Birthday anniversary of Peter L. Bark, the last Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire

6 (18) April 1869, in Yekaterinoslav, was born Peter L. Bark, Russian statesman, banker, privy councilor (1915), the last Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire (1914-1917).

In 1887, Bark graduated from upper secondary school under the Lutheran Church of St. Anne in St. Petersburg and entered the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University. After graduating from it in 1892, he began working as an assistant head clerk in the Special Office on Credit of the Ministry of Finance. Bark often trained in Germany, France, Holland and England, including the famous Berlin Banking house of Mendelssohn, which had long-standing business relationship with the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire.

Peter L. progressed rapidly in the service: in 1894 he was appointed officer on special assignments of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, in the following year - the secretary of the director of the State Bank, and two years later - the director of the St. Petersburg office of the State Bank's overseas operations department. For a young man of 28 years old, such a high position was considered extraordinary.

As a representative of the State Bank, Bark often went on business trips to Paris, Berlin, Tehran, participated in discussions on the development of economic and trade relations - all this provided the official a weighty position in the St. Petersburg business community. In 1898-1899 he became one of the leaders of the two secret branches of the State Bank, becoming chairman of the Discount and Loan Bank of Persia and a board member of the Russian-Chinese Bank. His activity at the Discount and Loan Bank of Persia was especially active and diversified in the period when the Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, S. Yu. Witte, began to carry out his plans for economic expansion in the Middle and Far East. Bark not only directed the Board of the St. Petersburg bank, but also was engaged with a variety of missions related to the activities in Persia itself: lending operations to finance road constructions, as well as operations conducted in Persia by the Russian Insurance Society.

In 1901 Bark was elected deputy chairman of the newly formed council of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, in the preparation of the Statute of which he was taking an active part. In February 1905 the official became the head of the St. Petersburg office of the State Bank, and two years later became managing director and board member of the Volga-Kama Commercial Bank. He also was a member of the boards of a number of transport and industrial companies.

In August of 1911, on the initiative of the Council of Ministers’ President, P. A. Stolypin, Bark was elevated to the rank of State Councilor and was appointed a deputy to the Minister of Trade and Industry, S. I. Timashev. He took an active part in the work of the Commission on the revision of trade agreements and the Commission on the revision of customs tariffs, and participated in the drafting legislative acts for the industry.

January 30 (February 12), 1914 Bark was appointed to the post of the Ministry of Finance’s manager. Three months later, 6 (19) May, he occupied at the same time the post of the Minister of Finance. The structure of the Ministry at that time was very extensive. The Minister was in charge of almost all sectors of the economy: finance, industry, and partly - railway construction. The Ministry of Finance also controlled the State Bank, the Office of the state savings banks and of the small loans, the Peasant Land Bank and the State Noble Land Bank and, in addition, the Fund of the municipal and the local economy.

Among the first Bark’s innovations as Minister of Finance was a law, adopted on his initiative, banning trade of vodka during the war (the law of 16 (29) September 1914). The minister sought to compensate the reduction in tax revenues after the ban to sell vodka, by the increase of practically all types of indirect taxes and some direct taxes and fees. In addition, Bark was involved in drafting the law on income tax.

At the beginning of the World War I, in the summer of 1914, in order to maintain the gold reserve of the State Bank, the Russian finance minister initiated to suspend the conversion of bank notes for gold. To cover the costs of war, additional issue of paper money was made, which led to the progressive inflation. Thus, by the end of 1916 the Russian ruble was 53% of its prewar value. Bark considered internal and external loans as a source of funds. The position of the Minister on the majority of financial and political issues was opposed both in political and court circles.

During the events of February 1917, Bark was arrested but soon released, and then went to the Crimea. Two years later he became manager of the Ministry of Finance of the Crimean regional government and appealed to the government of France to provide financial support for Russian anti-Bolshevik governments, but the subsidies were not received.

In 1920, Bark emigrated to Britain, where he was recruited to work as head of the London branch of the Russian Financial Agency Workers’ Association, adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England and director of several private banks.

In 1929 Bark was awarded a British order and elevated to the dignity of knighthood by the king of England. In 1935 the former Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire took British citizenship, having received the title of baronet. He left the memories, posthumously published in the "Renaissance" in the 1950s.

Peter L. Bark died on January 16, 1937 and was buried at the Russian cemetery in Nice.

Lit.: Барк П. Л. Воспоминания // Возрождение. 1965-1967. № 157–184; Беляев С. Г. П. Л. Барк и финансовая политика России: 1914–1917 гг.: дис. ... д. и. н. СПб., 2002; Петров Ю. А. Барк Пётр Львович // Большая российская энциклопедия. Т. 3. М., 2005. С. 50; Семёнов-Тян-Шанский Н. Д. Светлой памяти П. Л. Барка // Возрождение. 1962. № 124; Шилов Д. Н. Барк Пётр Львович // Государственные деятели Российской империи: Главы высших и центральных учреждений, 1802-1917 гг.: Биобиблиографический справочник. СПб, 2001. С. 60–62.