Andries Dionyszoon Winius

Andries Dionyszoon Winius was born in Amsterdam in 1605 and died in Russia in 1662. During his life he built a career in Russia as a merchant and industrialist, and had finally converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subject

He began trading in Russia in 1627 and was granted rights to export grain from Russia in 1631. The next year Andries, his brother Abraham, and his partner Julius Willeken were authorized to build an iron mill in the Tula district near deposits of iron ore. The Winius Company was the first producer of industrial quality iron in Russia and was given a ten–year monopoly to produce iron and weapons for the army. In 1648 Andries withdrew from iron production, and was granted a monopoly on tar production and trade in the Northern Dvina and Sukhona valleys, which he held between 1649 and 1654.

In 1625 Andries Dionyszoon Winius and his second wife, Gertrud Meyer (married in 1648), converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects. The next year the Tsar sent him to the Netherlands to trade for weapons and uniform cloth, and to enlist officers for positions in the army. Andries returned to Russia in 1654 and served as a diplomatic representative of the Russian government in the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany for the rest of his life.