The Bashkirovs were one of the largest family flour-milling firms in the Volga Region, headquartered in Nizhny Novgorod.
The founder was Emelyan Bashkirov, a peasant from the village of Kopnino in Balakhninsky District.
He began by acquiring a stall at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka to trade in grain. He then moved into grain processing and began building mills. His first was a water mill on the Linda River near the village of Mys. He then erected a massive steam mill, the "Slobodskaya," in Kanavino. As his sons — Nikolay, Yakov, and Matvey — grew up, they became his trusted partners, and in 1871 the family firm "Trading House of Emelyan Bashkirov and Sons" was officially registered.
In 1887 the founder of the firm died. His heirs continued their father's business jointly for four years and did so with considerable success. By 1890, on land their father had purchased, they had built a powerful steam mill in Samara Governorate, which reduced their costs for raw-material delivery. At the height of the family's success, in 1891, the brothers divided the business. The eldest, Nikolay, received the largest mill — the one in Samara — along with a dozen barges and a tugboat. The middle brother, Yakov, took the Nizhny Novgorod mills and a tugboat with a dozen barges. The youngest, Matvey, received no mills, but his brothers compensated him with a larger share of the liquid capital. Matvey Emelyanovich quickly made up the difference: by 1895 he had built a powerful steam mill in Nizhny Novgorod, on the right bank of the Oka, below Grebeshok, behind Blagoveschenskiy Muzhskoy Monastery. This mill allowed him to match his brothers in the flour-milling trade, and in wealth and public influence he even surpassed them — he was more generous than they were in charitable affairs.
When the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute was evacuated to Nizhny Novgorod in 1916, M. E. Bashkirov presented the institute's rector with a check for half a million rubles to help establish it in its new home.
The October Revolution stripped the Bashkirovs of everything — their mills, tugboats, barges, houses, and money — reducing wealthy people to paupers.
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Prof. A. V. Sedov Nizhegorodsky kray: fakty, sobytiya, lyudi. Nizhny Novgorod, 1997. Makarov I. Bashkirovy, Nizhny Novgorod, 1997, No. 7.