Milyutin, Nikolai Alekseevich

Origin. Start of Public Service

He came from a poor noble family ^[4] . The son of Alexei Mikhailovich Milyutin ( 1780 - 1846 ) and Elizaveta Dmitrievna Kiseleva ( 1794 - 1838 ), the sister of Count Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev , statesman of the era of Nicholas I ^[5] . The ancestor of his father was elevated to noble dignity by Peter the Great for the construction of the first silk factory in Moscow ^[6] . Educated at the Noble guesthouse at Moscow University . In his youthful years he was strongly influenced by his parents and uncle, Count P. D. Kiselyov.

In 1835 he began civil service with the rank of provincial secretary in the Economic Department of the Ministry of the Interior. In January - March 1840 he was on a business trip in the Novgorod, Tver and Moscow provinces. In April - May he visited Rybinsk and Yaroslavl . As a result of the trip, he drew up a note on hunger, which attracted the attention of his superiors; On behalf of the Minister of Count A. G. Stroganov, he worked out the question of railway construction. In 1842 he headed the city branch of the economic department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, developed a new city position introduced in St. Petersburg , Moscow and Odessa . In the same year he received the rank of college assessor ^[7] . Since 1845, immediately after the establishment of the Russian Geographical Society, he, along with his brother Dmitry , became one of his early and active figures. He took an active part in the work of the Department of Statistics and the Council of the Russian Geographical Society (1852-1854).

He was appointed director of the economic department of the Ministry of the Interior. At this post, he carried out large-scale work on the statistical survey of Russia, the results of which were published in a number of works published under his editing in 1838-1864 (see below). He initiated the study of fair trade in the south (carried out by I.S. Aksakov ), statistics, political institutions and finance of the Kingdom of Poland . The Department actively collected the data needed to develop peasant reform. Member of the Special Committee for the discussion of applications received from many provinces for the provision of various benefits and bonds on the occasion of the Eastern War and crop failures (1856).

From 1853 to 1861 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of public charity institutions in St. Petersburg ^[8] .

Developer of Peasant Reform

In 1856, Milyutin submitted a note, "Preliminary Thoughts on the Structure of Relations between Landowners and Peasants," in which he proposed, referring to the reform carried out in Prussia , to free peasants with land allotments for ransom ^[9] .

In the second half of the 1850s, he was a member of the circle of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna , moving closer to Vel. Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich and Minister of the Interior S. S. Lansky , after the guarantee of which “as for himself” he was appointed a fellow minister (1859) and became the head of work on the preparation of peasant reform. Occupying liberal and Slavophil positions, with the support of Vel. Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich, S. S. Lansky and Emperor Alexander II opposed the position of most of the provincial committees on peasant affairs. After the promulgation of the Manifesto on the liberation of the peasants from serfdom, together with Count S.S. Appointed by Senator .

Polish State Secretary

On August 31, 1863, at an audience with the Tsar, he came up with a plan to pacify the Kingdom of Poland . As the state secretary of His Imperial Majesty for special assignments, together with Yu. F. Samarin and Prince V. A. Cherkassky, he led the “pacification” of Poland; jointly developed a series of proposals approved by the emperor, including the Regulation of February 19, 1864, which endowed the land of Polish peasants. Introduced by the Highest Decrees of February 19, 1864 on the device of life of Polish peasants; on the arrangement of rural communes , on the liquidation commission, on the procedure for enacting new resolutions.

The main features of the reform of Milyutin — Samarin — Cherkassky were the transfer to the ownership of the peasants of all the land they own, the establishment of a land tax only, permission to buy servitudes only with the consent of the peasants, and the permission for the transfer of peasant land to peasants only.

Being appointed Secretary of State for Polish Affairs, together with the Director General of the Government Commission of the Interior, Prince. V.A. Cherkassky and Ya.A. Solovyov are carrying out a reform, initiating a review of the 1862 academic code and Velepolsky circulars, organizing the publication of manuals for Russian Uniate schools, and preparing judicial reform. It pursues a sharp anti-papal policy: the secularization of Catholic monasteries with a reduction in the number of monks, the abolition of patronage of large proprietors over churches, seeks to limit the power of bishops over priests. In 1866, he sought a decision to abolish the concordat with the papal throne ^[10] .

The last years of life

In December 1866, after a meeting with the State Chancellor, he became seriously ill and was forced to withdraw from state activities. In 1867, due to illness, he left the post of chief of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery for the Kingdom of Poland, retaining the status of state secretary, member of the State Council and senator.

For three years he lived abroad, two years in Moscow. He died on January 26, 1872, surrounded by the care of loved ones and public respect. He was buried at the Refectory chamber at the Assumption Church of the Novodevichy Convent .

I. S. Turgenev made a heartfelt speech about his merits to Russia over his grave.

“An honest citizen blacksmith,” as Nekrasov called him, inextricably linked his name with the great work of peasant reform, with the beginning of Russian city and zemstvo self-government, and with the radical transformation of the whole system of life in the Kingdom of Poland. For a decade and a half he was the head and soul of a close circle of faithful servants of the cause of liberation; all the intrigues of the opponents of a good deed fell mainly on his head. What was needed was his iron will, ardent devotion to the cause, incorruptible honesty, his mind, clear and lively, to withstand such a struggle and not fall under the pressure of hostile forces. As a man, he tied to himself all who knew him closely with his sincerity and warm-hearted kindness; a rare statesman had so many devoted admirers and friends. When everyone complained about the poverty of forces, he only had to click the cry - and dozens of employees gathered around him. His speech was unusually fascinating and electrified the audience. He had a rare diminution at once to grasp the essence of the matter, to understand his practical situation at that moment, and to lead him in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. ^[eleven]

According to official contemporaries, he was a leader of liberal convictions, for which he received the nickname "red".

Wife - Maria Aghgeevna Abaza (1834-1903), the youngest daughter of a large landowner and sugar factory owner, sister of the Minister of Finance A. A. Abaza . According to reviews of a contemporary, in her youth she was distinguished by beauty, she was a smart and educated woman, but she was malicious and unfriendly in character. Driven by voracious ambition, she wanted to play a prominent role, she was not satisfied with being the wife of a wonderful person, she tried to focus on herself, but this did not succeed. Therefore, she envied anyone, envied even her husband’s most sincere friends, and tried her best to quarrel with them; the habit of lying was highly developed in her ^[12] . After the death of her husband, she was assigned a pension of 5,000 rubles a year, and her daughters were entitled to a maintenance of 2,000 rubles a year before marriage. In 1873, she married teacher Harry Style. She died in 1903 in England. Her notes on the era of the abolition of serfdom were published in the magazine " Russian Starina " in 1899. Children:

• Yuri (1856-1912)
• Praskovya (Polina) (1857-1929), maid of honor.
• Mary (1858 - not earlier than 1897)
• Elena (1864-1941) ^[7] .

• Social structure and urban economy. (2 vols.) - 1838, 1858.
• Extract from the body of materials on “Government Statistics of Russia” - “The Number of Urban and Agricultural Settlements in Russia” (in the “Collection of Statistical Information on Russia” (1851, book 1))
• Essay on the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. - 1858.
• Bank debts and the position of provinces in 1856 - 1859.
• Information about the orders of public charity. - 1860.
• Information on the prices of land sold at public auction from January 1, 1854 to January 1, 1859 - St. Petersburg. , 1859.
• Information on the prices of empty land in free sale from 1856 to 1858. - SPb. , 1860.
• Research in the Kingdom of Poland. - 1863–64.

• Serfdom
• Peasant Reform of 1861
• Polish uprising of 1863
• Slavophiles

• Memoirs of B. N. Chicherin. - M.: Publishing. Moscow State University, 1991. S.93-97.
• Gofshetter I.A. Forgotten State Person Nikolai Alekseevich Milyutin. - SPb., 1901. - 48 p.: Portr.
• From the notes of Maria Aggeevna Milyutina // Russian antiquity. T.XCVII. 1899. Issue 1, p. 39-65; issue 2. p. 265-288; issue 3, p. 575-601.
• Milyutin Nikolay Alekseevich // List of civil ranks of the first three classes. Corrected on September 10th, 1871. - SPb. : Printing House of the Governing Senate , 1871. - S. 129-130.
• N.A. Milyutin. Obituaries. - M. , 1873.
• Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu . Un homme d'etat russe. - P. , 1884.
• N.A. Milyutin. - “Russian Old Man”, 1880, 1.
• Shcherbalsky P.N. A. Milyutin and peasant reform in Poland. - "Russian Herald", 1882. - 10-12 p. - M. , 1883.
• The main figures in the liberation of the peasants. Ed. S. A. Vengerova. - SPb. , 1903.
• Kizevetter A. [A.] Nikolai Alekseevich Milyutin // Liberation of the peasants: reform workers: (collection of articles). - Moscow: Scientific. Word, 1911. S.233-266.
• Shilov D.N. Members of the State Council of the Russian Empire 1801-1906. - SPb. , 2007. - S. 497-501.
• Semenov-Tian-Shansky P.P. The beginning of the era of the liberation of peasants from serfdom. From the memoirs of the last surviving participant in the legislative work of this era // End of serfdom in Russia. Documents, letters, memoirs, articles. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1994. - S. 112-149.

• Milyutin Nikolay Alekseevich
• Milyutin, Nikolai Alekseevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1896. - T. XIX. - S. 322-323.