Alexander Mantashev: The People’s Tycoon
By Times.am
2 May, 2010, 1:09 am

Have you ever heard of Mr. Five Percent, the businessman and
philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian? How about the composer Komitas
Vardapet? In all likelihood you have, but who is Alexander Mantashev?
Even though the Iron Curtain was lifted nearly two decades ago, a
lion’s share of Armenians within the Diaspora are to this day largely
unfamiliar with the spectacular life and journey of Alexander
Mantashev. During his lifetime, Mantashev significantly influenced the
fate of countless Armenians throughout the world, including the
aforementioned Komitas and Gulbenkian.

Dubbed as the Armenian Crassus at the prime of his life, Alexander
Ivanovich Mantashev (Russified from Mantashyants/Mantashyan) was born
in Tiflis (modern Tbilisi) in 1842. Mantashev’s father Hovhannes was
an influental textile trader who was elected to the duma
(representative assembly) of Tiflis in 1865. Mantashev spent a good
deal of time in Tabriz, where his father was involved in the cotton
and textile trade. Getting involved in his father’s business affairs
early on, he moved to Manchester in 1869, a major center of cotton and
textile processing industries, from where he helped ship goods to his
father back 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
British culture. During this period he learned English, French, and
German. In addition to becoming very well acquainted with Western
European everyday life, culture and business, he also initiated
contacts with Diaspora Armenians for the first time. Mantashev made a
charitable contribution to help build the Holy Trinity Armenian Church
of Manchester in 1870, the first Armenian Church built on British
soil.

In 1872, Mantashev returned to Tiflis with his father. The Mantashevs
opened their first cotton store in the first floor of the hotel
Caucasus, located in Erivansky Square (Freedom Square today) and
eventually became fully engaged in the wholesale textile trade. The
following year Mantashev became a member of the Tiflis Mutual Credit
Society. Though they faced very stiff competition in Tiflis within the
textile industry, the Mantashev’s maintained a competitive edge
through the import of British technology and methods. 1881 was a
decisive year for Alexander for it was that year when he became a
First Guild merchant.1 The following year he was elected to the Tiflis
Duma like his father before him. He was also appointed as the honorary
trustee of the Tiflis Comprehensive School, a title which he held
until 1894.

With rapidly growing income, the Mantashev’s diversified their
enterprise and entered the world of finance. In 1882 Alexander became
a member of the Financial Reporting Committee of the Tiflis Central
Commercial Bank. Eventually he became a board member of the same bank,
becoming deputy chairman of the bank in 1885. After his father’s death
in 1887, Alexander became the principal shareholder of the bank, and
was elected as Chairman in 1890. The bank was involved in almost every
aspect of trade in the Caucasus. Thanks to his merit, the bank was the
only financial institution in the Caucasus whose shares traded on the
Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange.

The Armenian bourgeoisie who dominated trade in the Caucasus for
centuries had shifted their attention to textile manufacturing,
tobacco processing and by the late 19th century, oil. The city of Baku
was responsible for 90 percent of the wealth produced in the region,
Tiflis accounted for 4 percent and Yerevan even less. The first
successful oil well was drilled in Baku in 1871 by an Armenian named
M.I. Mirzoyev.2 Alexander’s childhood friend Michael Aramyants had
moved from Tiflis to Baku in 1884 and along with his compatriots from
Karabakh: A. Tsaturyan, G. Tumayan and G. Arapelyan, established the
oil company `A. Tsaturov & Co.’ This company played a substantial role
in the oil production of Baku. Requiring an urgent investment to
purchase new oil tankers, Tsaturyan borrowed 50, 000 rubles from the
Tiflis Central Bank (that is from Mantashev). In return for such a
generous loan, Mantashev was allowed to purchase shares of the
Tsaturov Company at a bargain price. In the years that followed,
Mantashev purchased all the shares of Tsaturyan, Tumayan and
Arapelyan, effectively taking over the company. In 1899, he along with
Aramyants established the `A.I. Mantashev & Co.’ The significance of
this development cannot be understated.
Throughout the early 1890’s, Mantashev began buying up marginally
successful oil wells and making them profitable. He opened
representative offices and warehouses in the major cities of Europe
and Asia: Smyrna, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo,
Port Said, Damascus, Paris, London, Bombay and Shanghai. In 1896,
during a trip to Egypt, Mantashev met Calouste Gulbenkian who was
fleeing the Ottoman Empire with his family as a result of the Hamidian
massacres. Mantashev introduced Gulbenkian to the upper echelons of
society in Cairo, including Sir Evelyn Baring, the British colonial
administrator of Egypt.3 He became famous for his uncanny ability to
choose successful drilling sites.4 By 1900, Armenians owned the third
of all the oil companies in Baku but foreign capitalists such as the
Rothschilds and Nobels were beginning to gain a footing. 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, packaging
and storage of oil in Batumi, a mechanical workshop in Zabrat, an oil
pumping station in Odessa, along with one hundred freight cars
circulating in the southwestern railways of Russia.

Mantashev became a shareholder in a number of competing oil companies,
among them the Nobel Brothers company Branobel. 51.3% of the total
stock of oil and 66.8% of the oil content in the Caspian Sea was
centered around that firm. In 1900, the Rothschilds and the Nobels
controlled about half of Russia’s crude production, two-thirds of its
oil refineries, half the Russian domestic market, and three-quarters
of Russia’s kerosene exports. The Mantashev Company and its allies
controlled a third of the domestic market and about a quarter of
kerosene imports. In 1904, it was the third largest oil company in
Baku, next to only Branobel and the Caspian Sea Society of the
Rothschild brothers. 5

`The world oil market,’ wrote Otto Jeidels (director of Berliner
Handels-Gesellschaft bank) in 1905, `is even today still divided
between two great financial groups – Rockefeller’s American Standard
Oil Co., and Rothschild and Nobel, the controlling interests of the
Russian oilfields in Baku. The two groups are closely connected. But
for several years five enemies have been threatening their monopoly:
(1) the exhaustion of the American oilfields; (2) the competition of
the firm of Mantashev of Baku; (3) the Austrian oilfields; (4) the
Rumanian oilfields; (5) the overseas oilfields, particularly in the
Dutch colonies (the extremely rich firms, Samuel, and Shell, also
connected with British capital).’6

A 100 ruble bond for the Mantashev company issued in 1910
A 100 ruble bond for the Mantashev company issued in 1910
In order to combat John D. Rockefeller’s (Standard Oil had started
taking over smaller companies in Baku) aggressive marketing policy in
Russia, he founded the Russian General Oil Company along with the
other major oil interests of Russia, the Nobels and the Rothschilds. 7
Rockefeller was extremely interested in Baku oil since it outproduced
all the oil fields of the United States combined. Following Dmitry
Mendeleyev’s advice (that’s right, periodic table of elements
Mendeleyev), Mantashev funded the Baku-Batumi pipeline which was
launched in 1907, becoming the world’s longest (835 kilometers long)
and according to some, first oil pipeline. Mantashev’s Baku assets
suffered great losses during the Armenian-Tatar massacres of
1905-1907. At the same time, Leon Trotski used Mantashev’s oil
factories to preach his revolutionary rhetoric, while the young Joseph
Stalin committed acts of sabotage and disobedience at Mantashev’s
factories. Stalin organized strikes in Mantashev’s Batumi factory and
organized protests against Mantashev in 1902.8 Despite these perils,
Mantashev managed to gradually restore previous oil production levels.
By 1909, his company by volume of fixed capital was worth 22 million
rubles.

Mantashev was well known for his charity and generosity, particularly
towards Armenian causes. Novelist and playwright Alexander Shirvanzade
wrote:

It was not the great amounts of money that he donated to the sacred
temple of charity, which is the queen of the celestial temples. It was
the heart that performed the only role, and the supreme role in the
benevolence by Mantashyants. He gave away without accounting, without
empty vanity, he gave, because so prompted his national soul. His
benevolence was of a pure Christian character, so what the right hand
gave, the left hand ignored. It was his modesty, that is so rare these
days. Only a small part of his doings are known to the public.
Countless were his deeds that only his very close people knew about.

Along with twelve of his peers he founded the `Armenian Benevolent
Society of the Caucasus’ in 1881 of which he was the vice-chairman. In
1894 he founded a trade school under his own name which functioned
until 1918. He maintained the largest orphanage in the Caucasus and
showed great concern for blind children, having constructed a
specialized building for them and regularly assigning considerable
sums for their care. He donated over 300,000 rubles in 1909 towards
the building of the Nersesyan Academy. He donated 250,000 rubles to
the holy Echmiadzin for the building of the Patriarchal residence of
the Catholicos of Armenia.

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 who was sent to study in
Berlin in May of 1896, the controversial Communist revolutionary
Stepan Shahumyan, historian and Byzantinist Nicholas Adontz, soprano
Haykanush Danielyan, second Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic
of Armenia Alexander Khatisyan and others.

The most famous donation made by Mantashev remains the Armenian Church
of St. John the Baptist in the 8th arrondissement of Paris (15, Rue
Jean Goujon). He explained that he chose Paris for the location of the
church 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 awarded Alexander Mantashev the Order of the
Legion of Honor. In the Academie National de Musique of Paris he had a
personal lounge and he intended to build a similar theater in Yerevan.
The Small Hall of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra was also built
thanks to this donation. In addition, he regularly extended financial
help to the `Armenian Dramatic Society’ and to individual actors.

Romantic portrayal of Mantashev inside St. John the Baptist church. He
is surrounded by contemporary Armenian intellectuals and leading
figures that he directly influenced, including Komitas.
Romantic portrayal of Mantashev inside St. John the Baptist church. He
is surrounded by contemporary Armenian intellectuals and leading
figures that he directly influenced, including Komitas.
Mantashev was universally admired for his modesty. He disliked
valuables and never wore a ring or any other jewelery. His watch was
very plain, with a simple chain. The only adornment that he liked to
carry was a live flower. He never wanted to own a carriage, he always
moved around on foot or by tram, hiring a carriage only on rare
occasions. The only controversy in his life arose when he was accused
of having led an affair with Ekaterina Aleksandrovna after having
toured with her in Egypt. Ekaterina was the wife of General Vladimir
Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov, Minister of War until 1915. The affair was
caricatured in the magazine The Dragon Fly, where Mantashev (depicted
as a cow) was held by an elderly peasant (Sukhomlinov) being milked by
a lovely girl (Ekaterina). A passer by inquires whether the milk is
any good, to which the girl replies: `Not bad, but it smells a bit of
kerosene.’9

Mantashev suffered from kidney disease and received treatment for
several months while in Paris. He passed away on April 19, 1911 in
Saint Petersburg. His body was moved to Tiflis on April 24 and buried
on April 30 next to his wife Daria in the cemetery of the Cathedral of
Van (built by his funds). After the October Revolution of 1917, his
company ceased to exist along with all the other oil companies in
Russia. In 1933, by the order of Lavrentiy Beria, the Cathedral of Van
and the cemetery where Mantashev was buried was destroyed. Mantashev
was survived by 4 sons and 4 daughters, the most famous of whom was
Leon. Unlike his father though, he led a very extravagant lifestyle.

Grand entrance of Leon Mantashev’s mansion and stables in Moscow.
Built and designed in Italian Baroque style by Alexander Vesnin,
Victor Vesnin and Arshar Izmirov in 1914. Leon kept more than 200
purebred and rare horses.
Grand entrance of Leon Mantashev’s mansion and stables in Moscow.
Built and designed in Italian Baroque style by Alexander Vesnin,
Victor Vesnin and Arshar Izmirov in 1914. Leon kept more than 200
purebred and rare horses.
Like many of Russia’s most affluent émigrés, Mantashevs moved to Paris
following the Bolshevik takeover. Calouste Gulbenkian’s son, Nubar,
once described how `the cafes of Paris, rife with rumors from the
homeland, were like brokers’ branch offices with securities traded on
a curb market and icons, paintings, jewelry, and other treasures
changing hands like a Baku bazaar.’ One of these traders was
Mantashev’s spendthrift son Leon, who sold his last remaining painting
to Nubar’s father for $30, 000. It was Paul Chabas’ Matinee de
Septembre (much ridiculed at the time) which is today on display in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.10 Following the
Armenian Genocide, Leon helped surviving refugees who fled to Russian
Armenia. The Blue Book of James Bryce and Arnold Toynbee records a
£2500 – `donation by a rich Armenian gentleman named Mantashev-have
recently been spent by the Mayor of Tiflis in procuring warm bedding,
as for instance mattresses, quilts, and pillow cases, which have been
sent to Igdir, Delijan, Novo-Bayazid and Elizavetpol for the use of
refugees.’11

The chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Henri Deterding paid Leon £625,000
for his dispossessed Baku oil properties in 1917. Luckily for
Mantashev, Deterding did not think this was a risky move since he
believed in the Bolsheviks inevitable collapse and the consequent
validation of this transaction. 12 Leon served as the prototype of one
of the heroes of the novel `The Immigrants’, written by his friend
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy. He is described as an `oil tycoon,
squandering millions that he had acquired seemingly effortlessly, a
man with great fantasies, breeder of horses, tall and handsome.’
According to some accounts, the remnants of Alexander Mantashev’s
estate were completely wiped out on the racetracks of Europe by his
sons.

Alexander Mantashev’s legacy is alive and well today. He is well
remembered for his charity and generosity and many buildings, schools
and institutions carry his name throughout Europe.

/avarayr.com/