Lazar Polyakov

Lazar Solomonovich Polyakov
Born	1843 Dubroŭna, Russian Empire
Died	1914
Occupation(s)	Businessman, banker
Known for	Founder of L. S. Polyakov Bank; "Moscow's Rothschild"

Lazar Solomonovich Polyakov (, 1843–1914) was a Russian businessman who launched his initial banking venture in 1872 and, by the 1890s, had established a prominent financial conglomerate, earning the moniker "Moscow's Rothschild." His commercial empire ultimately disintegrated in the early twentieth century, with complete dissolution by 1909.

Biography

Born into a Jewish family of modest merchants in Dubroŭna, Lazar and his brothers—railway tycoon Samuel Polyakov and financier Yakov Polyakov—originated from humble beginnings. Lazar remained overshadowed by Samuel until he founded the L. S. Polyakov Bank in Moscow in 1872.

During the 1870s and 1880s, Polyakov expanded his banking interests by establishing five additional commercial banks located in Moscow, Oryol, Saint Petersburg, and Odessa, alongside two mortgage banks situated in Moscow and Yaroslavl. He maintained majority ownership and managerial control until their downfall in the early 1900s. His financial holdings also encompassed insurance and trading firms, with the group's assets under a holding company valued at approximately 40 million roubles, predominantly invested in his own ventures.

Polyakov amassed his fortune through stock market dealings and the trade of Southern Russian steppe wheat, diverging from Moscow’s conventional banking sectors such as textiles, metal industries, and real estate. Rivalries with ethnic Russian bankers, especially Moscow’s mayor Nikolay Alekseyev, are said to have contributed to anti-Jewish policies enacted during 1891–1892.

His collapse was partly due to his dependence on overvalued stock used as collateral for loans. The crisis initiated with Yakov Polyakov’s banking difficulties beginning in 1898, climaxing with the failure of Yakov’s Peterburg-Azov Bank in 1901. The ensuing economic downturn depressed equity prices; Lazar defaulted on his obligations, leading to a series of bank failures under his control. Although initially supported by the Ministry of Finance to avert widespread panic and bank runs, Polyakov eventually became a hindrance to recovery efforts.

By 1909, the Ministry merged the remaining three banks into the United Bank (), absorbing 17.5 million roubles in bad debts against declared assets totaling 25 million. The United Bank was led by a government-appointed ethnic Russian chairman; however, Polyakov’s son Alexander retained a position on its board.

In the end, Lazar’s financial situation was so compromised that his heirs refused to inherit his heavily indebted estate following his passing.

Outside of finance, Lazar served as head of Moscow’s Jewish community for over three decades and was a key benefactor of the Moscow Choral Synagogue. Prior to its completion in 1906, he hosted worship services at his residence. At his funeral, Rebbe Mase remarked that "his name is recounted like folklore throughout the pale of settlement," with impoverished Jews blessing one another by wishing to be "like Polyakov."