Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov

Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov at the age of nineteen. By Jean-Baptiste Singry, 1817.

Posthumous portrait of Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov. P. P. Vedenetsky, 1841. Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve. Pavel (called Paul) Nikolaievich Demidov (; 6 September 1798 Saint Petersburg - 25 March 1840 Mainz) was a Russian nobleman of the Demidov dynasty, philanthropist and industrialist. His father was Ober-Chamberlain Nikolai Nikitich Demidov (1773-1828) and his mother Baroness Elizaveta Alexandrovna Stroganova (1779-1818). He was the second eldest of four children, two of which lived to the adult age. Most of his childhood was spent in Paris, where also his parents preferred to live.

Family The ancestor of the Demidov family, Paul Nikolaievich's great-great-grandfather Nikita Demidovich Antufyev (1656–1725) was a blacksmith and a weapon-maker in Tula in the 17th century. He had gained the favour of Tsar Peter the Great with his well manufactured pistols and granted rights over the mines and foundries on the eastern slopes of the Urals, as well as to the thousands of serfs who toiled in them. Of these, Nizhny Tagil was the most important area. The mines produced iron, copper, gold and platinum, as well as valuable types of stone and malachite and gemstones. The riches of the family grew into astronomical dimensions.

During the reign of Empress Catherine II, the Demidov family had their own army and they minted their own money. The Demidov dynasty had a huge impact on the development of the Urals and Siberian regions: industry, mining, and mineral exploration. Members of the family also made large donations to charity and promotion of arts, including the construction of schools and hospitals.

Philanthropy Under the management of Pavel Nikolaievich, the Demidov company employees made redundant due to old age, received a life pension which was half of their salary. 5,000 rubles was annually allocated "for benefits to the crippled and infirm servants and artisans in cases of need." In 1829, he donated 500,000 rubles to help the widows and orphans of officers and soldiers who died during the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-1829. For this donation, Pavel Nikolaievich was granted the title of Chamberlain of the Court of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas I.

Due to lack of public funds, he built four hospitals during his governorship in early 1830's in Kursk for cholera patients with his own money. He also donated 50,000 rubles to help victims of cholera in Moscow. With his brother Anatoly, he took part in the construction of the Nikolaev Children's Hospital in Saint Petersburg, contributing 100,000 rubles.

He was ill and tired of life at the age of 38, suffering from rheumatism. He was capricious and nervous, demanding in nature like a spoiled child, those who knew him said. The bridegroom was so ill from rheumatism that he had to be carried to the altar. The morning gifts for both the young wife and her hometown were princely. Helsinki's orphan girls' craft school and the boys' Lancaster school, received a total of 30,000 rubles, and another 50,000 rubles as a dowry fund for well learning girls. The bride received a gold jewelry box with the world's seventh largest diamond attached to a platinum chain, the famous Le Sancy.