1.
Prime Minister of Russia
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The official residence of the prime minister is Gorki-9 in Odintsovsky District, Moscow Oblast, but his working residence is in Moscow. Under Article 24 of the Federal Constitutional Law On the Government of the Russian Federation, the Russian Prime Minister is considered the second highest position in the government, after the President. Due to the role of the President of Russia in the political system. The use of the term Prime Minister is strictly informal and is never used by the Russian Constitution, Federal Laws, the current prime minister is Dmitry Medvedev of United Russia, who was appointed on May 8,2012. Since the office evolved rather than being created, it may not be totally clear-cut who was the first Prime Minister. However, these bodies had been only Advisory functions, and had no independence, the office of Chairman of those bodies were more decorative and do not bear any responsibility, besides, simultaneously the position of Chairman could hold several people. For example, from 1726 to 1727, the government headed by six people simultaneously, Alexander Menshikov, Fyodor Apraksin, Gavriil Golovkin, Andrey Osterman, Dmitry Golitsyn and Pyotr Tolstoy. From 1905 to 1917, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the modern post of Prime Minister appeared in 1905, after the transformation of the Committee of Ministers to the Council of Ministers. 6 November 1905, Sergei Witte was appointed the first Prime Minister of Russia, the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, lasted 12 years, during this time,7 people took this post. The position was abolished after the Russian revolution, the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, during the Russian Provisional Government in 1917, the official title of the prime minister was Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government. This position was held by two people, Georgy Lvov and Alexander Kerensky. The position lasted about six months, and after the October Revolution, was replaced by Chairman of the Council of peoples Commissars of the Russian SFSR. In the era of the Soviet Union, the head of government was the Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, people who held those positions are sometimes referred to as the prime ministers. They may have also referred to as Premier of Ministers. Currently, the title is the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. After the election of Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, the head of the government was personally Yeltsin and he headed the Russian SFSR Council of Ministers about six months. In fact, Yeltsin was the first Head of Government of Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after Yeltsin, Acting Prime Minister became Yegor Gaidar, but the Russian Supreme Soviet refused to approve him as Prime Minister. 14 December 1992, the Prime Minister was appointed Viktor Chernomyrdin, in general, the Prime Minister serves more of an administrative role, nominating members of the Cabinet and implementing domestic policy
2.
Nicholas II of Russia
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Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic, Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to influence in the Middle East. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation on 30 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and it is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in World War I. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, Nicholas, the recovered remains of the Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg, eighty years to the day on 17 July 1998. In 1981, Nicholas, his wife and their children were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, located in New York City. On 15 August 2000 Nicholas and his family were canonized as passion bearers, Nicholas was born in the Alexander Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. He had five siblings, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael. Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexanders death in 1894 and he was also very close to his mother, as revealed in their published letters to each other. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish descent, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Nicholas was related to several monarchs in Europe. His mothers siblings included Kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of Greece, Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin-once-removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish between them the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha and Nicholas the Tall, while the Tsar was Nicholas the Short. In his childhood, Nicholas, his parents and siblings made annual visits to the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff to visit his grandparents, the king and queen. The visits also served as family reunions, as his mothers siblings would come from the United Kingdom, Germany. It was there in 1883, that he had a flirtation with one of his English first cousins, in 1873, Nicholas also accompanied his parents and younger brother, two-year-old George, on a two-month, semi-official visit to England. In London, Nicholas and his family stayed at Marlborough House, as guests of his Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, the Prince and Princess of Wales, where he was spoiled by his uncle
3.
Pyotr Stolypin
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Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, chairman of the Council of Ministers, served as Prime Minister, and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to counter revolutionary groups and by the implementation of agrarian reforms. Stolypin was a monarchist and hoped to strengthen the throne and he is considered one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with clearly defined public policies and the determination to undertake major reforms. Stolypin seems to have born in Dresden on 14 April 1862. Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin, his father, was a general in the Russian artillery, Pyotr grew up on the family estate Serednikovo, once inhabited by Mikhail Lermontov, and near Moscow. From 1869, Stolypin spent his years in Kalnaberžė manor, built by his father. In 1876, the Stolypin family moved to Vilnius, where he studied at the grammar school. In 1879 the family moved to Oryol, Stolypin and his brother Aleksandr studied at the Oryol Boys College where he was described by his teacher, B. Fedorova as ‘standing out amongst his peers for his rationalism and character. ’ In 1881 he studied agriculture at St. Petersburg University where one of his teachers was Dmitri Mendeleev. He entered government service upon graduating in 1885, writing his thesis on tobacco growing in the south of Russia and it is unclear if he joined the Ministry of State Property or Internal Affairs. Stolypin served as marshal of the Kovno Governorate between 1889 and 1902 and this public service gave him an inside view of local needs and allowed him to develop administrative skills. He was fascinated by the lifestyle of the Northwestern Krai and sought to propagate their privately owned. Stolypin’s service in Kovno was recognised as a success by the Russian government – he was promoted seven times, four of his daughters were also born during this period – his daughter Maria recalled “this was the most calm period his life”. In 1884, Stolypin married Olga Borisovna Neidhart – whose family was of a similar standing to Stolypin’s and they married whilst Stolypin was still a student – an uncommon occurrence at the time. The marriage began in tragic circumstances, Olga had been engaged to Stolypin’s brother, Mikhail and their marriage was a happy one, devoid of scandal, the couple had five daughters and one son. In May 1902 Stolypin was appointed governor in Grodno, where he was the youngest person appointed to this position. In February 1903 he became governor of Saratov, Stolypin is known for suppressing strikers and peasant unrest in January 1905. According to Orlando Figes its peasants were among the poorest and most rebellious in the whole of the country and it seems he cooperated with the zemstvos, the local government
4.
Ivan Goremykin
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Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin was a conservative Russian politician who served as Prime Minister in 1906, and from 1914–1916, during World War I. He was the last person to have the rank of Active Privy Councillor. He was born on 8 November 1839 into a noble family, in 1860 he completed studies at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence and became a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. In the Senate Goremykin became responsible for agriculture in Congress Poland, in 1866 he was appointed as vice governor in Płock and 1869 in Kielce. In 1891 he was appointed as deputy minister of justice, considered being an expert on the peasant question, within a year he moved to the Ministry of the Interior, becoming Minister from 1895-1899. He was apparently well liked by the Empress Alexandra, in 1897 Vladimir Chertkov, a leading member of the Tolstoyan movement, was banned by Goremykin or his ministry. While heading the Interior Ministry he submitted a proposal to the Tsar advocating administrative reform, faced with opposition to the program, he left the position in 1899. In April 1906, Sergei Witte, a reformist, was succeeded by Goremykin and he was replaced by his Minister of Interior, the younger and more forceful Peter Stolypin. Called back to service by the Tsar, he served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from April 1914 to February 1916. Vladimir Kokovtsov was replaced by the decrepit and absent-minded Goremykin, seventy-five years of age, a conservative, and a life-long bureaucrat, he was, in his own words, ‘pulled like a winter coat out of mothballs, ’ to lead the government. The hostility expressed toward him by members of both the State Duma and the Council of Ministers greatly impaired the effectiveness of his government. When Nicholas II decided to direct command of the army, Goremykin and Alexander Krivoshein begged the Tsar not to lead the army. All the ministers realized that the change would put the Empress and Rasputin in charge, Goremykin urged the Council to endorse the decision. When they refused, Goremykin told the Tsar that he was not fitted and asked to be replaced with a man of modern views. He held a hostile attitude towards the Imperial Duma and the Progressive Bloc and his wish for retirement was granted at the beginning of February 1916, when he was replaced by Boris Stürmer. Stürmer was not opposed to the convening of the Duma, as Goremykin had been, in May Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his datcha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a raid, together with his wife, his daughter. Goremykins conservatism and inability to function in a system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia
5.
Ivan Logginovich Goremykin
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Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin was a conservative Russian politician who served as Prime Minister in 1906, and from 1914–1916, during World War I. He was the last person to have the rank of Active Privy Councillor. He was born on 8 November 1839 into a noble family, in 1860 he completed studies at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence and became a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. In the Senate Goremykin became responsible for agriculture in Congress Poland, in 1866 he was appointed as vice governor in Płock and 1869 in Kielce. In 1891 he was appointed as deputy minister of justice, considered being an expert on the peasant question, within a year he moved to the Ministry of the Interior, becoming Minister from 1895-1899. He was apparently well liked by the Empress Alexandra, in 1897 Vladimir Chertkov, a leading member of the Tolstoyan movement, was banned by Goremykin or his ministry. While heading the Interior Ministry he submitted a proposal to the Tsar advocating administrative reform, faced with opposition to the program, he left the position in 1899. In April 1906, Sergei Witte, a reformist, was succeeded by Goremykin and he was replaced by his Minister of Interior, the younger and more forceful Peter Stolypin. Called back to service by the Tsar, he served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from April 1914 to February 1916. Vladimir Kokovtsov was replaced by the decrepit and absent-minded Goremykin, seventy-five years of age, a conservative, and a life-long bureaucrat, he was, in his own words, ‘pulled like a winter coat out of mothballs, ’ to lead the government. The hostility expressed toward him by members of both the State Duma and the Council of Ministers greatly impaired the effectiveness of his government. When Nicholas II decided to direct command of the army, Goremykin and Alexander Krivoshein begged the Tsar not to lead the army. All the ministers realized that the change would put the Empress and Rasputin in charge, Goremykin urged the Council to endorse the decision. When they refused, Goremykin told the Tsar that he was not fitted and asked to be replaced with a man of modern views. He held a hostile attitude towards the Imperial Duma and the Progressive Bloc and his wish for retirement was granted at the beginning of February 1916, when he was replaced by Boris Stürmer. Stürmer was not opposed to the convening of the Duma, as Goremykin had been, in May Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his datcha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a raid, together with his wife, his daughter. Goremykins conservatism and inability to function in a system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia
6.
Ivan Shipov
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Ivan Pavlovich Shipov was an Imperial Russian politician. After graduating from the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, he entered the Ministry of Finance and he rose to the position of Assistant Director of the Special Credit Office, and was eventually Director of the General Office. In addition, he served on the Board of the State Bank in 1902–1905, in 1905, he was appointed Minister of Finance during the Witte government. In 1906, he left that position when Witte resigned, due in part to his association with Witte. The circumstances of Shipovs death are uncertain, but seem to coincide with many political arrests, count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia, A Biography
7.
Pyotr Bark
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Pyotr Lvovich Bark later Sir Peter Bark, was a Russian statesman. Bark was born in Novotroitskoye village in Yekaterinoslav Governorate, He was descended from a family from Latvia. His father Karl Ludwig Bark was a manager for the Royal forests. After studying law in St. Petersburg university, Pyotr Bark entered Credit Chancellery of the Ministry of Finance in 1891, later he acted as a private secretary to the governor of the State Bank of Russia. In 1903 he went to Berlin to study banking with Mendelssohn & Co, on his return he was appointed manager of the foreign department of the State Bank. Later he became deputy Governor of the State Bank and he resigned from his post in 1907 to accept appointment in private Volga-Kama Bank. In 1911 Bark was appointed Assistant Minister of Commerce and Industry, In 1914 he was appointed Minister of Finance and he served in that position throughout the First World War until the abdication of Nicholas II. Although briefly detained by the Provisional Government he was released after which he immigrated to the west. Held the position of Managing-Director of the Anglo-International Bank based in London, knighted by King George V of the United Kingdom and the other realms in 1935 for his contributions to banking industry. Bark married Baronness Sofia Leopoldovna von Behr and had two children, a daughter, Nina and a son, Georgiy Bark died in Aubagne, count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia, A Biography. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol.16, No
8.
Sergei Witte
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Witte was neither a liberal or a conservative. He attracted foreign capital to boost Russias industrialization, Witte served under the last two emperors of Russia, Alexander III and Nicholas II. During the Russo-Turkish War he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the passing to the front along the lines of the Odessa Railways. As Minister of Finance Witte presided over extensive industrialization and the management of various railroad lines and he framed the October Manifesto of 1905, and the accompanying government communication, but was not convinced it would solve Russias problem with the Tsarist autocracy. On 20 October 1905 he became the first Chairman of the Russian Council of Ministers, assisted by his Council he designed Russias first constitution. Within a few months he fell in disgrace within court circles as a reformer and he resigned before the First Duma assembled. He has been described as the great reforming finance minister of the 1890s, one of Nicholass most enlightened ministers, Wittes father Christoph Hendrik Georg Witte descended from a Lutheran Baltic family of Dutch origin and converted to Russian Orthodoxy upon marriage with Yekaterina Fadeyeva. He became a member of the knighthood in Pskov, but moved to Saratov, Sergei was raised on the estate of his mothers parents. His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of the Caucasus, Sergei had two brothers and two sisters, and the mystic Helena Blavatsky was their first cousin. He entered a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, Sergei finished Gymnasium I in Kishinev and commenced studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at the Novorossiysk University in Odessa in 1866 graduating top of his class in 1870. Witte had initially planned to pursue a career in academia with the aim of becoming a professor in Theoretical Mathematics and his relatives took a dim view of this career path as it was considered unsuitable for a noble at the time. He was instead persuaded by Count Vladimir Alekseyevich Bobrinsk, then Minister of Ways and Communication, at the end of this period he was appointed chief of the traffic office. After a wreck on the Odessa Railways in late 1875 cost many lives, in 1879, Witte accepted a post in St. Petersburg, where he met his future wife. He moved to Kiev the following year, in 1883, he published a paper on Principles of railway tariffs for cargo transportation, in which he also spoke out on social issues and the role of the monarchy. In 1886, he was appointed manager of the privately held Southwestern Railways, based in Kiev and his warnings were proven in the October 1888 Borki train disaster, which resulted in the appointment of Witte to the position of Director of State Railways. Witte worked in management for twenty years, starting out as a ticket clerk. He served as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry from 1889 to 1891, until then less than one-fourth of the small railway systems was under direct state control, but Witte set about making the railway service a monopoly of the State. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance and this resulted in a new customs law for Russia in 1891, which spurred an increase in industrialization in Russia towards the turn of the century
9.
Eduard Pleske
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Eduard Pleske Eduard Pleske was born into a noble family in the Russian Empire. He was educated in the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, after graduation, he joined the Ministry of Finance. Pleske was Assistant Director and later Director of the Special Credit Office, Eduard Pleske also held the position of Head of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, and his signature can be seen in many Russian banknotes dated 1895–1899. He was appointed Assistant Minister of Finance under Sergei Witte in 1903 and he succeeded Witte on 16 August 1903 after Witte was shunted aside to the position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. He died in office on the 4 February 1904 and he was also briefly a member of the Imperial State Council in 1904. Eduard Pleske published in 1885, Reference Guide to Tax collectors, State Chambers and Treasuries Eduard Pleske signature on Russian banknotes
Media related to Vladimir Nikolaevich Kokovtsov at Wikimedia Commons
