Alexey Nikolayevich Kharuzin (russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Хару́зин; March 12, 1864,

Reval Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...

– May 8, 1932,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

ethnographer, anthropologist, and statesman. Kharuzin was born in Reval (present-day

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) to a Russian merchant family. Between 1873 and 1883, he attended the Reval Gymnasium. He later graduated from the Moscow State University Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. The Imperial Natural Science Lovers Society (INSLS) sent him on numerous missions to the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

and the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

, and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. In 1889, he became a Russian Geographical Society envoy to

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. Between 1889 and 1891, Kharuzin was an editor of the INSLS Department of Anthropology Journal. M.Karimova and B.Naumova
Alexey Kharuzin
/ref> In 1891, Kharuzin was appointed a special assistant to the governor of Estonia and later as a secretary for the former peasant committee, the provincial statistics committee, the provincial body for peasant affairs. In 1902, he was appointed head of the Vilna Governor General's office. Between 1904 and 1906, Kharuzin served as a governor of Bessarabia and later as the director of the Department for Religious Affairs of Foreign Faiths. In 1911, he became Russia's Deputy

Minister of Internal Affairs Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...

. Unlike many high-ranking Russian statesmen, Kharuzin did not choose to immigrate after the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

of 1917. He worked at the Shatilov agricultural base which he helped establish near

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...

. In 1924, he returned to Moscow where he was hired as a gardening teacher at the Agricultural Polytechnicum. In 1927, Kharuzin was arrested by the

State Political Directorate The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration) (GPU) was the intelligence service and secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from February 6, 1922, to December 29, 1922, ...

, only to be released soon without any charges. In 1931, he was arrested for the second time together with his son Vsevolod for allegedly "spreading

Anti-Soviet Anti-Sovietism, anti-Soviet sentiment, called by Soviet authorities ''antisovetchina'' (russian: антисоветчина), refers to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the ...

propaganda." On April 3, 1932, the

Special Council of the NKVD Special Council of the USSR NKVD (Особое совещание при НКВД СССР, ОСО) was created by the same decree of Sovnarkom of July 10, 1934 that introduced the NKVD itself. By the decree, the Special Council was endowed with t ...

found him guilty of the charge and sentenced him to three years in exile. A month later, Kharuzin died in the

Butyrka prison Butyrskaya prison ( rus, Бутырская тюрьма, r= Butýrskaya tyurmá), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it ...

from heart failure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kharuzin, Alexey 1864 births 1932 deaths Politicians from Tallinn People from the Governorate of Estonia Politicians of the Russian Empire Members of the Russian Assembly Russian ethnographers Russian anthropologists Moscow State University alumni Prisoners who died in Soviet detention Soviet people who died in prison custody Russian people who died in prison custody