Samuel (Shmuel) Polyakov (also Poliakoff, Poliakov, Russian: Самуил Соломонович Поляков) was a Russian businessman, informally known as the "most famous railroad king" of the Russian Empire, the senior member of the Polyakov business family, a philanthropist and a Jewish civil rights activist, co-founder of World ORT. Polyakov's business interests concentrated in southern Russia and Ukraine.