Nikolai Belyaev (entrepreneur)
Nikolay Vasilyevich Belyaev (Russian: Николай Васильевич Беляев) (27 April 1859 – 15 February 1920) was a Russian philanthropist, entrepreneur, founder and chairman of the Upper Volga Railway Society. Biography Nikolay Belyaev was born to a professor’s family in Moscow, Russia. Due to his father’s professional achievements, the family received the hereditary nobility status in 1884. In 1879, he graduated from the Cadet Corps in Orel Bakhtin Military Gymnasium. Nikolay Belyaev served as treasurer of the newly-founded Alexandrinsky Community of Sisters of Mercy, named after Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, under the Committee of Christian Relief of the Russian Red Cross Society. It organized a comprehensive system of nursing services throughout Russia. For his services to the community, Nikolay Belyaev was awarded the Order of St. Anna and the Order of St. Stanislaus of the 3rd class. In 1893, he became and in 1896 be became a . In 1900 he became a State Councillor. He also participated in the Committee for Assistance to the poorest students of the 4th Moscow Gymnasium. Entrepreneurship Together with similar-minded entrepreneurs, he founded and later chaired the Society for the Construction and Operation of the Upper Volga Railway which built and ran a railway line in the