Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov (; 31 March 1943) was a Russian historian and liberal politician. Milyukov was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic party (known as the Kadets). He changed his view on the monarchy between 1905 and 1917.Jacob Walkin (1962) The rise of democracy in pre-revolutionary Russia, p. 290 In the Russian Provisional Government, he served as Foreign Minister, working to prevent Russia's exit from the First World War.
Pre-revolutionary career Pavel was born in Moscow in the upper-class family of Nikolai Pavlovich Milyukov, a professor in architecture who taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Milyukov was a member of the House of Milukoff. Milyukov studied history and philology at the Moscow University, where he was influenced by Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte, and Karl Marx. His teachers were Vasily Klyuchevsky and Paul Vinogradoff. In summer 1877 he briefly took part in the Russo-Turkish War as a military logistic, but returned to the university. He was expelled for taking part in student riots, went to Italy, but was readmitted and allowed to take his degree. He specialized in the study of Russian history and in 1885 received the degree for work on the State Economics of Russia in the First Quarter of the 18th Century and the reforms of Peter the Great.
In 1890 he became a member of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities. He gave private lectures with great success at a training institute for girl teachers and in 1895 was appointed to the university. These lectures were afterward expanded by him in his book Outlines of Russian Culture (3 vols., 1896–1903, translated into several languages). He started an association for "home university reading," and, as its first president, edited the first volume of its program, which was widely read in Russian intellectual circles. As a student Milyukov was influenced by the liberal ideas of Konstantin Kavelin and Boris Chicherin. His liberal opinions brought him into conflict with the educational authorities, and he was dismissed in 1894 after one of the ever-recurrent university "riots". He was imprisoned for two years in Riazan as a political agitator, but contributed as an archaeologist.
When released from jail, Milyukov went to Bulgaria, and was appointed professor in the University of Sofia, where he lectured in Bulgarian in the philosophy of history, etc. He was sent (or dismissed under Russian pressure) to Macedonia, part of the Ottoman Empire. There he worked in an archaeological site. In 1899 he was allowed to return to St Petersburg. In 1901 he was arrested again for taking part in a commemoration of the populist writer Pyotr Lavrov (The last volume of Outlines of Russian Culture was actually finished in jail, where he spent six months for his political speech). In 1901, according to Milyukov, about 16,000 people were exiled from the capital. The following by-law, published in 1902 by the governor of Bessarabia, is typical:
He contributed under a pseudonym to the clandestine journal Liberation, founded by Peter Berngardovich Struve, published in Stuttgart in 1902. The government again gave him the choice of exile for three years or jail for six months, Milyukov chose the Kresty Prison.O. Figes (1996), p. 204 After an interview with Vyacheslav von Plehve, whom he regarded as "the symbol of the Russia he hated", Milyukov was released. He was central in the founding of the Union of Unions in 1905.
In 1903 he delivered courses of lectures in the United States at summer sessions in University of Chicago and for the Lowell Institute lectures in Boston. He visited London and attended the Paris Conference 1904, organized by the Finnish dissident Konni Zilliacus. Milyukov returned to Russia during the Russian Revolution of 1905, according to Orlando Figes in many ways a foretaste of the conflicts of 1917.O. Figes (1996), p. 195 He founded the Constitutional Democratic party, a party of professors, academics, lawyers, writers, journalists, teachers, doctors, officials, and liberal zemstvo men.1905: The Liberation Union (Soyuz Osvobozhdeniya) merged with the Union of Zemstvo-Constitutionalists (Soyuz Zemstev-Konstitutsionistov) to form the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (Konstitutsiono-Demokraticheskaya Partya), formally known as the Party of Popular Freedom (Partiya Narodnoy Svobody), led by Pavel Milyukov. As a journalist for "Svobodny narod" ("Free People") and "Narodnaya swoboda" ("People's Freedom") or as a former political prisoner Milyukov was not allowed to represent the Kadets in the first and second Duma. For Milyukov any agreement between liberalism and autocracy was impossible.Kröner, A.W. (1998) "The Debate Between Miliukov and Maklakov on the Chances for Russian Liberalism", p. 173 In 1906 the Duma was dissolved and its members moved to Vyborg in Finland. Milyukov drafted the Vyborg Manifesto, calling for political freedom, reforms, and passive resistance to the governmental policy.
Dmitri Trepov suggested Ivan Goremykin ought to step down and promote a cabinet with only Kadets, which in his opinion would soon enter into a violent conflict with the Tsar and fail. He secretly met with Milyukov. Trepov opposed Pyotr Stolypin, who promoted a coalition cabinet.
The Kadets gave up the idea of founding a republic and began promoting a constitutional monarchy. Georgy Lvov and Alexander Guchkov tried to convince the tsar to accept liberals in the new government. In 1907 Milyukov was elected in the Third Duma; at some time he joined the board of the party Rech (newspaper). He was one of the few publicists in Russia, who had considerable knowledge of international politics, and his articles on the Near East seem to be of considerable interest.Harold Whitmore Williams (1915) Russia of the Russians, p. 112
Deputy In January 1908 Milyukov addressed "The Civic Forum" in Carnegie Hall. From the very beginning, the slogan and the idea of the empire ruled by Russians were very controversial regarding what "Russians" meant. One of the outspoken critics of the notion, Pavel Milyukov, considered the "Russia for Russians" slogan to have been "a slogan of disunity... [and] not creative but destructive."Kirschke, Melissa (1996), Paul Miliukov and the quest for a liberal Russia, 1880–1918, p. 189. Cornell University Press, . In 1909, Milyukov addressed the Russian State Duma on the issue of using Ukrainian in the court system, attacking Russian nationalist deputies: "You say "Russia for Russians," but whom do you mean by "Russian"? You should say "Russia only for the Great Russians," because that which you do not give to Muslims and Jews you also do not give your own nearest kin – Ukraine."Plokhy, Serhii (2005), Unmaking Imperial Russia: Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the Writing of Ukrainian History, pp. 462-3, n. 64. University of Toronto Press, .
In 1912 he was reelected in the Fourth Duma. According to Milyukov, in May 1914 Rasputin had become an influential factor in Russian politics.Antrick Otto (1938). Rasputin und die politischen Hintergründe seiner Ermordung. E. Hunold, Braunschweig, p. 37. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Milyukov swung to the right, but a coup to remove the Tsar belonged to the possibilities. He had become a nationalist, patriotic policy of national defense, relying on social chauvinism. (He was best friends with Sergei Sazonov.) Milyukov insisted his younger son volunteer for the army (who subsequently died in battle). In August 1915 he formed the Progressive Bloc and became the leader. Milyukov was regarded as a staunch supporter of the conquest of Constantinople. In the nineties, Milyukov thoroughly studied the Balkans, which made him the most competent authority on Balkan politics.Harold Whitmore Williams (1915) Russia of the Russians, p. 79 His opponents mockingly called him "Milyukov of Dardanelles". In Summer 1916, at the request of Rodzianko, Protopopov led a delegation of Duma members (with Milyukov) to strengthen the ties with Russia's western allies in World War I: the Entente powers. In August he gave lectures in Oxford. On 1 November 1916, in a populist speech, he sharply criticized the Stürmer government for its inefficiency. He met professor Tomáš Masaryk in London, and consulted with him about the present state of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia at that time.Preclík, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 pages, first issue vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karvina, Czech Republic) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague), 2019, , pages 36 – 39, 41 – 42, 111-112, 124–125, 128, 129, 132, 140–148, 184–199.
"Stupidity or treason" speech
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 that 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 22–24 October 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 Progressive Party pulled out of the bloc because they believed the situation called for more than a mere denunciation of Stürmer.
On 1 November (O.S.) the government under the pro-peace Boris Stürmer was attacked in the Imperial Duma, not gathering since February.Pierre Gilliard - Thirteen years at the Russian court. Chapter Thirteen – Tsar at the Duma – Galacia – Life at G.Q.H. – Growing Disaffection Alexander Kerensky spoke first, called the ministers "hired assassins" and "cowards" and said they were "guided by the contemptible Grishka [or Grigori] Rasputin!" The acting president Rodzianko ordered him to leave, when calling for the overthrow of the government in wartime. Miliukov's speech was more than three times longer than Kerensky's, and delivered using much more moderate language.
In his speech "Rasputin and Rasputuiza" he spoke of "treachery and betrayal, about the dark forces, fighting in favor of Germany". He highlighted numerous governmental failures, including the case Sukhomlinov, concluding that Stürmer's policies placed in jeopardy the Triple Entente. After each accusation – many times without basis – he asked "Is this stupidity or is it treason?" and the listeners answered "stupidity!", "treason!", etc. (Milyukov stated that it did not matter "Choose any ... as the consequences are the same.") Stürmer walked out, followed by all his ministers.