Industrialist Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov (1678-1745) was the son of Nikita Demidov, the founder of the largest dynasty of entrepreneurs in the Russian Empire. He developed his father's business and opened many factories that became an important part of the domestic economy.
Character
Akinfiy Nikitich was born in Tula in 1678 (the exact date of his birth is unknown). The homeland of the Demidovs has long been famous for its artisans and blacksmiths. In Tula, the Akinfia family owned an iron-smelting plant, as well as a factory for the production of firearms. At the turn of the XVII and XVIII centuries. Demidov's affairs went uphill. Nikita met Peter I and became his main supplier of weapons during the Great Northern War.
In 1702, the Demidovs received the first plots of land in the Urals, where they became pioneers of domestic industry. Akinfiy moved closer to the "Stone Belt" after his father. The heir of the industrialist personally participated in the construction and arrangement of new factories. From his father, he inherited not only entrepreneurial spirit, but also the ability to defend his interests in front of high-ranking state nobles. For example, Demidov Akinfiy Nikitich received the ranka real state councilor and had a patron in the person of the favorite of the Empress Anna Biron.
In dialogue with the authorities, Akinfiy relied on the support of other important officials. Among his friends was the president of the College of Commerce, Pyotr Shafirov, and Ivan Cherkasov, the cabinet secretary of Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna. It was these people who contributed to the fact that Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov for twenty years calmly felt like a master in matters related to his business.
At the head of the family business
Nikita Demidov died in 1725. The eldest son immediately began to manage his father's empire. He developed the factory infrastructure, laid roads, built new enterprises. For twenty years, the assets owned by Akinfiy Demidov have tripled. Under him, the first factories for the extraction and processing of asbestos, malachite and other valuable rocks and minerals appeared in the Urals.
In total, Akinfiy Demidov built 17 iron and copper smelters. The main project of his life was the Nizhny Tagil plant. In terms of its qualities, this object was in no way inferior to Western European competitors. The company received the latest equipment for that time. It is symbolic that it continues to work today. A blast furnace was opened at the Nizhny Tagil plant, which became the largest in the world. Step by step Demidov Akinfiy Nikitich increased the output of pig iron by five times. By the end of his life, he was the owner of 25 factories, where 23 thousand people worked.
After the Nizhny Tagil plant, which began work in 1725, Shaitansky was launched (in 1727 onShaitanka - a tributary of the Chusovaya), Chernoistochensky (in 1728 on the Cherny Istok River - a tributary of Tagil) and Utkinsky (in 1729 on the Utka River - a tributary of the Chusovaya).
New ventures
Also, Nikita Demidov received the right to develop a convenient place on the Revda River near Wolf Mountain. The founder of the dynasty did not manage to carry out the project. Akinfiy took up the construction. First, auxiliary Nizhnechugunsky, Verkhnechugunsky and Korelsky factories were erected (they were launched in 1730). And only after that the construction of the main enterprise began. Revda iron processing plant was built in 1734.
Nikita and Akinfiy Demidov never forgot about their old assets. The son completely updated the Vyisky plant that appeared under his father. The number of ovens on it increased to ten. In 1729, a fire broke out at the factory, due to which it was idle for some time. There was another problem as well. Its ore contained too much iron and was of poor quality. In this regard, Akinfiy reorganized the enterprise. First, the plant began to process copper semi-finished products obtained at other mines. Then blast furnaces appeared on it.
In 1729, by order of the Berg Collegium, another plant by Akinfiy Demidov, the Suksunsky copper smelter, was built. It is located 45 miles from the city of Kungur. The site for the plant was chosen on the banks of the Sukusun River, a small tributary of the Sylva. Its stone dam had a length of 120 fathoms. It was a major building. The ore was delivered to the plant from the Bym river basin. The investment was not the best. Since the ores were nested, no one couldaccurately estimate the scale of raw material reserves. It turned out that it was enough for only a few years of work. From the mid 1730s. The Suksun plant began cleaning semi-finished copper.
Under pressure from the investigation
The most difficult period in the life of Akinfiy Nikitich was 1733-1735. For several years, the Demidovs were defendants in a high-profile case initiated by the "investigation of particular factories." In 1733, Empress Anna Ioannovna instructed to complete the audit of the financial statements of all metal manufacturers in the country. The process was conducted by the Commerce Collegium. Auditors arrived at the Demidov factories. For several months they collected documentation and interviewed employees.
After checking, more than 500 reporting books were brought to St. Petersburg. The facts of tax evasion and abuses were revealed. A lot of the information was false. The Demidovs were envied, and Akinfiy, as the head of the family, became the object of denunciations. There have been several trials. Akinfiy had to pay huge fines and arrears. For some time, he was even forbidden to leave the capital, where an official trial took place. In the end, the Demidovs managed to fight back. The Altai factories were the main pain point. However, Akinfiy kept them.
In Altai
The industrialist Akinfiy Demidov, whose biography speaks of him as a man of the most serious ambitions, was the first of his dynasty to begin expansion in Western Siberia. From his youth, he was interested in the we alth of the Altai Territory, where from time to time he sent expeditions to search for ore. First therecopper was found.
However, most of all, Akinfiy wanted to discover silver. Nikita Demidov promised to start mining this precious metal to Peter I. The great autocrat waited for good news from Altai, but did not wait. Akinfiy received the first samples of silver in 1726. However, the analysis carried out by specialists showed that the ore is too poor for industrial production. But even after that, Demidov did not give up.
Silver Rush
Trying to resolve the dilemma, Akinfiy Nikitich turned to the services of foreign specialists. The first of these was Philip Treiger. This Saxon already had experience working with silver. In 1733 he was engaged in exploration on the Bear Island in the White Sea. This time the German was not successful.
Failure only angered the industrialist. Akinfiy Demidov, whose biography testifies to the strength of character of this person, has long been accustomed to trials and risks. After Treiger's contract expired, he hired other foreign specialists: Johann Junghans and Johann Christiani. Europeans received insanely large salaries of 600 and 400 rubles. Demidov did not skimp, demanding only the result, and finally got it.
Audience with the Empress
In 1744, Akinfiy received Altai silver. He immediately went to Moscow, where at that time the court of Elizabeth Petrovna was temporarily located. At the audience, the industrialist presented the Empress with an ingot of Altai silver. The gift arrived on time. The treasury was just experiencing a shortage of precious metal. Showing your happinessopening, the entrepreneur immediately won the right to build factories in Altai. In addition, he persuaded the Empress to subordinate her enterprises directly to the Imperial Cabinet (that is, the head of state), and not to numerous collegiums and officials.
The fate of the Tula plant
Towards the end of his life, Akinfiy Nikitich, with the help of the Altai and Ural mines, provided his family with a carefree future. However, there was a fly in the ointment in this barrel of honey. The Tula plant, the very first enterprise of the Demidovs, gradually agonized. His slow death was due to a shortage of coal, which rendered the use of the domain useless. In addition, in Tula, the industrialist had serious competition in the face of state-owned weapons production.
For twenty years of independent management of the family business, Akinfiy has not built a single plant in the Central part of Russia. He was increasingly drawn to the east - to the Urals and Altai. In these circumstances, it did not make sense to support unprofitable Tula production. In 1744, Demidov stopped the only blast furnace of the local factory, built by his father.
Building churches
It is known that Father Akinfia knew the Scriptures by heart. The son was also a pious man. In his native Tula, he built two churches at his own expense. Nikolo-Zaretskaya was two-story and brick. It houses the tomb of the Demidovs and the grave of Akinfiy Demidov. The temple was consecrated in 1735, history has not preserved the name of its architect. Another church (also in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker) Akinfiy built inChulkova Sloboda, in the vicinity of Tula. The first wife of the industrialist Evdokia Tarasovna was buried here.
Akinfiy and the schismatics
In the 1730s. The authorities of the Russian Empire launched another campaign against the Old Believers. The Urals was a region where their number was especially large. The Old Believers fled there back in the 17th century after a split in the Russian Orthodox Church caused by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. Nikita Demidov actively attracted Kerzhaks to work at his factories. Akinfiy did the same.
There was a sober calculation in relation to the Demidovs towards the schismatics. An additional cheap labor resource made it possible to obtain greater profits and reduce costs. The state, however, sought to identify dissenters in order to include them in special lists and, in accordance with the law, impose an additional tax. Demidov covered the Old Believers. Whether he himself was a schismatic remains debatable. The fact is that back in the 17th century, Tula, native to the family of industrialists, was considered the center of attraction for people fleeing the repressions of the church. However, historians have not found any exact evidence that Akinfiy Demidov, whose personal life remained a secret, was an Old Believer.
Death
Most of Akinfiy Nikitich's life was spent on the road. As a rule, he was in the Urals, in Tula or in St. Petersburg. The last time the head of the family visited his homeland was in 1745. From there he went to the Urals. On the road Akinfiystopped in the Nizhny Novgorod estate. His further path ran through the Kama basin. Here Akinfiy Nikitich felt bad. He died on August 5, 1745, never reaching his factories.
Biographers consider the village of Yatskoye Ustye to be the place of death of the industrialist. The head of the dynasty was buried in Tula. Akinfiy was in his seventieth year of life. He was a strong, strong-willed and enterprising man who gave birth to no less legends and mysteries than his famous father.
Private life
The industrialist played a wedding twice (for the first time on Evdokia Korobkova, the second time in 1723 - on Efmya P altseva). The wives of Akinfiy Demidov bore him two children each. From the marriage with Evdokia, the sons Procopius and Gregory remained, from the marriage with Efimya - the son Nikita and the daughter Evfimiya.
Like his father, Akinfiy Demidov was the sole owner of the family business. In an effort to keep the assets intact, shortly before his death, he made a will, according to which almost all the property was to go to his youngest son Nikita. Two other heirs - Prokofy and Gregory - got modest possessions and mines in the European provinces. This will was drawn up by Akinfiy under the influence of his second wife Efimya.
Heirs
Prokofy and Grigory, dissatisfied with their own share, after the death of their father, filed a petition in the name of Elizabeth Petrovna. The Empress granted a just complaint. The authorities carried out a revaluation of the property and divided it into three equal parts. Prokofy received the Nevyansk and Nizhny Novgorod factories, Grigory - the enterprises of Tula andUrals, Nikita - Nizhny Tagil industry.
So the children of Akinfiy Demidov divided the previously single complex that belonged to their grandfather and father. In addition, part of the property passed to the state. Altai mines became state-owned. Nevertheless, the heirs of Akinthius preserved and multiplied what was left in their hands. The Demidov dynasty remained one of the richest in Russia for many years.
