Sergey Stepanovich Lanskoy (; - ) was the Russian Minister of the Interior from 1855 to 1861, being inaugurated during a reform-minded era and dismissed after the

Emancipation Reform of 1861 The emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, ( – "peasants' reform of 1861") was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. T ...

. He is known for being close friends with

Nikolay Milyutin Nikolay Alexeyevich Milyutin (; 6 June 1818 – 26 January 1872) was a Russian statesman remembered as the chief architect of the great liberal reforms undertaken during Alexander II's reign, including the emancipation of the serfs and the es ...

, who drafted the Russian Emancipation proclamation, and with his brother,

Dmitry Milyutin Count Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin (; – ) was a Russian Military history, military historian and politician who served as the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire, minister of war from 1861 to 1881. He was also the last Russian Field marshal ...

, who was serving as Minister of War.

Political career

In 1810, Lanskoy had joined a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

lodge, and held important positions until the closing decree of 1822. After this, he was a member of the ''Union of Prosperity'', but was out of it by the disturbances of 1825. His last known secret organization was the ''Theoretical Degree of the Order of the Golden-Rose Cross'', which also remained clandestine throughout his life. He was known particularly for being with the Freemasons and for being "with the Brothers" (the Milyutins) in Russian society. In this regard, he has also been connected multiple-times with

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and other Russian Liberals and Constitutionalists who had been involved in Masonic lodges. In the early 1850s, around 1852, Lanskoy had been involved with the reformation of the Russian prison system. He had rejected donations to the prison system for prisoners, until prisoner committees could be established, and then finally gave into the plan for a Krasnoyarsk Prisoners Society, to serve this purpose. In 1855, Lanskoy was behind an initiative to tell Europe about Russia in liberal and progressive hues, establishing ''Le Nord'' as a newspaper in Belgium to give air to these views. During a meeting of nobles in 1856, Lanskoy tried to persuade a group of nobles to voluntarily abolish serfdom, because "it would be in their interests to grant the serfs emancipation before the peasants rebelled..." (which is what actually happened) When Milyutin finally authored the Emancipation Proclamation for Russian serfs in 1861, just a year before Lanskoy's death, Lanksoy's place was considered important. Being born in the 1700s and having a prestigious military career, he "was the only representative of an earlier generation of Russian civil servants."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanskoy, Sergey 1788 births 1862 deaths People from Moscow Governorate Counts of the Russian Empire Interior ministers of the Russian Empire Senators of the Russian Empire Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Governors of Kostroma Governorate 19th-century diplomats of the Russian Empire Russian Freemasons Active Privy Councillor (Russian Empire) Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class