Alexander Kliaguine

Born into a landed family from Oryol, Alexander Klyagin graduated from the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute in 1909. He was considered at that time one of the best automobile specialists in Russia and took part in automobile races. Then he leaves as a construction manager in the steppes of Astrakhan, where he discovers ruins, supposed to be of a capital of the Golden Horde. In 1910-1912 he worked on the construction of the Amur River railway, in 1912-1914 he was sent to France and Belgium as a representative of the Russian Ministry of Transport in order to study the best railway techniques and purchase equipment, including handcars for the Fergansk and Amur railways. The war of 1914 found him in Belgium; he leaves on foot for Paris and manages to board the last boat to Russia. In 1915 he directed the construction of the Petrozavodsk-Soroksk and Murmansk railway. From 1916 he was sent again to France, England and Belgium to purchase materials for the railways being built in Russia. The Russian revolution found him in Europe and he decided to settle in France, where he became the representative of Russia's military attaché in France, Major General Alexis Alexandrovich Ignatiev. In 1920 he founded Etablissements A. Kliaguine, his own business for the repurchase and demolition of ships in Tunisia and France. Under the aegis of the "S.A. for the exploitation of munitions" it supplies Latvia, Finland and Estonia with cannons and ammunition purchased from the Russian squadron in Bizerte. In 1922 he became a Freemason in the Russian lodge "Astrée" №500, then in the lodges "Aurore boréale" and "Jupiter". He makes successful inventions and is interested in all matters worth pursuing. He rehabilitated a liner which during the war provided great services for transport in the Mediterranean. In 1936 he bought the ship of the line "General Alexeyev" which had been part of the Russian squadron in Bizerte to offer the anchors, chandeliers and marbles to the Russian Orthodox memorial church in Bizerte, then under construction. He bought a large hotel in Paris and on the French Riviera, then bought the Charabot et Compagnie factory in Grasse. For sixteen years, he was able to restore this business, closely related to perfumery, to its international reputation and prestige.

In first marriage he married Marie Nicolaevna Kliaguine in Russia, in second marriage he married Claire Robin in France, to whom he gave the grand Parisian hotel Napoléon as a wedding gift and with whom he had two children. For Alexandre Klyagin, personal life and work were synonymous. Retired from some of his activities, he wrote, at the suggestion of Ivan Bunin, passionate about the story of his adventurous life, two books on Siberia translated into French which his compatriots consider to be part of Russian literature: "Beyond of the Urals" and "The Treasure of Mamai". A generous benefactor, he provided scholarships to many students and raised several children of emigration. His last years were overshadowed by illness which forced him to sell many of his businesses. He leaves the memory of a very active man of whom the Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin, who had prefaced his first book, said that he considered him to be one of the most gifted among Russians.