It is impossible to overestimate the role Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov played in the development of the Nevyansk region, the Urals, Altai, and the entire Russian Empire. He laid the foundation of the Russian metallurgical industry, which provided the basis for the great Russian military victories in the first quarter of the 18th century. The portrait reflects Akinfiy Demidov’s powerful and extraordinary personality.
In 1702, his father Nikita Demidov was granted the Nevyansk plant. It was Akinfiy Demidov who actively participated in establishing the “mining kingdom” of the Demidov family in the Urals.
Akinfiy Demidov was born in 1678 and studied blacksmithing, gunsmithing and ironwork from a young age. In his youth, he visited Saxony, where he got acquainted with the European way of organizing and managing mining and metallurgical production. In the following years, Akinfiy and his father were actively involved in the construction of the plant. The Nevyansk plant became the capital of Akinfiy Demidov’s mining department and his headquarters that he used to control his vast estates and the metallurgical plants he created that were the best in all of Russia. Demidov factories produced iron of the Stary Sobol (literally: Old Sable) brand, famous for its malleability and ductility. The products of these factories were mainly used for the artillery and naval industry. After Nikita Demidov’s death in 1725, Akinfiy Demidov inherited the Ural factories. He managed to develop his father’s business and increase the family fortune.
In 1726, Empress Catherine I granted him a hereditary title of nobility. In 1740, Demidov became a state councilor, and in 1742 — an active state councilor with the rank of major general. By that time, the Urals mining authorities no longer had the right to supervise his enterprises or interfere in his business.
In the middle of the 18th century, the area of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk mining complex was 443,000 square kilometers large. It occupied most of the territory in the Tomsk governorate and part of the Omsk region, which was approximately equal to the area of present-day Sweden.
Akinfiy Demidov successfully continued the work of his father, factory owner Nikita Demidov, and developed it not only in the European part of Russia and the Urals, but also in Altai. His efforts resulted in the Demidov family reaching the pinnacle of their fame and power, amassing unprecedented amounts of wealth. By building and running metallurgical plants, he made a significant contribution to the development of the metallurgical industry in the Urals and throughout Russia.
