Grigory Dmitriyevich Stroganov

Who was Grigory Dmitriyevich Stroganov?

Grigory Dmitriyevich Stroganov was a Russian landowner and statesman, the most notable member of the prominent Stroganov family in the late 17th century-early 18th century, a strong supporter of the reforms and initiatives of Peter the Great.

Grigory Stroganov was the only son of Dmitri Andreyevich Stroganov. His name first appears in the public record in 1672, when he visited Moscow with gifts for Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on the occasion of the birth of Tsarevich Peter. Dmitiri Stroganoff died the next year and the tsar issued a gramota confirming Grigory's inheritance of one third of the Stroganov family fortune. When the heirs of Yakov Stroganov, the senior branch of the family, died off in 1681, Grigory inherited another one third of the Stroganov lands. The last third, owned by the wife of Fyodor Petrovich Stroganov, passed to him on 18 January 1686.

According to the accounting of Fyodor Volegov, this consolidation increased Grigory Stroganov's personal holdings dramatically, to more than ten million desiatinas of land with more than 200 villages and 15,000 adult male serfs. This figure does not include his estates in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Solvychegodsk. Grigory Stroganov was the largest Russian landowner after the tsar.