The Demidovs: The richest industrialists of the Russian Empire

From simple provincial blacksmiths in the city of Tula, the Demidovs ascended to official noble titles in Russia and, later, even became Italian princes of San Donato, owners of lavish villas. So, how did they manage this?

The cunning blacksmith

It all began with Emperor Peter the Great. It was back then that, for the first time in history, an ordinary person had an opportunity to rise through talent, not through bloodline.

Nikita Demidov, an ordinary Tula blacksmith, had a talent of being very enterprising. According to legend, he once repaired a pistol for a tsarist nobleman and ended up returning both the original and a handmade copy. The nobleman couldn't tell them apart and told Peter the Great about the wonder-gunsmith.

Peter himself tested the Tula craftsman and Demidov made several more copies of Western weapons. The tsar was so amazed by the results that began ordering weapons exclusively from Demidov. During the 20-year Northern War, the army used rifles and cannons cast in Russia for the first time in Russian history!

Peter then allowed Demidov to expand production and the first arms factory in Russia was founded in his native city of Tula, making it the arms capital of Russia.

Peter also entrusted Demidov with establishing ironworks in the Urals. He was highly successful, paying a substantial sum of income to the treasury – and contributing significantly to the construction of St. Petersburg with his money.

For his services, the Demidovs were granted hereditary nobility and all monarchs favored the industrialists, giving them privileges and special conditions, e.g. access to resources and serfs.

The ‘king’ of the Urals

The dynasty's true rise came under Nikita's son, Akinfiy Demidov, who achieved incredible success (and earned incredible wealth with it). He is referred to as either the ‘King of the Urals’ or the ‘Ural Giant’. It was he who developed most of the Ural deposits, continuing his father's work, and built dozens of metallurgical plants, becoming the empire's main supplier.

Demidov also had to engage in plenty of political intrigue. It is known that he bribed all officials who coveted his wealth and could slander anyone before monarchs. Demidov had close ties with Biron, the gray cardinal of the empire, who was the favorite of Empress Anna Ioannovna.

The most incredible legends circulated about Demidov's wit and cunning. In 1736, Akinfiy discovered silver deposits in Siberia and the Altai region. For a long time, he did not report them to the capital, instead secretly beginning to mint coins bearing the empress' profile. An enraged empress allegedly summoned Demidov to the capital and he brought her a basket of his counterfeit coins. 

“Whose rubles are these – yours or mine?” the empress asked. And Demidov supposedly replied: “We are all yours, Mother! So, the rubles are yours, too!”

There are also mystical legends about the leaning tower of the Demidovs' Nevyanovsk factory, built on Akinfiy's orders. It is said that counterfeit coins were minted in its basements and that Demidov ordered the basement with the equipment to be flooded along with the workers chained there. The fact that the tower leaned was popularly attributed exclusively to Demidov's “atrocities”.

There is no documentary evidence of this, but various legends also circulated about Demidov's cruelty. In particular, he devised a punishment for drunkenness among his workers – hanging a heavy cast-iron “medal” around the guilty person's neck. By the way, this “prank” also pleased Peter the Great and he began hanging such medals on his own disgraced nobles.

Italian princes

The Demidov fortune was colossal (equal to the budgets of some European states). With it, the family built over 50 factories across Russia. And, thanks to them, Russia strengthened its army and navy and even began exporting metals. 

However, not all representatives of the dynasty proved equally successful and talented. There were many disputes between Akinfiy and his brothers and among descendants over the division of the inheritance. Akinfiy's capital was spent by his heirs well into the late 19th century.

The heirs' extravagance was also linked to major scandals: For example, in 1778, Demidov's son Prokofy organized a festival in St. Petersburg with free vodka distribution. Over 500 people were reported to have died from this display of unprecedented generosity.

Under later descendants, the factories also began to decline (and some had to be transferred to state management). Trading on the family name, the Demidovs took huge sums from the state for the exploration and development of gold deposits, but all efforts were unsuccessful.

However, among the Demidovs were also famous military commanders and state dignitaries. Many descendants lived abroad; and, in 1827, Nikolai Demidov purchased lands near Florence. On them, his son Anatoly built a luxurious villa and the Tuscan prince granted Demidov the title of ‘Prince of San Donato’. Incidentally, Anatoly was Napoleon Bonaparte's own son-in-law as the husband of his niece Mathilde.

In the 19th century, Emperor Alexander II allowed this title to be passed down by inheritance and to legitimize it in Russia, the Demidovs built a settlement in the Urals named San Donato (it still exists today).

Tsar's favorites after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution

Over time, the Demidovs became absorbed among other aristocratic families and their descendants still live abroad. Many of those who remained in Russia did not survive the revolution – they were arrested and repressed. By the mid-20th century, the lineage had died out in the USSR.

However, most of the factories founded by the Demidovs are still operational today.