Alexander Bari

Alexander Bari was a friend of many brightest people of his time — Dmitri Mendeleev, Nikolay Zhukovsky, Sergey Chaplygin, Fyodor Schechtel, Ivan Rerberg, and others were frequent guests in his house. Since 1884 Bari lived at Myasnitskaya st., 24, later he moved to the house №22.

In 1898 Bari first met Leo Tolstoy. With daughter Anna Alexandrovna he paid visits to the writer's house in Khamovniki.

When Russia faced difficult times, Bari told his wife that "its better to be a busman in Zürich than a millionaire in Russia" and asked her to leave the country. In September 1905 he wrote "Things get worse in the country and we only have to endure…" After the assassination of Pyotr Stolypin Bari wrote to his friends that ‘the situation is dreadful and the worst is coming’.

Despite all efforts, the company faced distress. The workers at factories talked Bari's employees into going on strikes and joining the revolutionary movement. This significantly affected the business. In 1909 Alexander Bari retired and entrusted the company to son Victor.

Alexander Bari died on April 6 [O.S. April 19] 1913 and was interred in Vvedenskoye Cemetery. The widow Zinaida Bari inherited the business, her brother Vladimir managed her assets. The obituary in the newspaper Utro Rossii noted that:

Alexander Bari founded the Russian-American Kerosene Factory in Moscow, he established the Moscow Oil Industrial Society in Grozny, created the car-building plant in Mytishchi and opened an exceptional boiler plant near the Simonov Monastery. His business interests were wide and interesting, he could simultaneously build bridges in Orenburg, steel barges on Danube and locomotive works in Vologda.

Under different circumstances, in some other country A. V. Bari could have become the next J. P. Morgan or Andrew Carnegie, but he was a true Russian in his soul, he loved his Fatherland and dealing with millions gave the major part of his capital to the workers. He was a generous philanthropist and there were hundreds of people, whom he supported financially.

In April 1918, Izvestia published an article exposing the counter-revolutionary conspiracy headed by Vladimir Bari, he was arrested and interrogated by Felix Dzerzhinsky. Vladimir Bari was released on the intervention of the American consul and soon emigrated. Shortly afterwards, Victor Bari and all his family left the country.

Olga Bari (1879–1954), one of Alexander Bari's daughters, became an artist and was one of the Mir iskusstva members. She lived in the USSR for all her life and scarcely exhibited.