Achille Alferaky or Alferakis, of Greek origin, was born in Kharkov (Ukraine), from Nikos and Maria Alferakis. You spent your childhood in Taganrog, present-day Rostov Oblast, in the magnificent Alferaki Palace on Catholic Street (now Frunze Street), designed by architect Andrei Stackenschneider. Achille Alferaky studied at home before attending the faculty of history and philology at Moscow University. There she also studied music theory. In 1870 she returned to Taganrog to run the family business. After the death of the city governor Lev Kulchitsky in 1873, she served briefly as an interim governor.
In 1880 Alferaki was elected mayor (городской голова) of Taganrog. During his tenure, he did a lot of practical public affairs. He has made Taganrog beautiful and clean and has taken part in the creation of several charitable institutions. During his tenure as mayor, the streets and streets of the city were covered with cobblestones, trees were planted along the sidewalks, and the first boulevards were introduced. Mayor Alferaki contributed to establishing the Society for the Relief of the Poor Elderly, founded in 1883, and to establishing and developing the city's elementary education system.
At city council meetings, Achille Nikolaevich Alferaki presented many new proposals. Some of them looked great and wasteful to the politicians of Taganrog, but some of them have come true. For example, Alferaki's proposals to erect a monument to Peter I the Great and to make a major significant reconstruction of the port of Taganrog were carried out.
But his mandate as mayor could not make him forget his passion: music. He took part in the activity of Taganrog's Music and Dramatic Society. The first music courses and a symphony orchestra were opened in Taganrog, conducted by the famous master and composer Václav Suk.
His term ended in 1888 when he moved to St. Petersburg. He became Chancellor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1891 and later Director of the Russian Telegraphic Agency. Alferaky died in St. Petersburg in 1919. One of his family descendants was Anna Marly, a French singer and composer of Russian origin, author of Chant des Partisans, and a knight of the Légion d'Honneur.
Music lovers, like Alferaki himself, have helped Taganrog become known as one of the most music-loving cities in southern Russia. In 1880, when the Greek composer lived in Taganrog in his mansion on Catholic Street, he assembled the entire beau monde of the city. Achilles Alferaki was also a talented artist. An extensive collection of caricatures is now housed at the Taganrog Museum of Local Lore and History and the Chekhov Literary Museum.
With these rare sketches and drawings, we have the opportunity to see the people who lived in Taganrog a few hundred years ago through the eyes of a contemporary grasp of the spirit of the parties and dances of that time. Alferakis devoted much of his time to the music. In the former capital of the Russian Empire, he wrote more than 100 novels, compositions, and two plays, St. John's Eve and The Erl King.
