Nikolai Nikitich Demidov

Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidov (9 October / November 1773 Chirkovitsi village near Saint Petersburg – 22 April 1828) was a Russian industrialist, collector, military commander and arts patron of the Demidov family. Life The son of Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov (1724–1786) and his third wife Alexandra Evtikhievna Safonova (1745-1778), Nikolai Demidov inherited his father's industrial empire aged only 15 and began to spend so recklessly that the government had to send in the receivers. He inherited the iron and coppersmelting plants of Nizhny Tagil, Nizhny Saldinsky, Verkhne-Saldinsky, Tšerno Istochensky, Visimo Utkinsky, Visimo Shaitansky, Laisky and Vyisky and with them also 11,550 serfs (souls). In September 1795 in Saint Petersburg he married Baroness Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova (Saint Petersburg, 5 February 1779 – Paris, 27 March 1818). By marrying her, Demidov further increased his already enormous wealth.