Samuel Polyakov
Samuel Polyakov | |
---|---|
Dubroŭna, Orsha district | |
Died | April 7, 1888 | (aged 50)
Citizenship | Russian Empire |
Years active | 1863–1888 |
Known for | Railroad financier and contractor |
Relatives | Lazar Polyakov, Yakov Polyakov |
Samuel (Shmuel) Polyakov (also Poliakoff, Poliakov,
Business career
Samuel and his brothers, future bankers
This type of relationship between statesmen and Jewish entrepreneurs was common in post-emancipation Russia; Tolstoy by the time of his death (1867) allegedly owned half a million roubles in Polyakov shares.
Polyakov pioneered fast-track railroad construction schedules, introducing new standards of
As a result, in the 1870s Samuel joined the ring of Russia's seven top railroad barons.
In addition to newly built roads, Polyakov acquired existing ones, including Russia's first commercial railroad from
Samuel Polyakov's Saint Peterburg home was the former Countess Laval palace at 4,
Public activities
Polyakov was credited with donating three million roubles to public education, starting with the college for railroad trades established in Yelets in 1867.[2] In 1868 he co-sponsored opening of the Katkov College in Moscow,[7] an institution that eventually evolved into the present-day Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the last decade of his life Polyakov concentrated on the life of Saint Petersburg Jewish community, and co-financed construction of the
The assassination of Alexander on March 1, 1881 provoked a wave of pogroms. In August 1881 Polyakov and Horace Günzburg organized the first conference of Jewish representatives from all over the Empire, searching for a strategy of actions for the Russian Jews.[18] These and other conferences that followed adopted a negative attitude to Jewish emigration in favor of emancipation. Poliakov subscribed to the "standard emancipationist argument", that promoting emigration will do more harm for the Jews, as it gave antisemites a perfect reason to treat the remaining Jews as "irrevocable aliens".[18]
Death and legacy
Polyakov suddenly died of a
Lazar and Yakov Polyakov survived Samuel and eventually lost their fortunes during the banking crisis of the early 1900s. Daniel, Samuel's only son, assumed his father's chair in the ORT board[4] but was not interested in continuing his father's business and lived most his life in Paris.[1] Samuel's three daughters married Russian, English, and French bankers.[8]
Samuel Polyakov was posthumously blamed for the Borki train disaster that occurred two months after his death on the tracks of Kursk-Kharkiv line. The public, enraged by the accident that nearly destroyed the House of Romanov, connected mismanagement of the Kursk-Kharkiv-Azov railroad to Polyakov and, particularly, "credited" him with substandard, too thin gravel ballast pads that failed to cushion track vibrations as they were supposed to.[15]
Polyakov's railroad ventures of the Russian-Turkish war period provide the principal setting for The Engineers (Russian: Инженеры), a novel by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky published in 1907.[24] Garin died leaving the book incomplete; it was prepared for print by Maxim Gorky. Polyakov, "a small ageing gentleman in a bowler hat",[25] appears in the book in person only once, leaving the protagonist disgusted and wishing to quit work for Polyakov forever.[26] Mikhail Danilov, Polyakov's project manager, is a key supporting character of the plot.
The character "Bolgarinov" in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is a reference to the Polyakov brothers. The name Bolgarinov ("son of a Bulgarian") is a similar to Polyakov ("son of a Pole").[27][28]
References
- ^ a b c Witte, pages 58
- ^ a b c d Pashkeyev, Sergey (2005). "Samuil Polyakov" (in Russian). business.ua.
- ^ Anan'ich 1991, chapter 4: total of 31, 425, 546 roubles identified during estate proceedings included 30, 895, 333 roubles in shares, 532, 050 roubles in real estate and only 894 roubles in cash.
- ^ a b c d Beizer,.Gilbert, pages 59
- ^ "The Brothers Polyakov: From the Shtetls of Poland to Russian Nobility". National Library of Israel. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- ^ Prior to the Borki train disaster Witte managed the Kursk-Kharkiv railroad where Polyakov had a substantial share but no direct control
- ^ a b c d Anan'ich 1991, chapter 4
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Polyakovy (Поляковы)" (in Russian). 18 February 2008.
- ^ a b c d Owen, pages 172
- ^ The sale could be construed as a breach of contract: construction of the mill was part of his concession obligations — Pashkeyev.
- ^ The contract, apart from two rail lines, included rolling stock, river ferry crossing, setting up field hospitals etc.
- ^ a b c Witte, pages 55
- will
- ^ The same practice caused collapse of Lazar Polyakov's banking conglomerate
- ^ a b Owen, pages 173
- ^ Beizer, Gilbert, pages 57-58
- ^ English translation as in Beizer, Gilbert pages 293
- ^ a b c Stanislawski, pages 171
- ^ Beizer, Gilbert, pages 131
- ^ See map of the Jewish Cemetery provided in Beizer, Gilbert p. XXXV
- ^ Russian: "Могу свидетельствовать только, что кроме царских похорон, мне никогда не случалось видеть такой массы народа, как на проводах Полякова." - Anan'ich, chapter 4
- ^ a b Beizer, Gilbert, pages 201
- ^ Vodonos, Ye. I. (2004). "Iz nachalnoy istorii muzeya (Из начальной истории музея)" (in Russian). Saratov State University.
- ^ Garin-Mikhailovsky, Nikolai (1907). Inzhenery (Инженеры) (in Russian)., chapter XVI
- ^ Russian: "маленький пожилой господин в котелке" - Garin, chapter XVI
- ^ Russian: "И зачем он оторвал меня от работы? Мало у него свиты и без меня? Сколько в них, начиная с самого шефа, чванства!" - Garin, chapter XVI
- ISBN 978-0-19-874884-7.
- ^ "Young Muscovites Find Community in High-Speed Scavenger Hunts". The Forward. 15 August 2007. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
Sources
- Anan'ich, B. V. (1991). Bankirskie doma v Rossii (Банкирские дома в России, 1860-1914) (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Nauka. ISBN 978-5-02-027315-3.
(2006 edition) chapter 4.
- Beizer, Mikhail; Gilbert, Martin (1989). The Jews of St. Petersburg: excursions through a noble past. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0-8276-0321-9.
- Brumfield, Anan'ich, Petrov (editors) (2001). Predprinimatelstvo i gorodskaya kultura v Rossii 1861-1914 (Предпринимательство и городская культура в России) (in Russian). Tri Kvadrata, Moscow. ISBN 94-6070-110-8.)
{{cite book}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
- English edition: Brumfield, Anan'ich, Petrov (editors) (2002). Commerce in Russian Urban Culture, 1861-1914. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6750-7.)
{{cite book}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
- English edition: Brumfield, Anan'ich, Petrov (editors) (2002). Commerce in Russian Urban Culture, 1861-1914. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Dubnow, S. M. (1918). "History of Jews in Poland and Russia, vol.2". The Jewish publication society of America, Philadelphia.
- Harcave, Sidney (2004). Count Sergei Witte and the twilight of imperial Russia: a biography. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-1422-3.
- Thomas C. Owen (2005). Dilemmas of Russian capitalism: Fedor Chizhov and corporate enterprise in the railroad age. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01549-4.
- Stanislawski, Michael (1988). For whom do I toil?: Judah Leib Gordon and the crisis of Russian Jewry. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-504290-0.
- ISBN 978-0-87332-571-4.
- Wortman, Richard (2006). Scenarios of power: myth and ceremony in Russian monarchy from Peter the Great to the abdication of Nicholas II. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12374-5.
- Glazanova, Anastasia (2019). Samuil Polyakov: Life as a Jewish Tycoon in 19th Century Russia. NLI Blog