Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev ( rus, Константи́н Петро́вич Победоно́сцев, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ pəbʲɪdɐˈnostsɨf; 30 November 1827 – 23 March 1907) 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 ...
jurist, statesman, and adviser to three
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
s. He became the chief spokesman for
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
positions and the
éminence grise
An ''éminence grise'' () or grey eminence is a powerful decision-maker or adviser who operates "behind the scenes", or in a non-public or unofficial capacity.
This phrase originally referred to François Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man ...
of imperial politics during the reign of
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 18 ...
(1881–1894), holding, between 1880 and 1905, the position of
Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, the non-clerical Russian official who supervised the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
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, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
.
His writings on politics, law, art, and culture emphasized the positive element of the spiritual and secular unification of Russia with the acceptance of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
while simultaneously condemning the Jewish population. He warned of the negative element in Russia, portraying democratic and liberal movements as enemies of the national and religious unity of
Russian people
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
. Achieving a harmonious society, said Pobedonostsev, meant there was a
collective responsibility
Collective responsibility, also known as collective guilt, refers to responsibilities of organizations, groups and societies. Collective responsibility in the form of collective punishment is often used as a disciplinary measure in closed insti ...
to uphold political and religious unity, hence close supervision of Russian behaviour and thinking was a necessity.
Life
Pobedonostsev's father, Pyotr Vasilyevich Pobedonostsev, was a professor of
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
at
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. In 1841, he sent his son, then aged 14, to the
Imperial School of Jurisprudence
The Imperial School of Jurisprudence (Russian: Императорское училище правоведения) was, along with the Page Corps, a school for boys in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire.
The school for would-be ...
in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, which had been established to prepare young men for civil service. After graduation, Konstantin Pobedonostsev entered the public service as an official in the eighth Moscow department of the Senate. The task of the department was to resolve civil cases from
guberniyas surrounding Moscow. He was promoted rapidly within the eighth department.
From 1860 to 1865, he was Professor of Civil Law at
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. In 1861, Tsar
Alexander II invited him to instruct his son and heir,
Nicholas
Nicholas is a male given name and a surname.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...
, in the theory of law and administration. In 1865, young Nicholas died, and Pobedonostsev was invited to teach Nicholas's brother Alexander (the future Tsar
Alexander III). In 1866, Pobedonostsev moved to a permanent residence in St. Petersburg. Pobedonostsev and Tsarevich Alexander remained very close for almost thirty years, through Alexander's ascension as Tsar in 1881 and until his death in 1894.
He became a member of the
Council of the Empire, and in 1880,
Chief Procurator
The Procurator (russian: прокурор, ''prokuror'') was an office initially established in 1722 by Peter the Great, the first Emperor of the Russian Empire, as part of reforms to bring the Russian Orthodox Church more directly under his contr ...
of the
Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox C ...
. In the latter office Pobedonostsev was operating head of the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
. During the reign of Alexander III, he was one of the most influential men in Imperial Russia. He was the mastermind of
Alexander's Manifesto of 29 April 1881. The Manifesto on Unshakeable Autocracy proclaimed that the
absolute power of the Tsar was unshakable thus putting an end to
Loris-Melikov's endeavours to establish a representative body in the empire.
Actually, Pobedonostsev's ascension in the first days after the assassination of Alexander II resulted in the subsequent resignation of Loris-Melikov and other ministers eager for liberal reforms. He always was an uncompromising conservative and never shrank from boldly expressing his staunch opinions. He also used his home as a meeting-place for monarchist terrorists who were conspiring, and where he issued a manifesto, with the approval of
Alexander the Second, demanding the abolishment of the constitutional movement: "Amid our affliction, the voice of God orders us to vigorously take the ruling power in our own hands..." He was chosen as a firm, severe hand to take over the universities after the
1899 mass student strikes. Consequently, in progressive circles he was always denounced as an
obscurantist
In philosophy, the terms obscurantism and obscurationism describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. There are two ...
, pedant, and an enemy of progress.
After the death of Alexander III, he lost much of his influence. Tsar Nicholas II adhered to his father's Russification policy and even extending it to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, but he generally disliked the idea of systematic religious persecution, and was not wholly averse to the partial emancipation of the Church from civil control.
On March 8, 1901, Nikolai Lagovsky, a socialist civil servant and statistician, tried to kill Pobedonostsev, shooting through the window of Pobedonostsev's office. He fired six times and all missed his target. Lagovsky said Pobedonostev, "spread superstition and ignorance among the people through church schools." Lagovski was sentenced to 6 years of
katorga
Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', "galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoner ...
.
He ordered
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
's
excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
in 1901.
During the
revolutionary tumult which followed the disastrous
war with Japan, Pobedonostsev, being nearly 80 years of age, retired from public affairs. He died on 23 March 1907.
He was fictionalized as old senator Ableukhov in
Andrey Bely
Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андре ...
's novel ''
Petersburg'' (1912). Arguably he was also depicted in
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
's ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writt ...
'' as Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin.
Jurisprudence
Though Pobedonostsev is mostly known as a statesman and thinker, his contribution to Russian
civil law is significant. He is generally regarded as one of the most educated European jurists of the 19th century. His main work was the three-volume "Course of Civil Law" (Курс гражданского права) published in 1868, 1871 and 1880, respectively.
Before the 1905 "
The First Revolution" the Course was reprinted several times with minor changes. The Course was regarded as outstanding guide for practising lawyers. Quotations from the Course are reported to have been used as a ground for decisions of the Civil Board of the Senate. The author's profound knowledge of Russian civil law resulted in description of many previously insufficiently explored institutions such as communal land law.
In addition, Pobedonostsev published in 1865 in ''
Moskovskie Vedomosti
''Moskovskiye Vedomosti'' ( rus, Моско́вские ве́домости, p=mɐˈskofskʲɪje ˈvʲedəməsʲtʲɪ; ''Moscow News'') was Russia's largest newspaper by circulation before it was overtaken by Saint Petersburg dailies in the m ...
'' several anonymous articles on the
judicial reform of Alexander II
The judicial reform of Alexander II is generally considered one of the most successful and consistent of all his reforms (along with the military reform). A completely new court system and order of legal proceedings were established. The main res ...
.
Doctrines and policies
Pobedonostsev held the view that human nature is sinful, rejecting the ideals of freedom and independence as dangerous delusions of nihilistic youth.
In his "Reflections of a Russian Statesman" (1896), he promoted autocracy and condemned elections, representation and democracy, the jury system, the press, free education, charities, and social reforms. He despised representative government, and denounced the notion of an all-Russian Parliament. He also condemned
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
as an erroneous generalisation of Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
In the early years of the reign of Alexander II, Pobedonostsev maintained, though keeping aloof from the
Slavophiles, that Western institutions were radically bad in themselves and totally inapplicable to Russia since they had no roots in Russian history and culture and did not correspond to the spirit of Russian people. In that period, he contributed several papers to
Alexander Herzen
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен, translit=Alexándr Ivánovich Gértsen; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism" and one of the main fathers of agra ...
's radical periodical ''Voices from Russia''.
He denounced democracy as "the insupportable dictatorship of vulgar crowd". He argued that parliaments, trial by jury, freedom of the press, and secular education were undesirable alien nostrums. He subjected all of them to a severe analysis in his ''Reflections of a Russian Statesman''. He once stated that Russia should be "frozen in time", showing his undivided commitment to autocracy.
To these dangerous products of Western thought he found a counterpoise in popular ''vis inertiae'', and in the respect of the masses for institutions developed slowly and automatically during the past centuries of national life. In his view, human society evolves naturally, just like a tree grows. The human mind is not able to perceive the logic of social development. Any attempt at reforming society is an act of violence and a crime. Among the practical deductions drawn from these premises is the necessity of preserving autocratic power, and of fostering among the people the traditional veneration for the ritual of the national Church.
In the sphere of practical politics Pobedonostsev exercised considerable influence in the
Russification
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
policy of Alexander III. This found expression in nationalist propaganda.
Antisemitism
Pobedonostsev particularly advised the anti-Jewish measures taken during Alexander III's administration. These began with the temporary "
May Laws
Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) were proposed by the minister of internal affairs Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev and enacted on 15 May (3 May O.S.), 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Originally, regulations of ...
" that banned Jews from rural areas and
shtetl
A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
s even within the
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
. The May Laws did not lapse; further policies led to deportations of Jews from large cities, enrollment quotas in public education, and a proscription against voting in local elections.
His anti-Jewish measures, at least, may have stemmed from a personal motive. British author Arnold White, interested in Jewish agricultural colonisation in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, visited Pobedonostsev with credentials from
Baron de Hirsch
Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (german: Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth; french: Maurice, baron de Hirsch de Gereuth; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch, was a German Jewish financier and phila ...
; Pobedonostsev said to him: "The characteristics of the Jewish race are parasitic; for their sustenance they require the presence of another race as "host" although they remain aloof and self-contained. Take them from the living organism, put them on a rock, and they die. They cannot cultivate the soil." He was also by 1894 credited (dubiously) with "a third of Jews will be converted, a third will emigrate, and the rest will die of hunger." (Russian: "Одна треть вымрет, одна выселится, одна треть бесследно растворится в окружающем населении")
Church policies
Pobedonostsev was not always a reactionary. He had originally welcomed the Great Reforms that Tsar Alexander II undertook in the 1860s-1870s. However, he soon became alarmed by the weakening of the rural estates and the tsarist bureaucracy. He decided that a deeper spiritual unity of the tsar and his people was needed to restore stability to Russia. When Alexander III ascended the throne in 1881, Pobedonostsev rapidly gained a powerful influence over the affairs of both church and state. To establish order he suppressed all reform efforts. The reforms of the 1860s had legalized the role of Protestant and other non-Orthodox religions. Pobedonostsev said Russia needed an Orthodox monopoly. However, he failed to win over the civil authorities, the judicial authorities, and the religious department in his struggle against the non-Orthodox. As a result, his policies, which were intended to unify, actually engendered dissension and violence and in the long run contributed to the collapse of the Russian Empire.
Pobedonostsev did develop a social program for the Church while limiting its autonomy. He imposed repressive measures against the non-Orthodox. He carried out major Church reforms, but they resulted in a church that by 1900 was enmeshed in bureaucracy, alienated in many ways from society, resentful of secular authorities, and divided internally. Stagnation in church and state policies prevailed until Pobedonostsev retired in 1905. In the long run, argues Polunov, Pobedonostsev's attempts to impose safe conservative barriers to reform and his hostility toward innovation served only to weaken the autocratic state from within.
[A. Iu. Polunov, "Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev—Man and Politician". ''Russian Studies in History'' 39.4 (2001): 8-32.]
Works
Reflections of a Russian Statesmanby Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev. Published by G. Richards, 1898.
** University of Michigan Press. 1964. .
"Russia and Popular Education" ''The North American Review,'' Vol. 173, No. 538, September 1901.
See also
*
Konstantin Leontiev
Konstantin Nikolayevich Leontiev, monastic name: Clement (russian: Константи́н Никола́евич Лео́нтьев; January 25, 1831 in Kudinovo, Kaluga Governorate – November 24, 1891 in Sergiyev Posad) was a conservative tsar ...
*
Ivan Delyanov
*
Mikhail Katkov
Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov (russian: Михаи́л Ники́форович Катко́в; 13 February 1818 – 1 August 1887) was a conservative Russian journalist influential during the reign of tsar Alexander III. He was a proponent of Rus ...
References and notes
Sources
*
Further reading
* Basil, John D. (1995) "Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev: An argument for a Russian state church". ''Church history'' 64#1 (1995): 44-61.
* Basil, John D. "K. P. Pobedonostsev and the Harmonius Society". ''Canadian-American Slavic Studies'' 37.4 (2003): 415-426.
* Basil, John D. ''Church & State in Late Imperial Russia: Critics of the Synodal System of Church Government (1861-1914)'' (2005).
* Byrnes, Robert (1968). ''Pobedonostsev: His Life and Thought,'' Indiana University Press, a standard scholarly biography.
* Byrnes, Robert (1969). ''Russian Conservative Thought Before the Revolution'', in:
**
*
Courtney, W.L. (1904)
"A Reactionary Statesman" In: ''The Development of M. Maeterlinck. ''London: Grant Richards, pp. 163–172.
* Polunov, A. Iu. "Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev—Man and Politician". ''Russian Studies in History'' 39.4 (2001): 8-32
online by a leading scholar
* Polunov, A. Iu. "Church, Regime, and Society in Russia (1880-1895)". ''Russian Studies in History'' 39.4 (2001): 33-53
online* Polunov, A. Iu. "The State and Religious Heterodoxy in Russia (from 1880 to the Beginning of the 1890s)". ''Russian Studies in History'' 39.4 (2001): 54-65.
* Polunov, A. Iu. "The Religious Department and the Uniate Question, 1881-1894." ''Russian Studies in History'' 39.4 (2001): 77-85
online* Pobedonostsev, Konstantin Petrovich. ''Reflections of a Russian statesman'' (1989
Online free* Shaposhnikov, Lev Evgenevich, and Sergei Nikolaevich Pushkin. "Orthodoxy as a basis for protective conservatism of KP Pobedonostsev." ''European Journal of Science and Theology'' 14.3 (2018): 157-164.
online
External links
Review of Pobedonostsev's doctrines(in Russian)
(in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pobedonostsev, Konstantin Petrovich
1827 births
1907 deaths
Lawyers from Moscow
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