Metadata: P. N. Miliukov
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The Plekhanov House
- Holding institution (official language):
- Дом Плеханова
- Postal address:
- 190005, St. Petersburg, ul. 4-ia Krasnoarmeiskaia, 1/33
- Phone number:
- (812) 316-74-11
- Web address:
- http://www.nlr.ru/coll/housePleh/
- Email:
- domplekh@nlr.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 482
- Title:
- P. N. Miliukov
- Title (official language):
- МИЛЮКОВ П. Н.
- Creator/accumulator:
- P. N. Miliukov
- Date(s):
- 1796/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- English
- French
- German
- Czech
- Bulgarian
- Swedish
- Italian
- Extent:
- 290 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are materials connected with the activities of Pavel Miliukov in his capacity as editor of the newspaper Rech’ and State Duma deputy; documents reflecting his activities in the Kadet Party; correspondence with various persons, including D. Gorodetskii, M. Rodzianko, M. Vinaver, A. Ia. Belen’kii, and others; personal documents of Miliukov’s relatives (extracts from vital records; birth and baptismal certificates; commendations); materials on the assassination of State Duma member M. Ia. Gertsenshtein; documents connected with the operations of the editorial boards of the newspapers Rech’ and Sovremennoe slovo; reports on sessions of the Petrograd Municipal Duma; etc. Pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia in the fonds are letters (of undetermined authorship) addressed to Pavel Miliukov in his capacity as State Duma member and minister of foreign affairs in the Provisional Government; the author of the letters is indignant over an item published in the newspaper Rech’ to the effect that “matzah, which takes the place of biscuits, is being sold for twenty-three rubles a pood [approx. 36 lbs.],” even as it is impossible to find flour for Easter cakes; and comments sarcastically on Jews’ service in the army, and on the properness of using the word “zhid,” etc. (1916-17); a resolution adopted at a Jewish assembly in June 1917 calling on Jews to “close ranks near the Provisional Government” and join with the peoples of Russia for victory in the war against Germany; materials of Pavel Miliukov regarding the military censorship and high command’s attitude toward Jews during the First World War (in 1914-16); these are summarised in an overview that cites examples of operations of the military censorship, and concludes that, in permitting articles in the press that accused Jews of espionage and abetting Germany, it was turning one part of the population and army against another (1916); clippings from the Black Hundreds newspapers Russkoe znamia and Pochaevskie izvestiia, including items pertaining to “the Jewish question”; and a circular to county heads and the police chief of the city of Kholma that cite an order of the High Command that Jews be expelled and that hostages be taken from among more prosperous representatives of Jewish communities (1916).
- Archival history:
- The Plekhanov House is a structural subdivision (department) of the National Library of Russia and constitutes a research centre for the study of the history of the Russian and international revolutionary and social movements, and the history of culture and education. The core of its fonds consists of the archive and library of Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856-1918), the philosopher, public commentator, and prominent figure in the revolutionary movement who was one of the founders of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP). In 1925 these materials were turned over to the Committee to Memorialize G. V. Plekhanov by his widow R. M. Plekhanova (nee Bograd) on the condition that they always be stored together as a unit. The grand opening of the Plekhanov House took place 11 June 1929 at the conference hall of the former Free Economic Society. In accordance with the conditions of the agreement between the committee and the State Public Library board, G. V. Plekhanov’s heritage had to be housed in a separate building with a particular staff; this became a standalone branch of the library. The library board accepted the proposed conditions, and by the spring of 1931 the construction and furnishing of the new building of the Plekhanov House were complete. For the final twenty years of her life R. M. Plekhanova served as director of the Plekhanov House and was involved in organising its fonds; along with her husband’s archive, these housed documents of members of the Liberation of Labor group and their comrades and fellow-thinkers, and numerous other materials. Simultaneously with the processing of the fonds in 1929-30, catalogues and card files began to be organised, including for the Plekhanov library; and materials connected with Plekhanov’s life and activities were collected. Analysis of Plekhanov’s archive, its scholarly inventorying and attribution, and the transcription of markings in it, is currently ongoing.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Pavel Nikolaevich Miliukov (1859-1943) was a politician, historian, public commentator, and leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party. He graduated from Moscow University in 1882, and became a privat-docent in the university’s Russian history department in 1886. In 1894 he was fired for being connected with the student revolutionary movement. He lived abroad, contributing to the underground liberal journal Osvobozhdenie [Liberation], and was active in the Union of Liberation. In 1905 he returned to Russia and devoted himself exclusively to political activity. He was one of the main organisers of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), from 1907 on chairing its central committee and serving as editor of its central organ, the newspaper Rech’ [Speech]. He was elected to the Third and Fourth State Dumas, where he led the bourgeois Duma opposition. After the February Revolution, he took the post of minister of foreign affairs in the Provisional Government. He stepped down in May 1917, continuing to play a prominent role in liberal political circles. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly, but did not take part in it, as he had departed for the Don and joined the Alekseev organisation, subsequently reorganised as the Volunteer Army under the command of Generals L. G. Kornilov and then A. I. Denikin. In January 1918 he became a member of the Don Civilian Council. Then he moved to Kiev, where in May 1918 he began negotiations with the German high command, which he saw as a potential ally in the struggle against the Bolsheviks. Insofar as these talks were not supported by most in the Kadet party (he would later admit the negotiations had been a mistake), he stepped down as chair of the party’s central committee. In 1920 he emigrated to England; from 1921 on he resided in Paris, where he edited the newspaper Poslednie novosti. In 1924 he became one of the leaders of the Republican-Democratic Association, a political organisation formed by representatives of the left wing of the Kadet party, with an anti-Soviet orientation. He wrote several works on the history of the Revolution of 1917
- Access points: persons/families:
- Belen’kii, A. Ia.
- Gertsenshtein, M. Ia.
- Gorodetskii, D.
- Miliukov, P. N.
- Rodzianko, M.
- Vinaver, M.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory systematised by structure and in part alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
