With its 2 212 entries, the Who is Who in the Russian Tea Industry reference edition transports its readers into the world of Russian tea and tea merchants, the world unfamiliar to most of our contemporaries, even to those who have many years of experience in the tea industry.   The book, WRITTEN IN RUSSIAN, includes biographies of the people who worked in the tea trade during the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, covering the period from 1700 to 1923. The entries contain information not only on tea merchants themselves, but also on their family members and some ancestors and descendants. The biographical information comes primarily from archives and academic publications, allowing readers to trace the evolution of tea merchant dynasties and their fortunes, following longer dynasties through several generations as they shifted from the merchant class during the tsarist Russia to members of the professional intelligentsia during the early Soviet period. The coverage is not limited to those who worked exclusively with tea, as some tea merchants also sold other commodities, such as sugar or coffee. Many distinguished Russians have tea merchants among their relatives.   The list includes the Schukin family (famous collectors), A. A. Fet (poet), F. M. Dostoyevsky (writer), F. I. Shalyapin (opera singer) and scores of others. The information in the book sheds light on commercial ties between various merchants, as well as between tea merchants and other large commercial entities, such as the Russian-American Company. The reader can also follow the profits from the tea business, as they were invested in other areas of industry (chemicals, metallurgy, agriculture, textiles) as well as real estate and fine art. This reference edition will be a useful tool for tea industry professionals, businesspeople, historians, advertising specialists, genealogists, economists, sociologists and many others. Source: coffeetea.ru