The death of P. A. Stolypin in the memoirs of contemporaries: S. Yu. Witte, V. N. Kokovtsov and others

Abstract

The tragic event of September 1, 1911, in Kiev, the death of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Internal Aff airs Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, is considered through the lens of the memoirs of his famous contemporaries: the former Minister of Finance, Chairman of the Commitee of Ministers .of the Russian Empire (1903–1906), Count Sergei Yulievich Witte, Minister of Finance, who became Prime Minister after the death of Stolypin; Vladimir Nikolayevich Kokovtsov, historian, leader of the Cadet Party; Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov and Major General Svita, Moscow Governor (1905–1912), Deputy Minister of Internal Aff airs, commander of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes (1913–1915), Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky. Each of these memoirs reveals certain sides, facets of the political portrait and the fatal end of Stolypin based on the life and state experience, on the authors’ relationships with him. In the Memoirs of S. Yu. Witte, we see the almost epic, political-state and moral-legal scale of the «dialogue», of the «feud» between the author and Stolypin, the condemnation of his policy and personality: «he is to blame». V. N. Kokovtsov is a living witness of the «event of September 1» and the direct successor of Stolypin. His memoirs are chronically rich, documentarily and psychologically expressive. They were carefully read by P. N. Milyukov, who fought with Stolypin in the Duma and gave his exact metaphor for the internal policy and for his demise (“the Moor may go”). The memoirs of V. F. Dzhunkovsky are interesting for their honest testimony, patriotic pathos, direct rejection of the shortcomings of the security service. Taken together, these memoirs give a holistic, expressive picture of the historical event of September 1, 1911, the death of P. A. Stolypin; they help to see the inner springs of action behind the external.

Keywords

• stolypin’s death
• memoires
• s. yu. witte
• v. n. kokovtsov
• p. n. milyukov
• v. f. dzhunkovsky
• testimonies
• estimates
• time
• portrait
• destiny