Павел Николаевич Милюков, 1859-1943

Pavel Nikolaevich Miliukov, 1859-1943. Russian statesman and historian. Born 27.I (15.I, O.S.) 1859 in Moscow. Died 3.III.1943 in Aix-les-Bains, France.1877 entered Moscow University and studied Russian history; 1896-1903 published three-volume Outlines of Russian Culture (Ocherki po istorii russkoi kultury); 1895 lost teaching post and began to travel and research democratic politics; 1903, 1904-1905 traveled twice to the United States to lecture on Russian history and politics; Miliukov’s extensive travels brought him an appreciation of democratic values, which made him view tsarist absolutism as a hindrance to progress in Russia; Was a proponent of universal suffrage, civil freedoms, expansion of education, and parliamentary government, among other liberal transformations; 1905 helped form the Union of Unions and the Constitutional Democratic Party, or Kadet Party, for whose newspaper (Rech’, [Speech]) he served as editor. Miliukov was a member of the Kadet Party’s Central Committee, and was integral in bringing the Kadets success in Russia’s first nationwide election; 1906 helped draft the Vyborg Manifesto, which appealed for a passive resistance campaign against the government; 1907-1917 championed progressive causes and criticized the imperial regime on behalf of the Kadets in the third and fourth Dumas; 1915 criticized the imperial regime’s war effort from a patriotic “defensist” position; November 14, 1916 delivered a speech indirectly accusing the government of treason. This was a powerful catalyst to revolutionary sentiment; 1917 Miliukov served in the Provisional Government of Prince Georgii Lvov, under whom he served as Foreign Minister; May 1917 forced to resign from post as Foreign Minister; November 1917 when the Bolsheviks seized power Miliukov was forced to leave Petrograd; During the Civil War served as political counselor to the White Army in southern Russia; Emigrated to Paris and died in Aix-lex-Bains, France