Lazar Solomonovich Polyakov (, born 1843 in Dubroŭna – died 1914) was a Russian entrepreneur. Polyakov founded his first bank in 1872 and by the 1890s owned an influential financial group; he was informally named "

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

of Moscow". His business collapsed in the early 1900s and was completely disbanded by 1909.

Biography

Lazar and his brothers, future railroad magnate Samuel Polyakov and banker Yakov Polyakov, were born into the family of a small trader in Dubroŭna. His family was Jewish. Lazar's grandfather had moved from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1783. "Polyakov" is a Russianized version of "Polyak", which means Pole. Lazar remained in the shadow of his better-known brother and employer Samuel until 1872, when he founded ''L. S. Polyakov Bank'' in Moscow.Brumfield 2001:73 In the 1870s and 1880s Polyakov founded five more commercial banks (in Moscow,

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Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

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) and two mortgage banks (Moscow,

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

). He remained the principal shareholder and manager of these banks until their collapse in the 1900s. The group also included insurance and trading companies. The assets of his top-level holding companies were valued at 40 million roubles, mostly in the stock of his own enterprises. Polyakov created wealth through stock-exchange deals and trading in Southern Russian step

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. His business rarely ventured into the textiles, metalworking, and real estate that were the fields of traditional Moscow bankers. However, the Jewish sources point at the rivalry between Polyakov and ethnic Russian bankers represented by the mayor of Moscow Nikolay Alekseyev. This competition allegedly influenced the deportation of Jews of 1891–1892.Dubnow, ch.XXIX Polyakov's continuing practice of relying on the inflated value of his own stock used as collateral contributed to his own downfall. It started with Yakov Polyakov's bank problems in 1898. Then in 1901 Yakov's ''Peterburg-Azov Bank'' collapsed beyond recovery. The recession of the 1900s brought the stock prices down. Polyakov defaulted on his loans and his banks folded one by one. The Ministry of Finance, fearing a

domino effect A domino effect is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a series of similar or related events, a form of chain reaction. The term is an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events ...

bank run A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many Client (business), clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe Bank failure, the bank may fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking sys ...

, initially supported Polyakov's banks. However, as the crisis developed the banker himself became an obstacle to restructuring. In 1909 the Ministry of Finance took over the last three surviving banks and consolidated them into a new ''United Bank'' (). The three banks declared 25 million roubles in assets of which 17.5 million were written off as bad debt. United Bank was chaired by an ethnic Russian appointed by the government, while Polyakov's son Alexander retained a seat on the board of directors. In the end, Lazar's own finances were ruined to the extent that his own sons refused to take up his debt-ridden estate upon his death.Brumfield 2001:74 Lazar Polyakov remained the leader of Moscow Jewish community for 35 years, and has been the main sponsor of Moscow Choral Synagogue. Before its completion in 1906, Polyakov allowed the congregation to pray in his own house.

Rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...

Mase said in the funeral

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, that "his name is retold in fairytales across the

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. Our poorer brethren, blessing themselves on their wedding days, say 'Let God make you equal to Polyakov'".

References

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polyakov, Lazar 1843 births 1914 deaths Belarusian Jews Belarusian people of Polish-Jewish descent Bankers from the Russian Empire Jews from the Russian Empire People from Dubrowna Lazar Russian people of Polish-Jewish descent Privy Councillor (Russian Empire)