Solomon Trone

Solomon Abramovich Trone (Russian Соломон Абрамович Трон May 11 [May 23], 1872, Jelgava, Courland Province, Russian Empire – 1969, Italy) was a Russian and American engineer who made an important contribution to the electrification of the Soviet Union, and acted as an industrial advisor to Israel, China and India through his work in industrial planning. Featured as a central character in the book by Ilf and Petrov One-storied America under the name of Mr. Adams.

Biography Solomon, or Zalman-Peisach Trone, was born in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia) to Abram Trone and Esther Levi, the daughter of a rabbi. He worked in the St. Petersburg branch of the company "General Electric" – "Russian Society of the General Electric Company". He was engaged in projects to create hydroelectric power plants. After witnessing the events of Bloody Sunday 1905 he adopted more radical views. Documentation at the St. Petersburg Historical Archive reference Trone regularly in correspondence with the government before and after the October Revolution and the following year 1918. and the head of the IGE, Charles H. Minor.

This agreement not only played a major role in the implementation of the GOELRO electrification plan, but also may have contributed to the recognition of the Soviet Union by the United States. Trone's dialogue and his activities while giving the tour to the writers became a major component of the book in the fictional character of Mr. Adams in the novel One-storied America.

In 1940, the Joint Distribution Committee, an American Jewish charity for refugees sent Trone to visit France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Portugal in search of Jewish refugees in transit and concentration camps. He was to select participants for the Sosua agricultural project that had been the result of the Évian Conference concerning the plight of Jewish refugees.

In the 1940s Trone was, for various periods of time, an advisor on Industrial planning in India and China. The Kuomintang government in China hired Trone to work as an advisor on development to the Bank of China in 1943.

In 1953, while in London, England, Trone failed to obtain an American passport to replace the expired one. In 1965 Trone's passport was reinstated, although he spent the rest of his life mainly in London.