Nikolay Vtorov

Nikolay Vtorov, 1917

Nikolay Alexandrovich Vtorov (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Вто́ров) (1866-1918) was a Russian businessman, notable as Russia's wealthiest man on the eve of World War I (60 million roubles in gold, according to a 2006 Forbes study which excluded the ruling House of Romanov).

Nikolay owed his fortune to his father, Alexander Vtorov, a successful Irkutsk businessman who set up a trans-Siberian retail shopping network. Upon his death in 1911, Alexander Vtorov's net worth was estimated at 13.6 million roubles; it passed to Nikolay and his lesser-known brother, who had lived in Moscow since 1897. Nikolay Vtorov used his father's fortune to take over numerous banks and manufacturing companies; his aggressive takeover policies earned him the nickname of "the Russian Morgan". He has been called "the first to break the age-old traditions in favor of a rational and intelligent organization of commercial business."^[1]

Upon Russia's entry into World War I, Vtorov became one of the major military contractors for the tsarist government, amassing huge state subsidies to build new manufacturing plants in central Russia; he was de facto defense industry manager for the whole of the Moscow region. Vtorov's largest wartime projects, inherited by the Soviet regime, are still in operation:

• Zavod Imeni Likhacheva (Originally AMO truck company)
• City of Elektrostal (former Zatishye) foundries and defense plants
• City of Noginsk (former Bogorodsk) foundries and defense plants

Lesser-known Vtorov plants are still operating all over the city of Moscow. Many have been converted into offices and shopping malls.

Vtorov stayed in Russia after the 1917 Revolution and pledged loyalty to the Bolshevik regime, but was murdered in 1918; the exact circumstances of his death remain unknown.

References

1. ^ Pavel Buryshkin, quoted in James L. West and Iurii A. Petrov (eds.), Merchant Moscow (Princeton University Press, 1998: ISBN 0691012490), p. 123.

Persondata
Name	Vtorov
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1866
Place of birth
Date of death	1918
Place of death