Life
He was the eldest son of Nikita Demidov and increased the family fortune, raising it to one of Russia's most important industrial dynasties. He set up at least 9 steel foundries and munitions factories from 1717 to 1735, and had 25 by his death. He also created iron and copper mines in the Urals and Western Siberia to supply them and mines for precious and semi-precious stones, silver and gold. He commissioned the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, with its underground rooms and secret routes towards one of his factories. Tsar Peter the Great rewarded his services by making him a hereditary nobleman, as he also did with Akinfiy's brothers. By the end of his life Akinfiy was the richest man bar the Tsar. In 1734 he founded the Nicholas-Zaretsky Church at Tula. His three children were:
- Prokofi Akinfiyevich Demidov (1710-1786);
- Grigory Akinfiyevich Demidov (1715-1761);
- Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov (1724-1789).
Read more about this topic: Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov
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Thy Ordinances make my fulling mills,
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With this Gold-web of Glory to thy praise.”
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—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)