Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich - Russian statesman. Biography, politics, death

July 15, 1904 on Izmailovsky Prospekt of St. Petersburg explosion. On that day, the terrorist bomb, thrown into the carriage, heading towards Tsarskoe Selo, was killed by the Minister of the Interior Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve. This murder became the next link in a long chain of crimes committed by Russian terrorist organizations , who saw in bloodshed the only way to build a new life.

Youth and years of study

The future head of the most important of the state ministries Plehve, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich was born in 1846 in a poor noble family, who lived in the Kaluga province. As a child, he was with the whole family in Warsaw, where he entered the gymnasium, but the uprising that broke out in 1863 forced them to return to their homeland.

In his native Kaluga, he graduated from high school, receiving a gold medal at the time of graduation. Further education, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich received already in Moscow, enrolling in the law faculty of the university. The natural abilities, as well as the diligence and accuracy inherited from his father (the German nobleman), helped him to finish his studies brilliantly in 1867 and, having a degree of candidate of law and rank of a college secretary, to get a position in the Moscow District Court.

Beginning of civil service

The next fourteen years Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich held various positions in the Ministry of Justice. Over the years, he had to get another appointment, several times to move from city to city, until, finally, fate brought a young lawyer to the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg. Here in 1879, as prosecutor of the Trial Chamber, a 33-year-old lawyer was seen by Emperor Alexander II and taken as a candidate for future vacancies.

However, in full measure Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich managed to realize himself after the hands of terrorists killed an emperor so benevolent towards him in 1881. Entered on the throne, Alexander III instructs Plehve to head the Department of State Police. At that time, when the country literally choked in the blood shed by militants of various terrorist organizations, this post could rightly be called a key one.

Head of the most important department

The Emperor was not mistaken in his choice. The newly appointed leader of the most important department used his powers to combat lawlessness in all its manifestations. His main success of that period was the rout of the Narodnaya Volya - representatives of the most active and ruthless anti-government group in Russia.

To monitor the activities of such structures, Pleve was able to create in the country an unprecedented network of secret agents for those times, being introduced into the ranks of combat organizations. This gave the police the opportunity to "play in advance" and rid the country of the many planned bloodshed by the militants. During the same period, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich takes part in the creation of a legislative base that allows more effective counteracting terror.

Next appointment

His work was properly appraised, and soon Pleve holds the post of deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a year later he is a real secret adviser. In view of the extraordinary circumstances prevailing in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich goes there as a state secretary. Here his activities covered all aspects of life. Much of their strength was laid on the streamlining of the work of the Finnish Senate, the drafting of the Charter of Military Service and the unification of the Grand Duchy with the Russian Empire.

Back in Petersburg

In 1902, after another high-profile crime committed by revolutionary terrorists and costing the life of Minister of Internal Affairs DS Sipyagin, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich was appointed in his place and returned to St. Petersburg. Here, in his subordination is the corps of gendarmes, with which he unfolds a comprehensive struggle against the opposition and revolutionary movements. Politics Plehve of that period is tough and uncompromising.

Thanks to his active measures, it was possible to localize peasant performances in several southern provinces, preventing them from escalating into large-scale popular unrest. When there was a need to make changes in the legal sphere of activity of the zemstvo councils, Plehve successfully fulfilled this task. Vyacheslav Konstantinovich, despite his busy schedule, combined his work with public work, becoming a member of the first Russian monarchical organization, The Russian Assembly.

Under the sights of terrorists

Despite the fact that, holding high state posts, Plehve, to the best of his ability, opposed the extreme manifestations of anti-Semitism, it was his revolutionary organizations of Russia who were accused of the series of Jewish pogroms that occurred in Chisinau in 1903. This served as an excuse for electing him as another victim of the attempt.

Murder of Plehve took over the militant cell of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who saw in terror the only effective means of solving social problems. The famous provocateur E. Azef led this action. According to his plan, the militants established a route through which the secret adviser regularly went to Tsarskoe Selo to report to the sovereign. On one of the sections of the road, the armed members of the organization had to wait for him. The day of the murder was appointed.

Tragedy on Izmailovsky Prospekt

After a series of postponements caused by organizational reasons, the conceived was carried out. The bomb was thrown by Yegor Sozonov, an SR and an undergraduated student, into the carriage of the minister. His photo ends the article. It happened on July 15, 1904 in St. Petersburg, near the Warsaw railway station. Already in prison and barely recovering from the wounds he received during the explosion, he wrote in his diary that he prayed to God only one thing: that his enemy did not survive.

After the tragic death of Vyacheslav Konstantinovich, his widow Zinaida Nikolaevna, who died in 1921, and two children - Nikolai's son, who, following the example of her father, became a lawyer, and her daughter Elizabeth, who married Senator NI Vuich, remained in exile.