It was built in 1901 sponsored by the Azeri oil baron and philanthropist Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.
He studied and published biographical articles on many Azerbaijani industrial magnates, oil tycoons and philanthropists such as Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.
On March 27, 1918, fifty former Savage Division servicemen arrived in Baku on board of this steamship, to attend the funeral of their colleague Mamed Tagiyev, son of a famous Azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.
It had opened only because the Azeri oil magnate Zeynalabdin Taghiyev had funded it, and it is said that the school was named after he had written a letter to Czarina Alexandra.
In 1911, she left for Milan, Italy to pursue a musical degree at the Milan Conservatory with the financial help of an Azeri multimillionaire, Zeynalabdin Taghiyev and his wife Sona.
For his outstanding contributions, Taghiyev was twice-awarded with the Order of Saint Stanislaus, as well as with a number of other orders and medals from both Russia and abroad.
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Taghiyev sent his daughters Leyla and Sara to study at the prestigious Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in Saint Petersburg, from where his second wife Sona had once graduated.