Dmitry Shipov

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Dmitry Nikolaevich Shipov in 1906.

Dmitry Nikolaevich Shipov (14 May 1851 – 14 January 1920[

Slavophile politician of the 19th and 20th centuries.[1]

Shipov acted as a political mentor of Georgy Lvov, Russia's future first Prime Minister.[1][2] According to Solzhenitsyn in “November 1916”, Shipov was not, or ought not to have been considered a ‘Slavophile’, a slandering term at the time assigned to him by his radically leftist opponents—one which appears to have ‘tarred’ him, inaccurately, to this day!"

Biography

Early life

Shipov was a graduate of

St. Petersburg University. He was elected Chairman of Volokolamsk Uezd Zemstvo Board in 1891, and of Moscow Gubernia Zemstvo Board in 1900.[3]

Shipov was a deeply conservative Christian.[4]

Career

Dmitry Shipov organised the zemstvos at a national level. Despite the zemstvos crucial role in bringing about the 1905 Revolution, the zemstvo men being 'unlikely pioneers', Shipov himself was strongly opposed to the demands for a constitution by the liberals, and was himself a devoted monarchist. He saw it as his mission to strengthen the Tsar's autocracy by bringing the Sovereign 'closer to his people', organised through the zemstvos and a consultative parliament.[1] He believed in a Russia which was a 'locally self-governing land with an autocratic Sovereign at its head', and was a believer in the ancient 'communion' between the Tsar and his subjects, a union he viewed only had been broken by the 'autocracy of bureaucracy'.[1] He argued for more political and civil liberties, but also viewed Tsarism as morally superior to democracy.[5] He viewed the state as an 'indispensable institution for the realisation of Christian ideals'.[4]

Despite his views, he was respected even by those who disagreed with him in the zemstvos, and was the unchallenged leader of the conservative wing in the zemstvo movement.[6]

He was the founder of the

Prince Georgy Lvov. After initially limiting the topic of discussion strictly to the affairs of the zemstvos. After the resumed persecution of the zemstvos from 1900, however, it became an arena for political discussion. It would from 1900 become the 'leading force in the constitutional movement'.[1]

He was elected chairman in the first

Constitutional-Democratic Party ("Kadets"), and the minority founding the Union of October 17 ("Octobrists")[6]

Shipov was one of the principal founders of the

Sergey Witte offered Shipov the position of Ministry of Agriculture. He, among other liberals, refused the offer.[2] He later joined the Party of Peaceful Renovation in 1908.[citation needed
]

He was elected member of the

State Council by Moscow zemstvo (1907–1909).[citation needed
]

Russian Revolution and Death

He was part of the member of the

Bolshevik Revolution. For this, he was arrested by the Cheka on the grounds of being a counterrevolutionary. He was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks in Butyrka prison in 1919. He died January the following year.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Figes, pp. 164–5
  2. ^ a b Figes, p. 194
  3. ^ Peter Kropotkin (1905-01-01). "The Constitutional Agitation in Russia". revoltlib.com. The Nineteenth Century. It is only known that some Zemstvo delegates, under the presidency of M. Shipov, are discussing these vital questions.
  4. ^ a b Pipes, p. 172
  5. ^ Pipes, p. 171
  6. ^ a b c d Pipes, p. 173
  7. ^ Figes, p. 172

Bibliography

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