Nikolai Nikititsch Demidow

Nikolai Nikititsch Demidow (1773-1828)

Lorenzo Bartolini : Monument in honor of Nikolai Demidoff (1870)

Nikolai Nikitich Demidov Graf (born November 9 ^{. Jul} / 20th November  1773 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg , † April 22 ^jul. / 4. May  1828 ^greg. In Florence ) was a Russian industrialist .

Life

Nikolai Nikititsch Graf Demidow came from the influential industrial family of Demidows . He joined the imperial army early and took part in two campaigns against the Turks as Potemkin's adjutant . In 1792 he was lieutenant colonel of Grenadiers and 1794 Chamberlain of the Empress Catherine II. From Paul I to Chamberlain, commander of the Order of Malta appointed and a member of the Commercial Department with the title of the Privy Council, he left the military service and traveled to metallurgical interest Germany , Italy , France and England . Here he visited the mines exactly and brought a large number of German officials and miners with him to Russia, whom he used for the implementation of an efficient operation of his large mines. Among other things, he donated a scythe factory and a drawing school on his property.

When the French invaded Russia and the resulting Patriotic War in 1812, Demidov built and led a regiment at his own expense and took part in the battle of Borodino , among other things . After the peace he took his leave as a colonel . He donated his rich natural history collection, which he had saved from the fire in Moscow , to this city, whose university made him an honorary member. After 1815 he lived in Paris for several years , where he gathered outstanding artists and scholars around him and used his fortune with princely generosity for charitable purposes and to promote art. However, his health compelled him to seek out the mild climate of Italy. In 1819 he was appointed Russian ambassador to the Tuscan court. He enriched his art collection with prints of models from the Vatican . His colony, which he founded in the Crimea , had through him the financial means to spread prosperity and industry; French winemakers planted vines from Champagne and Bordelais there . He sent olive trunks from Lucca and Genoa , merinos from Spain and goats from Tibet , and English, Arab and Persian horses to the Urals to make them at home there. In Florence he held a princely court and had steam spinning mills, a school for the poor and an educational institution built near this city. He died in Florence in 1828 at the age of 54.

Demidow was married to the baroness Jelisaweta Alexandrovna Stroganowa (1779-1818) since 1795 , with whom he had two sons: Pavel Nikolajewitsch Demidow (1798-1840) and Anatole Demidoff di San Donato (1813-1870). The latter had a monument erected to his father in Florence.

literature

• Valentin Janin and others: Otetschestwennaja istorija: istorija Rossii s drewneischich wremen do 1917 goda: Tom 2 . Bolschaja Rossijskaja enziklopedija, Moscow 1996, p. 15. ISBN 5-85270-049-5 . (Russian)