Mikhail Loris-Melikov
Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov | |
|---|---|
 An 1888 portrait of Loris-Melikov by Ivan Aivazovsky. | |
| Buried | Tbilisi, Georgia |
| Allegiance | Russian Empire |
| Service | Cavalry |
| Rank | General of the Cavalry |
| Unit | IX Russian Army Corps |
| Battles / wars | Caucasian War Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 |
Count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov (Template:Lang-ru, Georgian: მიხეილ ტარიელის ძე ლორის-მელიქიშვილი, Template:Lang-hy; January 1 [O.S. December 20, 1825] 1826 – December 22 [O.S. December 10] 1888) was a Russian-Armenian statesman, General of the Cavalry, and Adjutant General of the Svita.
Biography
Early life
Loris-Melikov was the son of an Armenian merchant whose lineage derived from the Meliks of Lori.[1] He was born in Tiflis, Georgia in 1825 or 1826, and educated in St Petersburg, first at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, and afterwards at the Guards' Cadet Institute. He joined a hussar regiment, and four years afterwards (1847) he was sent to the Caucasus, where he remained for more than twenty years, and made for himself during troublous times the reputation of a distinguished cavalry officer and an able administrator. In the latter capacity, though a keen soldier, he aimed always at preparing the warlike and turbulent population committed to his charge for the transition from military to normal civil administration, and in this work his favorite instrument was the schoolmaster.
Military career
In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, he commanded a separate corps d'armée on the Turkish frontier in Asia Minor. After taking the fortress of Ardahan, he was repulsed by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha at Zevin, but subsequently defeated his opponent at Ajaria, took Kars by storm, and laid siege to Erzerum. For these services he received the title of Count. He was awarded the Order of Saint George of the second degree on October 27 1877 for his service in Ajaria.
Civil administrator
In the following year, Loris-Melikov became the temporary governor-general of the region of the Lower Volga to combat an outbreak of the plague. The measures he adopted proved so effectual that he was transferred to the provinces of Central Russia to combat the Nihilists and Anarchists, who had adopted a policy of terrorism, and had succeeded in assassinating the governor of Kharkov.[2]
His success in this struggle led to his appointment as chief of the Supreme Administrative Commission which had been created in St Petersburg after the February 1880 assassination attempt on the tsar to deal with the revolutionary agitation in general.[3] Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extra-legal measures, and an attempt on his own life soon after he assumed office did not shake his convictions. In his opinion the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent, and for this purpose he recommended to the emperor Alexander II a large scheme of administrative and economic reforms. Alexander, who was beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the simple method of police repression hitherto employed, lent a willing ear to the suggestion; and when the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers.[4]
The proposed scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand, but it was never carried out. On the very day (13 March 1881) that the emperor signed a ukase creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, who should prepare reforms in various branches of the administration, he was assassinated by Nihilist conspirators; and his successor, Alexander III, at once adopted a strongly reactionary policy. Count Loris-Melikov didn't immediately resign but when the new Emperor started to undo some of the reforms that his father, Alexander II had promulgated, Count Loris-Melikov resigned several months later and lived in retirement until his death, which took place at Nice on 22 December 1888.[5]
Notes
- ^ Radzinsky, Edvard (2006). Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. Translated by Antonina Bouis. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 351. ISBN 0-7432-8426-7.
- ^ Frank, Joseph (2003). Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-6911-1569-9.
- ^ Moss, Walter Gerald (2005). A History Of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. Anthem Series Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. London: Anthem Press. p. 38. ISBN 1-8433-1034-1.
- ^ Kappeler, Andreas (2001). The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. London: Longman. p. 301. ISBN 0-5822-3415-8.
- ^ Moss. History Of Russia, p. 45.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
External links
- 1825 births
- 1888 deaths
- People from Tbilisi
- Russian nobility
- Law enforcement in Russia
- Imperial Russian politicians
- Interior ministers of Russia
- Members of the State Council of the Russian Empire
- People of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
- Russian Armenians
- Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian)
- Recipients of the Order of Saint George II Class
- Recipients of the Order of Saint George III Class
- Recipients of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called