Prokofi Akinfiyevich Demidov (1710–1786) was a Russian industrialist and philanthropist.

The eldest son of Akinfiy Demidov

Akinfiy Demidov

Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov was a Russian industrialist of the Demidov family.-Life:He was the eldest son of Nikita Demidov and increased the family fortune, raising it to one of Russia's most important industrial dynasties. He set up at least 9 steel foundries and munitions factories from 1717 to...

, Prokofi inherited the enormous Demidov

Demidov

The Demidov family, also Demidoff, were an influential Russian merchant, industrialist and later chivalry family, possibly second only to the Tsar himself in wealth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-History:...

 family fortune on his father's death in 1745. He gave freely to charitable works, founding an orphanage

Moscow Orphanage

The Moscow Orphanage or Foundling Home Vospitatel′nyj dom v Moskve was an ambitious project conceived by Catherine the Great and Ivan Betskoy, in the early 1760s...

 and a scientific institute in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and a school of commerce in 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...

, as well as financing the opera in Saint Petersburg and hundreds of people's schools and philanthropic institutions across Russia.

His eccentricities were famous and, because he thought he had been deceived by British merchants during a stay in England, one day he bought all the available hemp to "teach the English a lesson". Even so he managed to increase the family fortune so that, on his death, he owned 55 foundries and metallurgical factories. His tomb is in the Donskoy Monastery

Donskoy Monastery

Donskoy Monastery is a major monastery in Moscow, founded in 1591 in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from an imminent threat of Khan Kazy-Girey’s invasion...

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Demidov was interested in botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

, wrote a treatise on bees, collected a herbarium

Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

, and had a number of birds caged in his house. A catalogue of his plants was prepared by Peter Simon Pallas

Peter Simon Pallas

Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...

. His manuscript of Kirsha Danilov

Kirsha Danilov

Kirsha Danilov was the supposed compiler of a collection of 70 Russian heroic, religious and humorous folksongs that made its first appearance in print in 1804. The anthology is entitled The Ancient Russian Poems and includes 71 texts set down in manuscript in the mid-18th century, probably in the...

's folk songs is preserved in the Russian National Library

Russian National Library

The National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia...

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