Nikolay Alexeyevich Maklakov (9 September 1871 – 5 September 1918) (N.S.) was a

Chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

of the Imperial court, a Russian

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

, and a prominent right-wing statesman. He was a governor in the Ukrain and

state councillor A state councillor () is a high-ranking position within the State Council, the executive organ of the Chinese government (comparable to a cabinet). It ranks immediately below the Vice-Premiers and above the ministers of various departments. ...

who served as Russia's Interior Minister from 16 December 1912 – 5 June 1915. His older brother, Vasily Maklakov was a famous lawyer and liberal deputy in the State Duma (Russian Empire); his younger brother was an ophthalmologist.

Biography

Nikolay was the son of an eye doctor in Moscow. He graduated from the historical-philological faculty of

Imperial Moscow University Imperial Moscow University was one of the oldest universities of the Russian Empire, established in 1755. It was the first of the twelve imperial universities of the Russian Empire. History of the University Ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonoso ...

(1893). The following year, he started to work for the Ministry of Finance. In 1893 he married Princess Marie L.

Obolensky {{For, the rural localities in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, Obolenskoye The House of Obolensky (russian: Оболенский) is the name of a princely Russian family of the Rurik dynasty. The family of aristocrats mostly fled Russia in 1917 during the ...

(30 April 1874,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

- 25 September 1949,

Menen Menen (; french: Menin ; vls, Mêenn or ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Menen proper and the towns of Lauwe and Rekkem. The city is situated on the French/Be ...

). On 7 June 1909 he was appointed acting Governor of

Chernigov Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within t ...

. The Emperor appointed him on 16 December 1912 as manager in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The appointment took place, despite the stubborn resistance of the chairman of the

Russian Council of Ministers The Russian Council of Ministers is an executive governmental council that brings together the principal officers of the Executive Branch of the Russian government. This includes the chairman of the government and ministers of federal government de ...

Vladimir Kokovtsov Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Kokovtsov (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Коко́вцов; – 29 January 1943) was a Russian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Russia from 1911 to 1914, during the reign of Empe ...

, who, not without reason, feared that Maklakov, closely associated with influential right-wing of prince

Vladimir Meshchersky Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky (11 January 1839 – 23 July 1914) was a Russian journalist and novelist who, throughout his career, wielded significant political clout. He was the grandson of historian Nikolay Karamzin. A strong support ...

, would prevent the government's liberal policies. He was a member of the

Union of the Russian People The Union of the Russian People (URP) (russian: Союз русского народа, translit=Soyuz russkogo naroda; СРН/SRN) is a loyalist far-right nationalist political party, the most important among Black-Hundredist monarchist politic ...

and friendly with

Vladimir Dzhunkovsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Dzhunkovsky (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Джунковский, , Saint Petersburg - February 21, 1938, Moscow) was a Russian statesman. He held the posts of the Governor of Moscow Gubernia and the Governor-G ...

. On 21 February 1913, Nikolay Maklakov was appointed as Minister of Interior. In his new position, Maklakov actively supported the monarchist movement. His reaction to the Siberian goldfield strike, ending in the Lena massacre, and believed to have made revolutionary feeling widespread in Russia for the first time, was "So it was. So it will be."Simon Sebag Montefiore, ''Young Stalin'', p. 210 Like his brother the lawyer he was involved in the Beilis case but on the opposite side. Nikolay Maklakov prohibited the celebration of the poet

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...

. The Minister pushed through the legislative establishment of 150 bills, including on the transformation of the police, the press, the

zemstvo A ''zemstvo'' ( rus, земство, p=ˈzʲɛmstvə, plural ''zemstva'' – rus, земства) was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexande ...

, on the transformation of the statistical section of the Ministry, and the second General census of the population. (In May 1915, the anti-German mood in Moscow reached a provisional high point.) In June, Maklakov was forced to resign accused of supporting a peace with Germany. In December 1916, he appealed with a letter to the Tsar, in which he persuaded him to adopt a more rigid course, and to delay the resumption of sessions of the Duma to a later period. Maklakov was one of the few dignitaries, taken on the eve of the February 1917 real steps to prevent the

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. The Emperor instructed Maklakov and

Alexander Protopopov Alexander Dmitrievich Protopopov (; 18 December 1866 – 27 October 1918) was a Russian publicist and politician who served as Minister of the Interior from September 1916 to February 1917. Protopopov became a leading liberal politician in Rus ...

on 8 February 1917 to prepare a Manifesto on the dissolution of the Imperial State Duma. On 28 February, Maklakov was arrested, and almost torn to pieces when he was taken to prison. He remained in

Kresty prison Kresty (russian: Кресты, literally ''Crosses'') prison, officially Investigative Isolator No. 1 of the Administration of the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments for the city of Saint Petersburg (Следственный изо� ...

and was able to leave every now then the hospital until his death by firing squad in a public execution in Moscow's Petrovsky Park. His younger brother Alexey disappeared in the same year. His children escaped or fled to their uncle Vasily in Paris and participated in the

White army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...

.Мягкий человек твёрдых убеждений
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maklakov, Nikolay 1871 births 1918 deaths Russian monarchists Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia