The book presents the life and work of businessman Ivan Ivanovich Alafuzov, the story of his family from Oia, Santorini, to the Urals, the creation and development of his industries and factories during the 19th century in the framework of Russian business history. Among other things, the book examines the crucial role played by the Alafuzov industries in providing supplies to the Russian Army from the Crimean War to the First World War; the daily lives of the factory workers and interesting socioeconomic aspects of the history of the Russian Empire from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th; the state of commerce, the army, the fleet etc. Obviously, the relations of the Greek Diaspora with the Russian State in development were age-old, multifarious and, most of all, bilateral.