Pavel Milyukov

For more information on Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov, visit Britannica.com.

(1859 - 1943), Russian historian and publicist; Russian liberal leader.

Milyukov was born in Moscow. He studied at the First Gymnasium of Moscow and the department of history and philology at Moscow University (1877-1882). His tutors were Vassily Kliuchevsky and Paul Vinogradov. After graduating from the university, Milyukov remained in the department of Russian history in order to prepare to become a professor. From 1886 to 1895, he held the position of assistant professor in the department of Russian history at Moscow University. In 1892 he defended his master's thesis based on the book State Economy and the Reform of Peter the Great (St. Petersburg, 1892). In the area of historical methodology Milyukov shared the views of positivists. The most important of Milyukov's historical works was Essays on the History of Russian Culture (St. Petersburg, 1896-1903). Milyukov suggested that Russia is following the same path as Western Europe, but its development is characterized by slowness. In contrast to the West, Russia's social and economic development was generally initiated by the government, going from the top down. Milyukov is the author of one of the first courses of Russian historiography: Main Currents in Russian Historical Thought (Moscow, 1897). In 1895, he was fired from the Moscow University for his public lectures on the social movement in Russia and sent to Riazan, and then for two years (1897 - 1899) abroad.

In 1900 he was arrested for attending the meeting honoring the late revolutionary Petr Lavrov in St. Petersburg. He was sentenced to six months of incarceration, but was released early at the petition of Kliuchevsky before emperor Nicholas II. In 1902, Milyukov published a program article "From Russian Constitutionalists in the Osvobozhdenie" ("Liberation"), magazine of Russian liberals, issued abroad. Between 1902 and 1905, Milyukov spent a large amount of time abroad, traveling, and lecturing in the United States at the invitation of Charles Crane. Milyukov's lectures were published as Russia and Its Crisis (Chicago, 1905).

In 1905 Milyukov returned to Russia and took part in the liberation movement as one of the organizers and chairman of the Union of Unions. On August, 1905, he was arrested, but after a month-long incarceration was released without having been charged. In October of 1905 Milyukov became one of the organizers of the Constitutional Democratic (Kadet) Party. His reaction towards the October Manifesto was skeptical and he believed it necessary to continue to battle the government. Due to formal issues, he could not run for a place in the First and Second Dumas, but he was basically the head of the Kadet Faction. From 1906, Milyukov was the editor of the Rech (Speech) newspaper, the central organ of the Cadet Party. From 1907, he was the chairman of the Party's central committee. From 1907 to 1912, he was a member of the third Duma, elected in St. Petersburg. He favored the tactics of "the preservation of the Duma," fearing its dissolution by the tsar. He became a renowned expert in the matters of foreign policy. In the Duma, he gave seventy-three speeches, which total approximately seven hundred large pages. In 1912 Milyukov was reelected to the Duma, once again from St. Petersburg.

After the beginning of World War I, Milyukov assumed a patriotic position and put forth the motto of a "holy union" with the government for the period of the war. He believed it necessary for Russia to acquire, as a result of the war, Bosporus and the Dardanelles. In August of 1915, Milyukov, was one of the organizers and leaders of the oppositionist interparty Progressive Bloc, created with the aim of pressuring the government in the interests of a more effective war strategy. On November 1, 1916, Milyukov made a speech in the Duma that contained direct accusations of the royal family members of treason and harshly criticized the government. Every part of Milyukov's speech ended with "What Is This: Stupidity or Treason?" The speech was denied publication, but became popular through many private copies and later received the name of "The Attacking Sign."

After the February revolution Milyukov served as the foreign minister in the Provisional Government. Milyukov's note of April, 1917, declaring support for fulfilling obligations to the allies provoked antigovernmental demonstrations and caused him to retire. Milyukov attacked the Bolsheviks, demanding Lenin's arrest, and criticized the Provisional Government for its inability to restore order. After the October Revolution, Milyukov left for the Don, and wrote, at the request of general Mikhail Alexeyev, the Declaration of the Volunteer Army. In the summer of 1918, while in Kiev, he tried to contact German command, hoping to receive aid in the struggle against Bolshevism. Milyukov's "German orientation," unsupported by a majority of the Cadet Party, led to the downfall of his authority and caused him to retire as chairman of the party. In November of 1918, Milyukov went abroad, living in London, where he participated in the Russian Liberation Committee. From 1920, he lived in Paris. After the defeat of White armies, he proposed a set of "new tactics," the point of which was to defeat Bolshevism from within. Milyukov's "new tactics" received no support among most emigré Cadets and in 1921 he formed the Paris Democratic Group of the Party, which caused a split within the Cadets. In 1924 the group was modified into a Republican-Democrat Union. From 1921 to 1940 Milyukov edited the most popular emigré newspaper The Latest News (Poslednie Novosti). He became one of the first historians of the revolution and the civil war, publishing History of the Second Russian Revolution (Sofia, 1921-1923), and Russia at the Turning-point (in two volumes, Paris, 1927).

In 1940, escaping the Nazi invasion, Milyukov fled to the south of France, where he worked on his memoirs, published posthumously. He welcomed the victories of the Soviet army and accepted the accomplishments of the Stalinist regime in fortifying Russian Statehood in his article "The Truth of Bolshevism" (1942). Milyukov died in Aix-les-Bains on March 31, 1943.

Bibliography

Emmons, Terence. (1999). "On the Problem of Russia's 'Separate Path' in Late Imperial Historiography." In Historiography of Imperial Russia, ed Tomas Sanders. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich. (1942). Outlines of Russian Culture. 3 vols., ed. Michael Karpovich; tr. Valentine Ughet and Eleanor Davis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich. (1967). Political memoirs, 1905 - 1917, ed. Arthur P. Mendel, tr. Carl Goldberg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich. (1978 - 1987). The Russian Revolution. 3 vols., ed. Richard Stites; tr. Tatyana and Richard Stites. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press.

Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich; Seignobos, Charles; and Eisenmann, L. (1968). History of Russia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

Riha, Thomas. (1969). A Russian European: Paul Miliukov in Russian Politics. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Stockdale, Melissa K. (1996). Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

—OLEG BUDNITSKII

Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov

Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov (Cyrillic: Павел Николаевич Милюков; 15 January 1859 – 31 March 1943), a Russian politician, was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic party (known as the Kadets). His name is sometimes rendered in English as Paul Miliukov or Paul Milukoff.^[1]

Contents 1 Pre-revolutionary career 2 "Stupidity or treason" speech 3 February Revolution and its aftermath 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Pre-revolutionary career

Milyukov was born in the middle class family of an architect who claimed to be a nobleman from the House of Milukoff, according to Milyoukov's own autobiography. Milyukov studied at the Moscow University, where he was influenced by the liberal ideas of Konstantin Kavelin and Boris Chicherin. He made a successful career as a historian, publishing the three-volume Outlines of Russian Culture over the years from 1896 to 1903. The last volume was actually finished in jail, where he spent six months for his political speech at a private event (1901).

Having lost his position at the University due to political issues, Milyukov traveled widely and visited the United States several times. He also contributed to the clandestine journal Liberation in 1902.

When the First Russian Revolution started three years later, he founded the Constitutional Democratic party, represented it in the State Duma, and drafted the Vyborg Manifesto, calling for political freedom, reforms and passive resistance to the governmental policy.

With the outbreak of World War I, Milyukov swung to the right, promoting patriotic policies of national defense, insisting his younger son (who subsequently died in battle) volunteer for the army, and campaigning for the formation of the Progressive Bloc of moderate leaders. Milyukov was regarded as a staunch supporter of the conquest of Istanbul. His opponents mockingly called him "Milyukov of Dardanelles". In 1916, however, he again moved to the left, sharply criticising the government for its inefficiency.

"Stupidity or treason" speech

On November 1, 1916, during a speech in the State Duma Miliukov highlighted numerous governmental failures with the famous question "What is that? Stupidity or treason?". According to Melissa Kirschke Stockdale in Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, it was a "...volatile combination of revolutionary passions, escalating apprehension, and the near breakdown of unity in the moderate camp that provided the impetus for the most notorious address in the history of the Duma..." The speech was a milestone on the road to Rasputin's murder and the February Revolution.

At Progressive Bloc meetings near the end of October, Progressives and left Kadets argued that the revolutionary public mood could no longer be ignored, and the Duma should attack the entire tsarist system or lose whatever influence it had. Nationalists feared that a concerted stand against the government would jeopardize the existence of the Duma and further inflame the revolutionary feelings. Miliukov argued for and secured a tenuous adherence to a middle ground tactic, attacking Boris Stürmer and forcing his replacement. According to Stockdale he had trouble gaining the support of his own party, at the October 22-24 Kadet fall conference provincial delegates "lashed out at Miliukov with unaccustomed ferocity. His travels abroad had made him poorly informed about the public mood, they charged; the patience of the people was exhausted." He responded with a plea to keep their ultimate goal in mind:

It will be our task not to destroy the government, which would only aid anarchy, but to instill in it a completely different content, that is, to build a genuine constitutional order. That is why, in our struggle with the government, despite everything, we must retain a sense of proportion.... To support anarchy in the name of the struggle with the government would be to risk all the political conquests we have made since 1905.

The day before the opening of the Duma, the Progressist party pulled out of the bloc because they believed the situation called for more than a mere denunciation of Stürmer. At the start of the session government ministers, forewarned by an informant within the bloc of the attack to come, left the chamber. Alexander Kerensky spoke first, called the ministers "hired assassins" and "cowards" and said they were "guided by the contemptible Grishka Rasputin!" The acting president ordered him away for calling for the overthrow of the government in wartime. Miliukov's speech was more that three times longer than Kerensky's, and delivered using much more moderate language.

He began by outlining how public hope had been lost over the course of the war, saying: "we have lost faith that the government can lead us to victory." He mentioned the rumours of treason and then proceeded to discuss some of the allegations: Stürmer had freed Sukhomlinov, there was a great deal of pro-German propaganda, in his visits to allied countries he had been told that the enemy had access to Russian state secrets, Stürmer's private secretary had been arrested for taking German bribes but was released when he kicked back to Stürmer. After each accusation near the end of the speech, he asked "Is this stupidity or is it treason?", and the listeners answered "Stupidity!" "Treason! "Both!" Miliukov stated that it did not matter as "the consequences are the same."

Stockdale also points out that Miliukov admitted to some reservations about his evidence in his memoirs, where he observed that his listeners resolutely answered treason "even in those aspects where I myself was not entirely sure."

Richard Abraham, in his biography of Kerensky argues that the withdrawal of the Progressists was essentially a vote of no confidence in Miliukov, and that he grasped at the idea of accusing Stürmer in an effort to preserve his own influence.

February Revolution and its aftermath

During the February Revolution Milyukov hoped to retain the constitutional monarchy in Russia, but events developed too quickly for him to follow. In the first provisional government, led by his fellow Kadet Prince Lvov, Milyukov became Minister of Foreign Affairs. He staunchly opposed popular demands for peace at any cost and firmly clung to Russia's wartime alliances. As the Britannica 2004 put it, "he was too inflexible to succeed in practical politics". On April 20, 1917 the government sent a note to Britain and France (which became known as Milyukov's Note) proclaiming that Russia would fulfill its obligation towards the Allies and wage the war as long as it was necessary. Soldiers and citizens of Petrograd demanded Milyukov's resignation, which followed on May 2.

After the Bolshevik revolution Milyukov left Petrograd and advised various leaders of the White Movement. After the Russian Civil War he emigrated to France, where he remained active in politics and edited the Russian-language newspaper Latest News (1920 - 1940). While living abroad, Milyukov was the object of several assassination attempts. In one attempt, his friend Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, the father of famous novelist Vladimir Nabokov, was killed while shielding Milyukov from his attackers. Milyukov died in Aix-les-Bains in France.

Notes

1. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C05E2DA153AE433A25753C2A9629C946696D6CF

References

• Melissa Kirschke Stockdale. Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918, Cornell University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8014-3248-0, 379pp.
• Thomas Riha. A Russian European: Paul Miliukov in Russian Politics, University of Notre Dame Press, 1969, ISBN 1-121-78859-9, 373pp.

External links

• Russia and its crisis (1905) by P.N. Miliukov
• Constitutional government for Russia an address delivered before the Civic forum by P.N. Miliukov. New York city, January 14, 1908 (1908)
• Bolshevism: an international danger by P.N. Miliukov. 1920.
• Russia, to-day and to-morrow (1922) by P.N. Miliukov.

• "An Open Letter to Professor P.N. Miliukov", an early critique of Miliukov's liberalism by Leon Trotsky

Political offices
Preceded by Nikolai Pokrovsky	Foreign Minister of Russia 1917	Succeeded by Mikhail Tereshchenko

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