Nikolay Vladimirovich Mezentsov (russian: Николай Владимирович Мезенцов; 24 April 1827 – 16 August 1878) was a

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, chief of police,

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(1871), and member of the

State Council of Imperial Russia The State Council ( rus, Госуда́рственный сове́т, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet) was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the ...

(1877), assassinated for having advocated harsh punishment against the constitutional movement.

Military career

Mezentsov began his military career in 1845. He participated in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

of 1853-1856. In 1864, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Gendarmery Corps; in 1874, Deputy Chief of Gendarmery; and finally, in 1876, Chief of Gendarmery and Chief of the " Third Department" (Третье отделение; Political Surveillance and Investigations Department) of

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Politics and assassination

Mezentsov was active during the famous

Trial of the 193 The Trial of the 193 was a series of criminal trials held in Russia in 1877-1878 under the rule of Tsar Alexander II. The defendants were 193 socialist students and other “revolutionaries” charged with populist “unrest” and propaganda again ...

, in which university students were threatened with treason charges for having committed "disobedience". Alexander the Second, considered by some to have been an enlightened monarch, gave light sentences, until Mezentsov, then Chief of State Police, suggested that they should be heavy sentences. The emperor changed the sentences to heavier ones, and in response, Mezentsov was assassinated in 1878 by Sergey Kravchinsky, a member of the revolutionary group Land and Liberty.

References

1827 births 1878 deaths Russian military personnel of the Crimean War Russian military leaders Assassinated politicians of the Russian Empire Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Russian monarchists {{Russia-bio-stub