Meck von, Nikolai Karlovich

Born in 1863 in Skhodnensky district of the Moscow province, the son of a large capitalist, railway engineer, co-owner of a number of Russian railways K.F. von Meck (1821–1876) and the famous patron P.I. Tchaikovsky N.F. von Meck, née Frolovskaya (1831–1894). He was married to the niece of P.I. Tchaikovsky, the granddaughter of the Decembrist V.L. Davydova A.L. Davydova (1864–1942). Graduated from the School of Law in St. Petersburg. Without any special education, he thoroughly studied the railway business. In 1891–1918 - Chairman of the Board of the Moscow-Ryazan Railway Society. With the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed commissioner of the Ministry of Agriculture and took an active part in organizing the transportation of frozen meat, butter and broken poultry in refrigerated cars from Siberia.
Being a collector of Russian painting, he helped artists, especially M.A. Vrubel. 2 portraits of M., painted by B.M., have survived. Kustodiev (1912, 1913).
He did not accept the October Revolution, but he did not leave Russia. Despite the fact that during the Soviet period he was arrested and detained 19 times, he continued to work in his specialty: he served in the Central Planning Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Railways and as a permanent representative of the NKPS in the State Planning Committee, taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School, wrote books on history and economics of transport (“Economics of transport and its prospects in our country”, “The future of communications in Western Siberia”, etc.), developed the idea of ​​​​building a metro in Moscow, proposed ways to increase the carrying capacity of railway trains. He was arrested for the last time on July 3, 1928, accused of “sabotage and disorganization” in transport, and shot. Rehabilitated in 1990