Pyotr Stepanovich Rakov was born in 1869. From a young age, he helped his parents by working in their store. After finishing city school, he went to serve in the tsarist army. Upon returning, Pyotr married his peer Nadezhda Zavertina, the daughter of Kaluga grain merchant and innkeeper Vasily Maximovich Zavertin. Their family had children: Varvara, Vladimir, Zinaida, Sofia, and Nikolai, who later became a famous composer.

After the 1917 revolution, Pyotr Stepanovich voluntarily handed over his luxurious mansions in the center of Kaluga to the Bolsheviks and began working as a salesman in his former store. In 1932, he was exiled to the Arkhangelsk region, where he passed away in 1944.

Pyotr Stepanovich was known for his honesty and integrity, always treating his workers well. He opened a free library for the residents of Kaluga, for which his family was held in high regard in the city. Even during Soviet times, when his house housed the 'Children's World' store, the old-timers of Kaluga would say: 'Let's go to Rakov.'