In seized Poland in the nineteenth century, many persons achieved great fortunes thanks to cooperation with the occupying powers. Leon Nevakhovich, the entrepreneur, at one time the richest man in the Kingdom of Poland was one of them.

In 1778, Lejb ben Noach was born in the town of Shklow near Mohylew. In 1806, he converted from Judaism to Protestantism, and four years later – as Lev Nikolaevich Nevakhovich – he received nobility and the dignity of a collegial counselor. Further development of his career was supported by his important protector in St. Petersburg – Nikolai Novosiltsov, who came to Warsaw after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. At that time, Nevakhovich dealt with the supply of food and forage for the Russian army. Already in 1816, he concluded an agreement for leasing the entire administration of the tobacco monopoly in the Kingdom of Poland for 6 years. He undertook to build 4 factories and pay the annual rent of 800,000. zloty in the first 3 years and 1 million zloty in the next years.

Nevakhovich was entrusted with the lease of the liquor and slaughterhouse tax, quickly becoming the master of the alcoholic beverages market; he dictated the terms of sale and prices of the liquors, and finally started to produce spirits himself. As a result, many small-scale tobacco growers, merchants and innkeepers went bankrupt. Fought by the monopolist, smuggling of tobacco and alcohol significantly increased. Nevakhovich made huge profits, also from Jews, as a temporary kosher tax collector. It was argued that the monopolist was flooding the market with the worst tobacco. The rapidly growing fortune, the control over important sections of the national economy in the hands of one person, and numerous accusations of abuses exposed Nevakhovich’s activity under the critique of a broad public opinion and contributed to the infamy of the trusted man of an occupant’s bureaucracy.

Having the reputation of an exploiter and servant of the Russians, he left for St. Petersburg in 1830, saving himself from the anger of the Warsaw people, who plundered his residence on the occasion of the uprising against the occupying power, and the insurgent Provisional Government quickly abolished the monopolies. Nevakhovich died on August 1, 1831, leaving a property estimated to be at least 3.5 million zloty.