Ivan Goremykin

Ivan Logginovich Goremykin (Russian: Ива́н Лóггинович Горемы́кин; 8 November 1839 – 24 December 1917) was a Russian politician who served as the prime minister of the Russian Empire in 1906 and again from 1914 to 1916, during World War I. He was the last person to have the civil rank of Active Privy Councillor, 1st class. During his time in government, Goremykin pursued conservative policies.

Biography

Goremykin 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 in 1869 in Kielce. In 1891 he was appointed as deputy minister of justice, considered an expert on the "peasant question".

Within a year he moved to the

While heading the Interior Ministry he submitted a proposal to the tsar advocating administrative reform and the expansion of the zemstvo program and representation within the existing zemstvos. Faced with opposition to the program, he left the position in 1899. In April 1906, Sergei Witte, a reformist, was succeeded by Goremykin. In the Russian Constitution of 1906 the tsar, regretting his 'moment of weakness' when signing the October Manifesto, retained the title of autocrat and maintained his unique dominating position in relation to the Russian Church.^[2] Goremykin's unwavering opposition to the political reform demanded by the

After the February Revolution in 1917, he was arrested and interrogated before the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Illegal Acts by Ministers and Other Responsible Persons of the Czarist Regime". In May Alexander Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his dacha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a robbery raid, together with his wife, his daughter, and father-in-law.

Legacy

Goremykin's conservatism and inability to function in a semi-parliamentary system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia. Goremykin was despised by parliamentarians and revolutionaries and personally desired only to retire, and the ineffectiveness of his last government contributed to the instability and ultimate downfall of the Romanov dynasty.

Quotations

• "The Emperor can't see that the candles have already been lit around my coffin and that the only thing required to complete the ceremony is myself" (commenting on his advanced age and unsuitability for office).
• "To me, His Majesty is the anointed one, the rightful sovereign. He personifies the whole of Russia. He is forty-seven and it is not just since yesterday that he has been reigning and deciding the fate of the Russian people. When the decision of such a man is made and his course of action is determined, his faithful subjects must accept it whatever may be the consequences. And then let God's will be fulfilled. These views I have held all my life and with them I shall die."

References