Pyotr Lvovich Bark (russian: Пётр Львович Барк) later Sir Peter Bark, (18 April 1869 – 16 January 1937) was a Russian statesman.

Biography

Bark was born in Novotroitskoye village in

Yekaterinoslav Governorate The Yekaterinoslav Governorate (russian: Екатеринославская губерния, Yekaterinoslavskaya guberniya; uk, Катеринославська губернія, translit=Katerynoslavska huberniia) or Government of Yekaterinos ...

. He descended from a

Baltic-German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

family in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

. His father Karl Ludwig Bark (later Ludwig Genrikhovich after converting to the Russian Orthodox faith) was a forestry manager for the Royal forests. After studying law at St. Petersburg university, Pyotr Bark entered the Credit Chancellery of the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and ...

in 1891. Later he acted as a private secretary to the governor of the

State Bank of Russia The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (russian: Банк России}), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can ...

. In 1903 he went to Berlin to study banking with Mendelssohn & Co. On his return he was appointed manager of the foreign department of the State Bank. Later he became deputy Governor of the State Bank. He resigned from his post in 1907 to accept an appointment in the private Volga-Kama Bank. In 1911 Bark was appointed Assistant Minister of Commerce and Industry; In 1914 he was appointed Minister of Finance, replacing

Vladimir Kokovtsov Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Kokovtsov (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Коко́вцов; – 29 January 1943) was a Russian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Russia from 1911 to 1914, during the reign of Emp ...

. He served in that position throughout the First World War until the abdication of

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

. Briefly detained by the

Provisional Government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

, he was soon released, after which he immigrated to the west. He held the position of Managing-Director of the Anglo-International Bank based in London. He was knighted by King

George V of the United Kingdom George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...

in 1935 for his contributions to the banking industry. Bark married Baroness Sofia Leopoldovna von Behr (1867–1957) and had two children: a daughter, Nina (1900–1975) and a son, Georgiy (1904–1936). Bark died in

Aubagne Aubagne (, ''Aubanha'' in Occitan according to the classic norm or ''Aubagno'' according to the Mistralian norm) is a commune in the southern French department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In 2018, it had a population of 47,208. Its inhabitants are kno ...

, France, and is buried in the Russian cemetery in Nice.

References

;Informational notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * Harcave, Sidney. (2004). Count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia: A Biography. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. (cloth) * Kokovtsov, Vladimir. (1935). Out of My Past (translator, Laura Matveev). Stanford: Stanford University Press. *

Bernard Pares Sir Bernard Pares KBE (1 March 1867 – 17 April 1949) was an English historian and diplomat. During the First World War, he was seconded to the Foreign Ministry in Petrograd, Russia, where he reported political events back to London, and worke ...

. Sir Peter Bark. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 16, No. 46 (Jul., 1937), pp. 189–193. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bark, Pyotr 1869 births 1937 deaths Saint Petersburg State University alumni Government ministers of Russia Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Bankers from the Russian Empire