Stepan Lianozov

Stepan Georgievich Lianozov was born in Moscow on 9 August 1872. Lianozov's father, Gevorg Lianozov (1835–1906), came from an Armenian family that was deported from Eastern Armenia by the Persian Shah Abbas the Great in 1604. Gevorg Lianozov along with his brother Stepan were well-known figures in the production of caviar from the Caspian Sea, and would ultimately inherit the oil business that his father's brother Stepan had been engaged in since 1872.^[2]

After Stepan Lianozov, Gevorg's son, graduated from high school, he entered the school of Natural Sciences of the University of Moscow. Four years thereafter, Lianozov changed his career to law graduating in 1898 from the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University and becoming an assistant to a magistrate in the court chamber of Moscow. In 1901, Stepan gave up his rights to the caviar business that he inherited from his father and allowed his two brothers, Martin and Levon to take control of that industry. Stepan then fully dedicated himself to the lucrative oil business.^[2]

With the death of his father, Stepan Lianozov founded the G.M. Lianozov Sons oil company in 1907 with 2 million rubles as founding capital. Lianozov's impact on the oil industry in Baku was considerable. He attracted and managed numerous investments in the Baku oil industry, which started a revolution in world oil production and brought his company OIL as the top petroleum company in Baku and third largest oil producer in the world. In 1912 Stepan Lianozov and Levon Mantashov (Son of Alexander Mantashev), sold most of their stock to Petersburg banks which ultimately led to the foundation of a new corporation, Russian General Oil Corporation or OIL in July 28 of that year in which 2,500,000 million pounds were used as founding capital in London. OIL eventually bought a number of oil production companies in Baku, such as "Mirzoev brothers and Co.", "A.S. Melikov and Co", "Shikhovo" (A. Tsaturyan, G. Tsovianyan, K. and D. Bikhovsky, L. Leytes), "I.E. Pitoev and Co", "Krasilnikov Brothers", "Aramazd" and others.^[3][4] The G.M. Lianozov trading enterprise eventually became one of the largest oil industry firms in Russia.^[3] The chairmanship included Russian prominent businessman P. Lejdnovsky and A. Putilov, and the chairman was Stepan Lianozov. The company also had subsidiaries that produced kerosene and refined petroleum, a pipeline along the shores of the Caspian Sea, and others. With the growing success of the company, Lianozov was elected member of the Baku City Council and the Baku Stock Exchange council.^[2]

Lianozov diversified some of his investment into the new Russian film industry. In the spring of 1914, Lianozov and the Mantashov brothers invested heavily in a new film company founded by photographer and chemist Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky called Biochrome. The company had its headquarters in one of Lianozov's properties in Moscow. This building would eventually become the State Committee for Cinematography during the Soviet era. The company filmed several movies including “No Exit,” “The God of Revenge,” “The Eternal Tale of Life.” However, in 1918, the filming ended abruptly due to a fire that burnt the movie sets.^[2]