Nikolai Dmitriyevich Golitsyn
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Prince Nikolai Dmitriyevich Golitsyn (russian: Никола́й Дми́триевич Голи́цын; 12 April 1850 – 2 July 1925) was a Russian aristocrat, monarchist and the last prime minister of
Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
. He was in office from 29 December 1916 ( O.S.) or 9 January 1917 ( N.S.) until his government resigned after the outbreak of 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 ...
.


Biography

Golitsyn was born in Porechye, a village in the
Moscow Governorate Moscow Governorate (russian: Московская губерния; pre-reform Russian: ), or the Government of Moscow, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR, which ...
near Mozhaisk, into the noble Golitsyn family. His father was Dmitry Borisovich Golitsyn (1803–1864) who came from Bolshiye Vyazyomy, the family estate. Nikolai passed his childhood in the
Dorogobuzhsky District Dorogobuzhsky District (russian: Дорогобу́жский райо́н) is an administrativeResolution #261 and municipalLaw #107-z district (raion), one of the twenty-five in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the center of the oblast. ...
. He graduated from the Imperial Alexander Lyceum in 1871 and entered the Ministry of the Interior, where he was appointed to the Łomża Governorate (
Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
). He became vice-governor of Archangelsk (1879); vice-director of the Economics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (1884); Governor of the guberniyas of Arkhangelsk (1885),
Kaluga Kaluga ( rus, Калу́га, p=kɐˈɫuɡə), a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast in Russia, stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiol ...
(1893), and Tver (1897). He was appointed
senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
in 1903. As a plenipotentiary of the Red Cross in
Turgay Turgay is a Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkis ...
and
Uralskaya Oblast The Ural Oblast (russian: Уральская область) was an oblast of the RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Соц ...
s and Saratov Governorate he organized aid for famine-stricken areas (1907–1908). He was a member of the
State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
(1912) and chairman of the commission to render assistance to the Russian prisoners of war abroad (1915). He was a deputy chairman of one of Empress Alexandra's charity commissions.


Prime minister

On 25 December he was invited by the Empress for an interview, but received by the Tsar. A hesitating prince Golitsyn did not want to succeed prime minister Alexander Trepov, insisted on the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Protopopov and begged
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 Pola ...
to cancel his appointment, citing his lack of preparation for the role of prime minister. The Tsar refused, but Pavel Ignatieff, Alexander Makarov and Dmitry Shuvayev were replaced; Nikolai Dobrovolsky was appointed. The Council of Ministers of Russia officially met once or twice a week (seven meetings in January, six in February). The main concern of the government was "food and transport." The most important thing, according to Prince Golitsyn, was the convocation of the Duma and the desire to work together with it and somehow make this work possible. The government discussed the timeframe for resuming the Duma sessions: it was originally scheduled to open on 12 January, then - on 31 January, but in the end, it was postponed until 14 February. Protopopov, who excused himself many times and did not attend the meetings, suggested dissolution or postponing the Duma even further. Despite being the oldest member of the Council (Golitsyn was 66, while the others were 36 to 63 years old), he was not a leader. (His advanced years led him to regularly fall asleep during State Council meetings.) In January 1917 two rival institutions, the Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, competed for power. On 8 February, at the wish of the Tsar,
Nikolay Maklakov Nikolay Alexeyevich Maklakov (9 September 1871 – 5 September 1918) (N.S.) was a Chamberlain of the Imperial court, a Russian monarchist, and a prominent right-wing statesman. He was a governor in the Ukrain and state councillor who served as ...
, together with Protopopov ..., drafted the text of the manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma (cancelled and scheduled to resume on 14 February 1917). On 14 February mass demonstrations broke out. On 15 February
Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early Novembe ...
made a speech in the Duma that almost called for the assassination of the emperor. A week later the demonstrations on Nevsky Prospekt became more serious. On 25th members of the government gathered at Golitsyn's apartment at Konnogvardeyskiy Bul'var, 13.
Belyaev Belyayev (masculine) or Belyayeva (feminine) is a Russian patronymic surname derived from the nickname Belyay/Belyai (Беляй), for white (blond) hair. The surname may refer to: ;People *Alexander Belyaev, Russian author of science fiction * An ...
suggested his colleagues remove Protopopov from his post, as he saw in him the main cause of unrest. On 26 February, the Tsar ordered the army to suppress the rioting by force, but troops began to mutiny, joined the protesters, and demanded a new constitutional government. In the evening the meeting of the Duma was prorogued, although Golitsyn and Pokrovsky opposed its dissolution. Golitsyn used a (signed, but not yet dated
ukaze In Imperial Russia, a ukase () or ukaz (russian: указ ) was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader (patriarch) that had the force of law. "Edict" and "decree" are adequate translations using the terminology and concepts ...
which had been given to Trepov) declaring that his Majesty had decided to interrupt the
Imperial Duma The State Duma, also known as the Imperial Duma, was the lower house of the Governing Senate in the Russian Empire, while the upper house was the State Council. It held its meetings in the Taurida Palace in St. Petersburg. It convened four times ...
until 1 April, leaving it with no legal authority to act. The deputies refused to leave and a private body of Duma members was formed to help restore order.


Downfall and execution

The Council of Ministers met the evening of 27 February and submitted its resignation to the Emperor, asking Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich to temporarily act as regent, which he refused. Following Nicholas's decision to abdicate, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma ordered former ministers and senior officials arrested. Golitsyn was arrested by police and transferred to 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 ...
for interrogation, where he was starved and tortured, then released on 13 March. On 21 April he was again arrested by police and interrogated by the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry of the Provisional Government. After the assumption of power by the Bolsheviks, Golitsyn was allowed to leave but decided to stay in Russia, earning his living by repairing shoes in Moscow or Petrograd and guarding vegetable gardens in Rybinsk. During the period from 1920 to 1924 he was twice arrested by the
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...
, on the suspicion of connection with counterrevolutionaries. After his third arrest (on 12 February 1925), he was executed on 2 July 1925 in Leningrad on the charge of participating in a "counter-revolutionary monarchist organization".


Family

Prince Nikolai Golitsyn married in Saint Petersburg on 7 April 1881 Evgenia Andrejevna von Grünberg (Saint-Petersburg, 18 April 1864 - Nice, 18 July 1934). The couple had six children: *Prince Dimitri Nikolayevich (Archangelsk, 1882 - Nice, 1928), married Frances Simpson Stevens *Prince Nikolai Nikolayevich (Archangelsk, 1883 - executed at Solovki, 1931) *Prince Alexander Nikolayevich (St. Petersburg, 1885 - Toulon, 1974), in exile married the Imperial Princess Marina Petrovna of Russia, daughter of
Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia (Russian: Пётр Никола́евич Рома́нов; 22 January Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._10_January.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New ...
. *Prince Evgeni Nikolayevich (Archangelsk, 1888 - Paris, 1928) *Princess Sofia Nikolayevna (1886 - 1891) *Princess Olga Nikolayevna (1891 - 1892)


References


Sources

* Igor SHUMEYKO The last prime of the empire * V.I. Gurko
Features And Figures Of The Past. Government And Opinion In The Reign Of Nicholas II.
* Massie, Robert K., '' Nicholas and Alexandra'', New York, Ballantine Books, 1967, . * Smith, Douglas, Former People: the Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Golitsyn, Nikolai 1850 births 1925 deaths People from Mozhaysky Uyezd Russian nobility Nikolai Russian monarchists Heads of government of the Russian Empire Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Russian people executed by the Soviet Union Executed prime ministers Russian princes