Russian business people of the 18th century. Demkin A.V.

This book tells about people whose biographies best illustrate the violent Russian XVIII century. The heroes of Andrei Demkin are united by a tendency to entrepreneurship and the fact that almost all of them came out of the lower classes. The tradesman Savva Yakovlev appeared in St. Petersburg “with Poltina in his pocket” and became one of the richest people in the country. The founder of the largest breeders of the Demidovs Nikita Demidovich was a blacksmith. In the slave, the famous diplomat Vice-Chancellor Peter Shafirov was born. Alexey Kurbatov and Vasily Ershov, also by the slaves by birth, rose to the governor's posts. Politzmeister General Anton Devier came from a poor Jewish family, Prosecutor General Pavel Yaguzhinsky was the son of an organist, and the secretary of Peter I Alexei Makarov, the son of a derive. The author turns to both famous and rarely mentioned persons in literature, gives little -known information about their life and activity.

Andrey Demkin is a leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences.