Akinfy Demidov

Akinfy Nikita Demidov was a Russian industrialist, mining and steel entrepreneur that belonged to the prominent Demidov business family.

A son of the founder of the Demidov industrial empire, during his lifetime Akinfy increased the family’s fortune by expanding his holdings and founding steel and munitions factories, as well as gold, silver and copper mines in the Ural and Siberia. By the end of the 18th century, his family produced about 40 percent of the country’s output of cast iron. His business empire consisted of 25 mining works in the Urals, the Altay region and central Russia that employed a total of 38,000 male peasants. Made a nobleman, Akinfy was regarded the richest man in Russia behind the Tsar himself.

At one of his plants, Akinfy built a tower with a special clock, underground rooms and secret passages which has now become one of the tourist attractions of the region, known as the "leaning tower" of Nevyansk.