Lazar and his brothers, future railroad magnate
Samuel Polyakov and banker , were born into the family of a small trader in
Dubrovno (now Belarus). His family was Jewish. Lazar's grandfather had moved from
Poland 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. In the 1870s and 1880s, Polyakov founded five more commercial banks (in
Moscow,
Oryol,
Saint Petersburg and
Odessa) and two mortgage banks (Moscow,
Yaroslavl). 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. street, erected in 1897–1898. Polyakov instructed the architect, , to recreate the
San Spirito Bank in
Rome. 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 bank run, 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. Lazar Polyakov remained the leader of the Jewish community in Moscow for 35 years; he was the main sponsor of the
Moscow Choral Synagogue. Before its completion in 1906, Polyakov allowed the congregation to pray in his own house.
Rebbe Mase said in the funeral
eulogy, that "his name is retold in fairytales across the
pale of settlement. Our poorer brethren, blessing themselves on their wedding days, say 'Let God make you equal to Polyakov'". == References ==