Aleksey Nikolayevich Khvostov () (1 July 1872 – 23 August 1918) was a

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

Russian politician and the leader of the

Russian Assembly The Russian Assembly (russian: link=no, Русское собрание) was a Russian loyalist, right-wing, monarchist political group (party). It was founded in Saint Petersburg in October−November 1900, and dismissed in 1917. It was led by P ...

. He was a governor, a

Privy Councillor (Russia) Privy Councillor (russian: тайный советник, tayniy sovetnik) was the civil position (class) in the Russian Empire, according to the Table of Ranks introduced by Peter the Great in 1722. Initially, it was a civil rank of 4th class, ...

, a

chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

, a member of the

Black Hundreds The Black Hundred (russian: Чёрная сотня, translit=Chornaya sotnya), also known as the black-hundredists (russian: черносотенцы; chernosotentsy), was a reactionary, monarchist and ultra-nationalist movement in Russia in t ...

, and anti-German. He supported the

Union of the Russian People The Union of the Russian People (URP) (russian: Союз русского народа, translit=Soyuz russkogo naroda; СРН/SRN) is a loyalist far-right nationalist political party, the most important among Black-Hundredist monarchist politi ...

. He was

Minister of Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

for five months, opposed constitutional reforms and publicly accused Rasputin of spying for Germany. He had to resign after he planned to secretly have him eliminated.

Life

Khvostov in his office as Minister of Interior Khvostov was born in a noble family of land proprietors. After finishing the Imperial Alexander Lyceum in

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the cen ...

, he became a student in Law. In 1898 he married Ekaterina Popova, the daughter of Alexander Popov (1835-1914), a senator. In 1904 he became vice governor of

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

and later that year was appointed in

Tula Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains *Tula Point India *Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...

. In 1906 Khvostov became Vice Governor and then Governor of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

. When

Pyotr Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian politician and statesman. He served as the third prime minister and the interior minist ...

was murdered

Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus g ...

paid him a visit in order of the Tsar "to look in his soul", but came to the conclusion he was too young to be appointed as minister. Also Count Kokovtsov protested. In 1906 it is believed that Khvostov participated in a massacre of peasants in the province of

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

after they stole grain from a landowner as a result of the issuing of the

Russian Constitution of 1906 The Russian Constitution of 1906 refers to a major revision of the 1832 Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire, which transformed the formerly absolutist state into one in which the emperor agreed for the first time to share his autocratic powe ...

. This caused the Socialist-Revolutionists' Party to call for his assassination, a task that was placed upon Mariya Shkolnik and a comrade of hers by the name of Nicholai. The assassination of Khvostov failed after a bomb thrown by Nicholai failed to detonate, and Shkolnik's bomb failed to kill him. Shkolnik and Nicholai were sentenced to death following the attempted assassination, but their sentence was ultimately commuted to a life sentence of hard labor in the

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia. The steppe and ...

Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

. In 1912 he was elected to the Fourth Imperial State Duma as a member and president of the

, one of the right wing parties. He was

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from September 26, 1915 (

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

) to March 3, 1916. His uncle

Aleksandr Khvostov Aleksandr Alekseevich Khvostov (russian: Александр Алексеевич Хвостов; 8 January 1857 – 23 November 1921) was an Imperial Russian politician. After graduating from the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, he entered the Ministr ...

was opposed to the appointment of his nephew. After Khvostov came into office he began to intrigue against his colleagues, against the Prime Minister himself in order to get his place, and finally against his benefactor Rasputin. Khvostov and

Iliodor Sergei Michailovich Trufanov (Russian: Серге́й Миха́йлович Труфа́нов; formerly Hieromonk Iliodor or Hieromonk Heliodorus, russian: Иеромонах Илиодор; October 19, 1880 – 28 January 1952) was a lapsed hie ...

concocted a plan to kill Rasputin. Khvostov had come to the conclusion that Rasputin was a German spy or agent. Evidence that Rasputin actually worked for the Germans is flimsy at best. In his efforts to plot against Rasputin (and not becoming Prime Minister) Khvostov had to resign.Fuhrmann (2013) The Untold Story, p. 164-165. After

Boris Stürmer Baron Boris Vladimirovich Shturmer (russian: Бори́с Влади́мирович Штю́рмер) (27 July 1848 – 9 September 1917) was a Russian lawyer, a Master of Ceremonies at the Russian Court, and a district governor. He became a ...

, his uncle Aleksandr Khvostov, became his successor. Khvostov was arrested and imprisoned in the

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s i ...

by the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

during the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

of 1917. In 1918, less than a year after the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

seized power he was executed by firing squad in Petrovsky Park, Moscow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khvostov, Alexei 1872 births 1918 deaths Alexei Members of the Union of the Russian People Interior ministers of Russia Members of the 4th State Duma of the Russian Empire Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia Executed Russian people People executed by Russia by firing squad