Mikhail Grigoryevich Shevelev (Russian: Михаил Григорьевич Шевелёв; 25 August 1844 – 8 November 1903) was a Russian Empire businessman, tea-trader, founder of the Russia Empire's first shipping company and a Sinologist who lived and worked in the Vladivostok region.
Biography
editShevelev was born in a family of merchants in Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude). He took an interest in science and was also an expert in Chinese after graduating from a school of translators (founded by N.Y. Bichurin[1]) in Kyakhta in 1861. With his language abilities, he was appointed as a translator to the Russian Orthodox mission to China. While living in Hankou, he began to set up a tea trading company called Oborin, Tokmakov and Co, which became in 1874 Tokmakov, Shevelev and Co. By 1880 they were among the largest Russian tea traders in the east.[2] In 1879 he established the Russian Shipping Company in Vladivostok, plying ships between Vladivostok- Nikolayevsk-on-Amur initially and Vladivostok-Shanghai-Hankou around 1881.[3] The operations ended in 1883[4] possibly due to increasing British influence in tea export.[5]
Shevelev also took an interest in Chinese culture and history, accumulating a large collection of Chinese literature. He became one of the trustees of the Oriental Institute in Vladivostok. He died from a heart attack and was buried in Vladivostok. A daughter, Margarita, married the famous Russian tiger hunter George Yankovsky.[6]
References
edit- ^ Kim, Alexander (2013). "The life and works of N. IA. Bichurin, a pioneer of Russian Sinology". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 66 (2): 163–178. doi:10.1556/AOrient.66.2013.2.3. ISSN 0001-6446. JSTOR 43282506.
- ^ Thompstone, Stuart (1980). "Russia's tea traders: A neglected segment of a still neglected entrepreneurial class∗". Renaissance and Modern Studies. 24 (1): 131–163. doi:10.1080/14735788009366448. ISSN 0486-3720.
- ^ The Industries of Russia. Siberia and the Great Siberian Railway. St. Petersburg. 1893. pp. 232–233.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Matsuzato, Kimitaka (2016). Russia and Its Northeast Asian Neighbors: China, Japan, and Korea, 1858–1945. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 53.
- ^ Crawford, Alan (2018). "Imagining the Russian Concession in Hankou". The Historical Journal. 61 (4): 969–989. doi:10.1017/S0018246X17000528. S2CID 159946531.
- ^ Кушнарева, Т.К. (2008). Янковские (in Russian). Владивосток: Издательство ВГУЭС.