period of 10 years. The project involved the improvement of electricity and telephone networks, water supply, tram lines, hospitals, buildings of public meetings. Full implementation of plans was thwarted when the war began in 1914. In 1899, he bought one of the first motor cars in Russia due to his interest in motor sport racing. In 1903 he helped found and became the first head of the Moscow Automobile Club, the organising and participating in the first Russian automobile races in 1910–11. He owned the Moscow license plates 84, 588 and 679.


Active member of many societies

*Member of the Russian Automobile Society (RAA), Kyiv Automobile Club (KAC), Life Member, formed in 1910 by the Imperial Russian Automobile Society (IRAS) - committee member, vice-president, and a member of the technical commission. *Member of the Board of the Russian Society of the Sea, river and land transport and Insurance of luggage and warehouses with the issuance of loans; *Honorary trustee, honorary member of the volunteer fire brigade of Fominsk city; *Fellow trustee of Trinity Hospital for terminally-ill women Society for the Promotion of diligence in Moscow; *Member of the Imperial
Philanthropic Society Catch22 is a social business, a not for profit business with a social mission which operates in the United Kingdom (England and Wales). Catch22 can trace its roots back 229 years, to the formation of The Philanthropic Society in 1788. Catch22 desi ...
; *Treasurer warehouse handicrafts was held under the patronage of Her Most August Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna; *Member of the Moscow branch of the
Imperial Russian Musical Society Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Impe ...
; *Member of the supervisory board of the Office of the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing and Synod choir (the Moscow Synodal office in the Kremlin, the Head - Duke A.A.Shirinsky-Shikhmatov); *A member of the Finance Committee, the Moscow Province Zemstvo Assembly 1913–1915; *Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Society of Aeronautics PA von Plehve (1910); *Member of the organizing committee of the Moscow to collect donations on the fleet, donor funds for the construction of an airplane in 1913; *Member of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce; *Member of the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow; *Board of Trustees of a famous girls' school Bess, later its owner; *Member of the Society spread of useful books; *Member of the Board of the Russian-Asian Bank.


After the Russian Bolshevik Revolution

After the nationalization of the Moscow-Kazan Railway in 1918, von Meck hoped that his knowledge and experience would continue to be useful to the new
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
state. He continued to take an interest in developing the railway transport system and was a consultant to the financial and economic department of the People's Commissariat of Railways. He represented the Commissar on the State Planning Commission. Von Meck outlined his ideas in economics and prospects for domestic rail transport in a series of books published between 1921 and 1927. Despite this, due to his "
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
" origins, he was repeatedly arrested on various charges from 1919 onward, accused of, among other things, "counter-revolutionary speeches against the Soviet system" and being part of a "technological counter-revolution." He was arrested for the final time in 1928, and in May 1929 the
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...
(forerunner of the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
) sentenced him to death for wrecking; that is, attempts to sabotage Soviet authority through substandard work. His execution was announced on 24 May 1929. He was rehabilitated in 1990 by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR.


Family

Nikolai and Anna had six children: *Kira (1885–1969) mother of the Polish literature and linguistics professor Jadwiga Puzynina (1928-2025) *Andrew (died in childhood) *Marc (1890–-1918, executed in Omsk) *Galina (1891–1985, England) (Author of a book "As I remember them", London, 1973; translator of correspondence between
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
and her family) *Attal (1894–1916, died July 15 at his first battle, WW1) *Lyutsella (1896–1933) In 1904 von Meck adopted Helen, whose parents Nikolai Karlovich barrister Alexander Hackman and his wife died during the
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
epidemic. She became the mother of Academician Nikita N. Moiseev. The best introduction of Nikolai von Meck could be the words of
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine; 1 November 1864– 18 July 1918) was a German Hessian and Rhenish princess of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alex ...
, who described him as "an honest servant of the King and Fatherland".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meck, Nikolai von 1863 births 1929 deaths Engineers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Civil engineers from the Russian Empire 19th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire People from the Russian Empire in rail transport People executed by the Soviet Union