Malenkoi, Semen

(S. I. Malen’kov). Date of birth not established; died 1702 in Shemakha. Russian merchant.

In 1695, Malen’koi was sent by the Prikaz Bol’shoi Kazny (Central Financial Office) as the head of a trade expedition to India, where he remained from 1698 until 1701. The padishah Aurangzeb gave Malen’koi a charter for duty-free trade in the cities of his empire. In 1701, after stocking up with a large consignment of Indian goods, Malen’koi set out for Persia. The surviving memoirs of Malen’koi’s traveling companions are an interesting historical source on life in Persia and India in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.