Konstantin Pobedonostsev

Konstantin Pobedonostsev was born in 1827 in Moscow, in a family of a Russian Orthodox priest who was also a professor of literature. He studied law at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg and then entered the public service as an official in the Senate. He also taught civil law at Moscow University and wrote several works on the history and theory of Russian law. In 1861, he was invited by Tsar Alexander II to tutor his son and heir, Nicholas, in law and administration. He later became the tutor of Nicholas's brother, Alexander, who succeeded to the throne as Alexander III in 1881. Pobedonostsev became a close adviser and confidant of Alexander III, who shared his conservative and orthodox views. He was appointed as the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod, the chief lay administrator of the Russian Orthodox Church, in 1880. He held this position until 1905, exerting a great influence on the religious and educational policies of the empire. He opposed any reforms that would weaken the autocracy of the tsar or the authority of the church. He supported the persecution of religious minorities, such as Jews, Catholics, and Old Believers. He also advocated censorship, Russification, and the suppression of liberal and revolutionary movements. He was one of the main architects of the anti-Semitic May Laws of 1882, which restricted the civil rights and economic activities of the Jewish population. He also defended the pogroms that occurred in the 1880s and 1890s, blaming the Jews for provoking them. He was a staunch opponent of the emancipation of the serfs, the introduction of local self-government (zemstvo), the expansion of education, and the development of civil society. He wrote a series of essays, Reflections of a Russian Statesman, in which he expressed his political philosophy and his vision of Russia as a unique and organic entity that should resist the corrupting influences of Western liberalism and democracy. He believed that the Russian people were naturally loyal, obedient, and religious, and that they needed the guidance and protection of the tsar and the church. He considered the parliament, the constitution, the jury system, and the press as alien and harmful institutions that would only create chaos and disorder in Russia. He also denounced the idea of human rights as a fiction and a fraud. He was a mentor and a role model for Nicholas II, who ascended to the throne in 1894 after the death of Alexander III. He continued to advise Nicholas II until the Revolution of 1905, which he blamed on the weakness and incompetence of the government. He was forced to resign from his post as Ober-Procurator in October 1905, after the tsar issued the October Manifesto, which granted some civil liberties and a legislative assembly (Duma) to the Russian people. He retired from public life and spent his last years in France, where he died in 1907. He is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the late imperial Russia.