The Defeat of Popular Representation, December 1904: Prince Mirskii, Witte, and the Imperial Family

Abstract

Although Prince Peter Sviatopolk-Mirskii served as minister of the interior of Russia for only five months beginning on 25 August 1904, he nearly managed a volte-face in the government's relationship to society. The dimensions of his plans for reform during this crucial period have not been thoroughly explored. While his conciliatory attitude toward the zemstva is well known, less familiar is his intention to broaden civil liberties and anchor them firmly in the law, an intention expressed in a memorandum he submitted to Nicholas II on 23 November 1904. In that memorandum Mirskii recommended a whole range of measures designed to restore harmony between government and society— from the extension of basic civil liberties and the broadening of local zemstvo and municipal council authority to the curbing of the Okhrana regime and the restoration of proper legislative and administrative procedures within the government.