Alexander Mantashev was a prominent Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 oil

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 magnate

Magnate

Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...

, industrialist, financier

Financier

Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...

, and a philanthropist

Philanthropy

Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...

. By the end of his life he had become one of the world's wealthiest individuals.

Early life

Born in Tiflis (modern Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

), Mantashev spent most of his childhood in Tabriz

Tabriz

Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

, where his father was involved in the cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 and textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

 trade. Being the only son, he was involved in his father's business affairs early on. In 1869, he moved to Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 (known as Cottonopolis

Cottonopolis

Cottonopolis denotes a metropolis of cotton and cotton mills. It was inspired by Manchester, in England, and its status as the international centre of the cotton and textile processing industries during the 19th century...

 in the 19th century), a major center of cotton and textile processing industries, from where he helped ship goods to his father in Tabriz. Mantashev's stay in Manchester played an important role in the development of his character. Not only did he learn the secrets and crafts of the textile industry in Manchester, but he also delved into the intricacies of European business and English culture

Culture of England

The culture of England refers to the idiosyncratic cultural norms of England and the English people. Because of England's dominant position within the United Kingdom in terms of population, English culture is often difficult to differentiate from the culture of the United Kingdom as a whole...

. During this period he learned the English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, and German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 languages. In 1872, Mantashev returned to Tiflis with his father. In the first floor of the hotel Caucasus, located in Erivansky Square

Freedom Square, Tbilisi

Freedom Square , formerly known as Erivan Square under Imperial Russia and Lenin Square under the Soviet Union, is located in the center of Tbilisi at the eastern end of...

, the Mantashevs opened a cotton store, then another one, eventually becoming fully engaged in the wholesale textile trade. After his father's death in 1887, Alexander purchased most of the shares of the Tiflis Central Commercial Bank — thus becoming its principal shareholder, and then the Chairman of the Board of the Bank. The bank was involved in almost every aspect of trade in the Caucasus. Incidentally, Tifkombank was the only financial institution in the Caucasus whose shares traded on the Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 Stock Exchange. In the early 1890s, Alexander was already a 1st guild merchant and a Speaker of the Tiflis duma

Duma

A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...

. It was then that he became interested in a new business venture, when he was looking into the prospects of Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

 oil.

Oil tycoon

This was the epoch of the world oil trade. The underground black liquid promised entrepreneurs incredible profits and opened ambitious prospects. The only requirements were a large investment and the ability to run the business. These Mantashev had. His chief accountant recalled that not a single document went into effect without Alexander's resolution, "Asttsov" ("with God" in Armenian). Mantashev, not being afraid of high risk investments, bought (together with another Armenian colleague, Michael Aramyants) unprofitable oil wells in Baku that very soon became profitable. In 1894 he created a tentative association along with the other major oil interests in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, the Nobels

Branobel

The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, Limited,or Branobel , was an oil company set up by Ludvig Nobel and Baron Peter von Bilderling, in Baku, Azerbaijan...

 and the Rothschild

Rothschild banking family of France

The Rothschild banking family of France was founded in 1812 in Paris by James Mayer Rothschild . James was sent there from his home in Frankfurt, Germany by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...

s, in order to cooperate in the marketing of petroleum products within certain geographical areas. This was in response to Standard Oil

Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

's aggressive marketing policy. In 1896, during a trip to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Mantashev met Calouste Gulbenkian

Calouste Gulbenkian

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian was an Armenian businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum reserves of the Middle East available to Western development...

 who was fleeing the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 with his family as a result of the Hamidian massacres

Hamidian massacres

The Hamidian massacres , also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1894–1896, refers to the massacring of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, with estimates of the dead ranging from anywhere between 80,000 to 300,000, and at least 50,000 orphans as a result...

. Mantashev introduced Gulbenkian to the right circles in Cairo, including Sir Evelyn Baring

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, GCB, OM, GCMG, KCSI, CIE, PC, FRS , was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator....

. For refining oil, Mantashev built a kerosene plant in Baku, as well as a lubricant plant and a marine refinery for pumping oil and fuel to vessels. His company owned a factory for the fabrication of canisters for the packaging and storage of oil in Batumi

Batumi

Batumi is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Sometimes considered Georgia's second capital, with a population of 121,806 , Batumi serves as an important port and a commercial center. It is situated in a subtropical zone, rich in...

, a mechanical workshop in Zabrat

Zabrat

Zabrat is a settlement and municipality in Baku, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 22,497....

, an oil pumping station in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, and even one hundred freight cars circulating in the southwestern railways of Russia. (The young Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 organized strikes in Mantashev's Batumi factory and participated in street demonstrations in 1902.) In England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Mantashev bought two tankers, which supplied oil to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Basin

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...

 countries. In 1899 he created the trading house "A.I. Mantashev and Co.", opening representative offices and warehouses in the major cities of Europe and Asia: Smyrna

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

, Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, Constantinople

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, Cairo, Port Said

Port Said

Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...

, Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Bombay

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 and Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. Mantashev became a shareholder in a number of oil companies, among them the Nobel Brothers. 51.3% of the total stock of oil and 66.8% of the oil content in the Caspian Sea was centered around the firm. In 1904, it was the third largest oil company in Baku, next to only the Nobel Brothers and the Caspian Sea Society of the Rothschild brothers.

Once while riding on a train from Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to Paris, Mantashev was accompanied by a silent passenger in the same car. Mantashev failed in all his attempts to communicate with the passenger. Only when it came to the subject of Baku oil did the silent passenger become talkative. During their discussion he had asked several professional questions regarding oil and had mentioned that the only person he had heard of in Baku was Alexander Mantashev. Mantashev smiled and introduced himself. The conversation stalled thereafter. In Paris, they shook hands and parted. A few days later Mantashev was invited to a cocktail party by Britain's Baron Rothschild

Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild

Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild was a British banker and politician from the international Rothschild financial dynasty.-Life and family:...

. It became clear that the Baron had been the silent passenger on the train because the personal invitation contained several lines regarding their encounter on the train.

Mantashev funded the Baku-Batumi pipeline

Baku-Batumi pipeline

The Baku–Batumi pipeline is the name given to several pipelines and pipeline projects to transport kerosene and crude oil from the Caspian region to the Georgian Batumi oil terminal at the Black Sea...

 which was launched in 1907, becoming the world's longest pipeline, 835 kilometers long. From 1899 to 1909, his company by volume of fixed capital (22 million ruble

Ruble

The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...

s) was the largest in Russian industry. It is said that before buying oil wells Mantashev personally examined them. He knew that a rich deposit may suddenly dry up, and vice versa: a well seemingly lacking in prospects

Oil exploration

Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil and natural gas...

 could end up as a rich fountain. Surrounded by a group of geologists and petroleum engineers, he visited the sites asking countless questions, carefully studying land-color, softness etc.; he even smelled the land. Mantashev always inquired into the status of the neighbouring sites, often seemingly choosing them at random and saying : "It's here, start digging." No one could understand what it was that made him choose that particular spot. But his decision was always final. The great paradox was that when drilling commenced, an oil fountain was almost always discovered.
individual grand child Nana Mantashev.

Philanthropist

Along with twelve like-minded people he founded the "Armenian Charitable Society in the Caucasus". He donated 300,000 rubles towards the building of the Nersessian spiritual academy

Nersisyan School

Nersisyan School was an Armenian school in Tiflis, Russian Empire . Nersisyan School existed exactly one century, from 1824 to 1924. It was founded by Nerses Ashtaraketsi.- History :...

. He donated 250,000 rubles to the holy town of Echmiadzin

Echmiadzin

Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin is a 4th century Armenian church in the town of Ejmiatsin, Armenia. It is also the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church....

 for the building of the residence of the Catholicos of Armenia and of All Armenians

Catholicos of Armenia

The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...

 (construction completed in 1914). Mantashev hand-picked fifty talented young Armenians and sent over two hundred to study at the best universities of Russia and Europe. Among them was the famous Armenian composer Komitas and the controversial Communist revolutionary Stepan Shahumyan

Stepan Shahumyan

Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...

 as well as others who became famous later on. The most famous donation made by Mantashev remains the Armenian Church of St. John the Baptist in Paris on Jean Goujon

Jean Goujon

Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy...

 street. He explained that he chose Paris because that's the city where he sinned most. During its construction in 1904 Mantashev spent 1,540,000 francs. For this act, the President of France gave Alexander Mantashev the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Personality and legacy

Despite all of his wealth Mantashev led a modest lifestyle. He did not like gold and never wore jewellery. He only attached a fresh flower to his vest. He did not have an entourage and enjoyed travelling by tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 in Tiflis. It is said that Mantashev only carried with him 20 gold coins and five rubles. Mantashev loved the theatre. In Tiflis he built the Pitoewski Theatre (now the Rustaveli Theatre

Rustaveli Theatre

Rustaveli National Theatre also referred to as Rustaveli State Drama Theatre, is found in Tbilisi, Georgia. The theatre is conveniently located at 17 Rustaveli Avenue, one of the main streets in Tbilisi...

). In the Academie National de Musique of Paris he had a personal lounge. He intended to build a similar theatre in Yerevan

Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

. The Small Hall of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra was also built by him. Mantashev died on 19 April 1911 in Saint Petersburg. His body was moved to Tiflis and buried next to his wife at the cemetery of Van Cathedral which was being restored at the time with his donations. After the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 of 1917, his company ceased to exist along with all the other oil companies in Russia. In 1933, by the order of Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

, the Van Cathedral was destroyed along with the cemetery where Mantashev was buried. Today he is remembered in Tbilisi for his charity, where many of his buildings are still standing, and in Yerevan, where a downtown street was named after him along with a major luxury goods store.

External links