Artemy Tereshchenko

Artemy Yakovlevich Tereshchenko (; , Artem Yakovych Tereshchenko; 1794 – 1873) was the first entrepreneur in the Tereshchenko family and the founder of the Tereshchenko dynasty, one of the wealthiest families in the world. Nicknamed "Karbovanets", he was a guild merchant, a hereditary honorary citizen, a hereditary nobleman, and Burgermeister of Hlukhiv City from 1842 to 1845. He established the production of the sugar beet in Ukraine and funded charitable works.

Biography Early career Artemy Tereshchenko stemmed from a Cossack family of Sloboda Ukraine. Born in modern-day Bryansk Oblast, as a youth he moved to Hlukhiv, where he worked as a shop assistant. After earning his first capital, he became a petty street trader. In 1815, at the age of 21, Tereshchenko was drafted into the army and deployed to contest the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, finally ending up in Paris. His regiment was ordered to stay in apartments outside the French capital. For a few months, Tereshchenko and his fellow Cossacks lived near the town of Beauvais, where the fertile soil of the Bree valley produced beets just like those of his Ukrainian homeland. Tereshchenko took advantage of his stay by studying French.

At this time, a blockade by the United Kingdom hindered the delivery of sugarcane from the Antilles to France, so Napoleon began producing sugar from beets as a workaround. Northern France, in particular, was a center of production. Tereshchenko became friends with a group of young scientists who had worked on producing sugar from beets at the University of Beauvais under the leadership of Jean-Say Basta. Tereshchenko realized that if he could introduce sugar beet production in Ukraine, it might help reduce hunger in the region.

In 1816, the Grande Armée was finally defeated and Tereshchenko's regiment was sent home.

Birth of the Dynasty Shortly after arriving home, Tereshchenko met and proposed to Euphrosyne Gregorievna Steslyavskaya. They were married on January 15, 1819. Their first son, Nikola, was born on October 14, 1819. They had two more sons and all three eventually joined him in the family business. Together with Nikola, Tereshchenko organized the supplies of salt, grain and fish from Crimea, reviving the old chumak trade.

Honors and awards Tereshchenko became a guild merchant. Emperor Alexander II of Russia issued a royal decree on 12 May, 1870, by which, for special services and charitable activities, Tereshchenko and all his offspring of the male line were made hereditary nobility of the Russian Empire. He was also awarded a gold medal by the Holy Synod.