Nikolay Milyutin

Nikolai Alexeyevich Miliutin (Russian Николай Алексеевич Милютин, scientific transliteration Nikolaj Alekseevic Miliutin; * 6 Junijul / June 18 1818greg in Moscow, .. .. † 26 Januarjul / February 7 1872greg ) was a Russian politician who before all became known as the chief architect of the great liberal reforms of Alexander II, including the abolition of serfdom and the creation of Zemstvos.

Life and work

Miliutin was the nephew of Count Pavel Kiselyov, an influential Russian reformer during the period of the reactionary rule of Nicholas I.. His brothers were Miliutin Vladimir (1826-1855), social reformer and journalist, and Dmitri Miliutin, later Minister of War and one of the great military leaders in Russia in the 19th century.

Nikolai graduated from the Moscow University and began his work in the Ministry of the Interior in 1835. As a man who held liberal ideas such as the Slavophiles, the young Miliutin helped in the reform of local administration of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa in the 1840s. In his position as Deputy Minister of the Interior since 1859, he managed to impose its vision of an ambitious liberal reform against the resistance of conservatives and disgruntled nobles. The Emancipation Manifesto of 1861 was mostly be design.

During the January Uprising, he was sent to Poland, in order to implement the reforms. He developed an extensive program of Russification, which included the abolition of serfdom at the expense of Polish nationalist landowner, also the exclusion of Catholic priests from Polish schools.

Miliutin joined in 1866 by his office after he had suffered a stroke, and spent the rest of his life withdrawn.