• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

FEATURES AND FIGURES OF THE PAST V.I. Gurko Vladimir Gurko, coming from a family which gave distinguished service to the Russian empire, entered public service after graduating from the Moscow Uni­ versity at the age of 23. Early in the reign of Nicholas II he was appointed to the Imperial Chancellery and in 1902 was ap­ pointed Manager of the Peasant Section and later Assistant Minister of the In­ terior. He was gifted and brilliant, a clever, energetic and extraordinarily hard-work­ ing bureaucrat, and his ability was early recognized by his contemporaries. Writ­ ing of his first speech as government spokesman on the agrarian question, Sen­ ator Glinka recalls: "The unsuccessful speeches of the government representa­ tives before the noisy assembly, the feel-. ing of bewilderment, the crushing con­ fusion-and then V. I. Gurka's speech. I remember his slight stature, his loud, harsh voice. Every sentence was charged with feeling, with a biting sarcasm. • • • The sweeping fire of his eloquence re­ vealed him to be a capable parliamentary fighter. This speech proved his outstand- ing political genius." - This is the man who from first-hand experience gives us this inside story of the Russian government, its leading personali­ ties, and its relations with the Russian public from the accession of Nicholas II to the eve of the Revolution of 1917. From personal observation the author describes the composition and activities of such in­ stitutions as the State Council, the Impe­ rial Chancellery, the various ministries, and the State Duma; he makes revealing characterizations of such influential fig­ ures of the time as Witte, Plehve, Stoly­ pin, Durnovo, Kokovtsov, Goremykin, and many others, and discusses their relations (Continued on back flap of jacket) The Hoover Library on War, Revolution, and Peace Publication No. 14 Features and Figures of the Past PUBLISHED UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE HOOVER LIBRARY ON WAR, REVOLUTION, AND PEACE VLADIMIR IOSIFOVICH GURKO The Hoover Library on War, Revolution, and .Peace Publication No. 14 FEATURES AND FIGURES OF THE PAST GOVERNMENT AND OPINION IN THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS II By V.I. GURKO. Late Assistant Minister of the Interior and Member of the Russian State Council Edited by J. E. WALLACE STERLING XENIA JOUKOFF EUDIN H. H. FISHER Translated by LAURA MATVEEV 1939 STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS THE BAitER AND TAYLOR COMPANY 55 FIFrH AVENUE, NEW YORE THE MARUZEN COMPANY TOX::YO, OSAKA, KYOTO, SENDAI COPYRIGHT 1939 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED &TATES ' OF AMERICA BY STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS EDITOR'S PREFACE LADIMIR IosiFOVICH GuRKO came of a family which gave distinguished service to the Russian Empire. His grand­ V father, V. I. Gurka, was an officer in the Napoleonic wars. His father, Field Marshal I. V. Gurka (1828-1901), was one of the principal Russian commanders in the ~usso-Turkish War of 1877- 78 and was later Governor-General and Commander of the Troops in Poland. The author's maternal grandmother, Countess Sailhas de Tournemire (Elizaveta Vasilievna Sukhevo-Kobylina), con­ tributed under the name Evgenia Tur to Sovremennik, Russkii Vest­ nik, and Russkaia Rech, and wrote a number of novels. She was the friend of Granovsky, Turgenev, Afanasiev, and other l~terary figures of the mid-century. His brother, General Vasilii Iosifovich Gurka,_ held many important posts during the World War, including those of Acting Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Commander of the Western Group of Armies. In 1885, at the age of twenty-three, V. I. Gurko graduated from Moscow University, and immediately entered public service in Poland, first as commissioner for rural affairs and later as an as­ sistant to his father, the Governor-General in Warsaw. In these first years of his career Gurka showed the direction of his interest and the bent of his mind. With characteristic energy he turned to the study of agrarian problems, publishing in 1887 Dvorianskoe zemlevladenie v sviazi s mestnoi reformoi ("Nobility Landowner­ ship in Connection with Local Reform"), and ten years later Ocherki Privisliania ("Sketches of the Vistula Region"). Early in the reign of Nicholas II, Gurko was appointed to the Imperial Chancellery, an institution which had been the training school of many Russian statesmen and in which he had the oppor­ tunity to observe the working and membership of the State Council, which he here so effectively describes. Gurko's ability was recog­ nized by the head of the Chancellery, the then Imperial Secretary, V. K. Plehve, but his developing bureaucratic career did not turn Gurka from his interest in peasant and agrarian affairs. On the large estates owned by his wife in Voronezh Gubernia he carried on a model farm, studied at first hand the conditions of life and the problems of the peasants, and in 1902 published Ustoi v vi FEATURES AND FIGURES OF THE PAST narodnago khoziaistva Rossii ("Principles of People's Eco1wmy of Russid'). When Plehve became Minister of the Interior in 1902 he ap­ pointed Gurko Manager of the Peasant Section. This appointment was significant, for at the time the government was devoting par­ ticular attention to the problems of agriculture and the condition of the peasants. In this office, and later as Assistant Minister of the Interior, Gurko took a prominent part in discussions, interministe­ rial conferences, and the formulation of projects relating to rural administration and agrarian reforms. But his opportunities to ob- , serve the involved process of Imperial Government were not, of course, confined to this important question. From such an advan­ tageous post of observation in the ministry most influential in the direction of government policy, Gurko saw the rise and fall of the political fortunes of Witte, Plehve, Sviatopolk-Mirsky, Durnovo, and Goremykin, and he noted the personal traits and contributions of many less-known figures. He saw the blundering progress of Russia's costly adventure in the Far East and the fumbling meas­ ures to meet the rising tide of unrest among peasants, workers, and liberals. With his keen mind, his talent for character portrayal, and, it may be added, an eye for the frailties of human nature, Gurko brings to life the scene of the historic years 1902-1906- the clash of personalities and opinions, and the struggle to control and guide the tremendous forces in the social and economic life of the country. One of the high points of Gurko's public career at this time was his appearance in the First Duma as government spokesman on the agrarian question. Writing of this occasion, Senator G. V. Glinka recalls: "The unsuccessful speeches of the government rep­ resentatives before the noisy assembly, the feeling of bewilderment, the crushing confusion-and then V. I. Gurko's speech. I re­ member his slight stature, his loud, harsh voice. Every sentence was charged with feeling, with a biting sarcasm. The sweep­ ing fire of his eloquence revealed him to be a capable parliamentary fighter.- This speech proved his outstanding political genius, but at the same time it aroused great jealousy among those who sided with him and was never forgotten by his political foes." In 1906 Gurko published his fourth book, Otryvochnyia mysli po agrarnomu voprosu ("Random Thoughts on the Agrarian Ques­ tion"). In the same year his bureaucratic career ended when he was EDITOR'S PREFACE vii I I charged with having exceeded his authority in making with a cer- tain Lidval, who failed to carry out his agreement, a contract to supply grain to regions experiencing an acute food shortage. Gurka's political adversaries and the opposition parties in general naturally made the most of this affair; but there were many, in­ cluding some of other political camps, who believed that injustice had been done. Referring to this affair, P. B. Struve later wrote: "Although I did not know Gurko personally, my conscience has long prompted me to see the injustice of this accusation. Gurka's path, it seems, somehow crossed that of P. A. Stolypin. In reality they were pursuing the same aim and were permeated with the same spirit. But their personal ways crossed and the historical flow of events carried Stolypin forward and pushed Gurko back. But fate was not just to Gurko, and the fact should be remembered that 'Stolypin's work,' aiming at a Russian peas­ antry strongly settled on the land, was helped by the gifted and brilliant Gurko. The historian who studies the documents will rec­ ognize the role and significance of Stolypin's land reform and of Stolypin himself and of Gurko, and lastly, of the partial realization of their program by A. V. Krivoshein. It remains to state, .... that from a purely historical point of view these three names should be recorded together." Gurka's forced retirement from the government service did not end his public life. In 1909 he published Nashe gosudarsvennoe i narodnoe khoziaistvo ("Our State and People's Economy"). Dur­ ing this year also he returned to live on his family estate in Tver Gubernia, to begin what was in fact a new career as a member of the zemstvo. In this he faced a difficult situation. Not only was he a former bureaucrat-and all bureaucrats were regarded with sus­ picion by the zemstvo men-but he had been one of the most forth­ right critics of the policies of the Cadet party, and this party was very strong throughout the Tver zemstvo organizations. Gurlro ' threw himself into provincial work with energy and intelligence, and so successfully overcame local and party prejudice that in 1912 his election to the Fourth State Duma was prevented only by pressure from St.

Load more

  57

Copy Link