Pyotr Valuyev

Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Valuev (Russian Пётр Александрович Валуев, scientific transliteration Pëtr Aleksandrovich Valuev, * 22 Septemberjul / October 4 1815greg in Tsaritsyno, .. .. † 27 Januarjul / February 8 1890greg in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian statesman and writer.

Childhood and youth

Valuev was descended from an old Russian-German noble family. His father Alexandr Petrovich Valuev was chamberlain to the Russian Senate, his mother, Elizaveta Fedorovna, was a member of originating from Courland German noble family Brincken. After the early death of his father Pyotr Valuev lived most of the time on a farm, where he enjoyed a good home education: In addition to his actual mother tongue he spoke German and French and four other foreign languages. In 1831, the then Russian Tsar Nicholas I got to know the young Walujew and appointed him as an official in the office of the Moscow Governor-General. In 1834 he was promoted to the chamberlain. Valuev made ​​the acquaintance of the most important Russian artists of his time and met in the salon of the historian Karamzin widow with the well-known poets Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin, who modeled the protagonist of his story " The Captain's Daughter ", P. Grinew chose him. Its great affinity for poetry was even more enhanced by his marriage in 1836 to the daughter of the then-known Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky who knew beyond to use his influence at court in favor of his son. About him learned Walujew another famous Russian poet, Mikhail Lermontov, know.

Political career

In 1845 Valuev was appointed an official for special assignments Governor General in Livonia. His descent from the dynasty known in the Baltic States by the Brincken easier for him a favorable reception in the German -born nobility of Livonia and did not prove detrimental to his future career. In 1852 he was awarded for his contribution to the development of new administrative statute for the city of Riga (1849 ), the rank of the State Council. A year later he became a civilian Gouverneuer the Russian province of Courland. Beginning of 1859 he was appointed to St. Petersburg and appointed head of two of the four departments of the Ministry of State Property. Waljuew was one of the authors of the "Project of the three members ," in which the plans of the liberal Russian Tsar Alexander II was criticized for the abolition of serfdom. However, the Tsar Reserve left him at his post and appointed him Secretary of State and Privy Councillor. After the Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepanovich Lanskoy, considered by most Russian nobleman as too liberal and " farmer friendly ", had to take his hat, appointed Alexander II Valuev in 1861 as the new Minister of the Interior, which was seen as a gesture of reconciliation to the nobility.

Russian Minister of the Interior

The most important field of activity for Valuev as interior minister was in the implementation of the peasant reform in 1861. Prevent possible unrest, he organized a strong control over the activities of local farmers and did not hesitate to use force in the ruthless suppression of peasant uprisings. On the other hand, he was of the opinion of the Russian nobility should not be disadvantaged too much in favor of the farmers and should be compensated accordingly generous for the lost lands. In 1863 he submitted a " project of the new constitution," the Tsar, in which he suggested a reform of the State Council and demanded certain concessions to the local self-government ( Semsstwo ). However, the Tsar refused his proposal.

After May 12, 1862, a law had adopted the "transitional rules for the treatment of newspapers ", Valuev received as the responsible Minister the powers to control the press through the instrument of political censorship. On April 6, 1865 Walujew replaced the "transitional rules" of 1862 by a new policy that exacerbated the already strong censorship even more. " Valuev tried with the single-mindedness of a madman implement his idea of the subjugation of the press under his control into practice and make them pro-government in his senses," the historian Alexander Kornilov later recorded while another contemporary, the agricultural chemist and liberals ON Engelhardt time from 1863 to 1868, in the Valuev was Interior Minister, as an " era of shameless literary terror " designated. In the press this harsh law immediately got the nickname " Valuev - law." Between 1865 and 1868 more than thirty so-called " warnings " were distributed to the press organs that had the law " violated", of which two were forever banned six specific for a time and. The " Valuev - law" remained until the revolution of 1905 in force.

In addition, Valuev took a keen interest in the reform of urban governance structure. The law passed in 1870 was based largely on his proposals and admitted, among other municipal agencies more autonomy in solving local problems a.

After the attack by the student Karakozov in 1866 Alexander II intensified the policy of repression. He appointed the Count Pyotr Shuvalov the head of the gendarmerie, the entire government was equipped with special powers strive to control. On April 3, 1868 Valuev was under the pretext of not pushing hard enough to tackle the consequences of the crop failure of 1867, dismissed as Minister of the Interior.

More career

After his release Walujew traveled for a long time abroad. Shortly after his return he was the Tsar " pardoned " and appointed in December 1870 as Chairman of the Bank for Agriculture. Between 1872 and 1877 he served as minister of state property. In 1877 he became chairman of the Committee of Ministers. However, in 1880 began his influence to wane as his opponent put him Count Loris - Melikov in the shade. 1881 Valuev was of Alexander III. sent into retirement. After the death of Walujew his diaries have been published, which are an important source of knowledge about the government circles of the Russian Empire of the 19th century.

Writing career

Under the influence of his father- Vyazemsky Walujew tried increasingly to engage literary. However, his first works were not literary in the strict sense but treatises on various political and economic issues facing the country, such as drawn up in September 1855 "Thoughts of a Russian in the second half of 1855 ," in which his concerns especially critical of the causes and consequences of the still raging Crimean War.

Valuev began in the 1870s to write novels while he was still working in the government. His first novel, Lorin was completed in 1878 and circulated first in manuscript before it was published in 1882. After his retirement to Walujew concentrated on writing and published four novels, essays about the history of Christianity and numerous seals before he died in St. Petersburg in 1890.