21 Facts About Alexander Makinsky

Alexander Makinsky was an American businessman and noble born in Maku, Iran.

Alexander Makinsky was a General Representative for Rockefeller Foundation in France, then assistant vice president of the Foundation in Paris and New York.

Alexander Makinsky served as vice-president of the export of The Coca-Cola Company.

Alexander Makinsky was born on 13 October 1900 to Makinsky family of Bayat extraction hailing from Maku.

Alexander Makinsky's mother Stefania Antonovna Lubielska was an ethnic Polish and second wife of Pasha Khan.

Alexander Makinsky was born at the time when his father Pasha was visiting his cousins in Maku.

Alexander Makinsky studied at Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg, at the time most prestigious place for boys to study.

Alexander Makinsky became acquainted with famous faces of European literature like Antoine de Saint-Exupery and James Joyce throughout his life in Paris.

Alexander Makinsky was involved in American Red Cross in Warsaw before becoming chief secretary of the Medical Sciences Division of Rockefeller Foundation in France in 1924.

Alexander Makinsky quickly rose to be a representative of the foundation, he was recalled to Washington after Nazi Invasion of France in 1941 and became assistant to vice president of Rockefeller Foundation.

Alexander Makinsky was noted as an influential person, securing escape of several scholars from Nazi regime, including Otto Fritz Meyerhof, Jean Wahl, Ernst Honigman and others thanks to his links to intelligence organizations.

Alexander Makinsky further went on to secure permanent placements for the scholars he rescued, meeting Louis Wirth and Everett Hughes as well.

Alexander Makinsky travelled post-war Europe, interviewing scholars to learn how Rockefeller Foundation can get involved in social sciences, making a comprehensive report on his work, forming American approach to European economy.

Alexander Makinsky was offered work by Robert W Woodruff and hired by The Coca-Cola Company in 1946 as chief lobbyist in Europe.

Alexander Makinsky particularly met resistance mostly from winemakers and Communists in France while trying to introduce Cola to market.

Alexander Makinsky's wife became anxious and afraid that their house might be bombed by communists, to which Makinsky answered "the best barometer of the relationship between the United States and any country" was "the way Coca-Cola is treated".

Alexander Makinsky was active in lobbying for Coca-Cola factory establishment in Egypt, Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Bulgaria and eventually USSR.

Alexander Makinsky was claimed to be a spy working for Poland and later Britain before World War II.

Alexander Makinsky was awarded Legion of Honour on 25 July 1957.

Alexander Makinsky died on 24 April 1988 and was buried in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois Russian Cemetery, Paris.

Alexander Makinsky was survived by his wife Catherine who died two years later and his brother Cyril Makinsky who died three years later.