The Kadet minister named special plenipotentiary to save Petrograd on the day of the October Revolution
At 4 pm on 25 October, the cabinet granted Kishkin plenipotentiary authority over all military and civil authorities in the capital. He at once dismissed Colonel Polkovnikov "for inaction" and appointed General Bagratuni commander of the Petrograd Military District.
A Moscow physician who rose to the Central Committee of the left-Kadet faction and served as deputy chief representative of the All-Russian Union of Cities during World War I. After the February Revolution he became commissar of the Provisional Government in Moscow, and in September 1917 joined its last cabinet as Minister of Public Charities. On the afternoon of 25 October he was granted special plenipotentiary powers to restore order in Petrograd, and immediately dismissed Colonel Polkovnikov as district commander, appointing General Bagratuni in his place; that night he was arrested with the rest of the cabinet in the Winter Palace by Antonov-Ovseenko. After the Civil War he returned to medicine, co-founded the All-Russian Famine Relief Committee with Prokopovich and Kuskova in 1921, and suffered repeated arrests and exile before his death in 1930.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1905–1917.2Kadet Central Committee member, Moscow City Duma deputy, deputy chief of All-Russian Union of Cities
- 1917.3–9Commissar of the Provisional Government in Moscow
- 1917.9–10Minister of Public Charities, Provisional Government
- 1917.10.25Special plenipotentiary for order in Petrograd; dismisses Polkovnikov, appoints Bagratuni; arrested at Winter Palace
- 1918–21Released, returns to medicine; arrested in Tactical Centre case 1919, released
- 1921–23Co-founds All-Russian Famine Relief Committee (Pomgol); arrested, exiled to Vologda, amnestied
- 1923–30Works in resort department of Narkomzdrav; stripped of pension and ration cards; dies in Moscow 1930
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarWartime relief administratorDuring the First World War, he was deputy chief of the Union of Cities, which coordinated medical and rear support.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October Revolutionlast plenipotentiary for order in PetrogradAppointed on the afternoon of October 25, 1917, he dismissed the district commander and appointed General Bagratuni, becoming the last man to try to organize the defense of the Winter Palace before being arrested by Antonov-Ovseenko.
- 1921–1922The Russian Famine of 1921–1922Co-founder of the famine relief committeeIn 1921, he co-founded the All-Russian Famine Relief Committee with Prokopovich and Kuskova.
From physician to liberal politician
Kishkin was born in Moscow on 29 November (O.S.) 1864. Trained at the medical faculty of Moscow University, he worked as a physiotherapy physician, co-owning and directing a hydrotherapy and electrotherapy clinic in Moscow and later a sanatorium, and belonged to the Society for the Promotion of Resort Development. From the early 1900s he entered liberal public activity through the Union of Liberation, and from 1905 sat on the Central Committee of the Kadet party as a member of its left wing. He was elected to the Moscow City Duma in 1905-1908 and again in 1913-1917.
From 1914 he served as deputy chief representative and member of the Main Committee of the All-Russian Union of Cities, the wartime body coordinating medical and rear support work. That post was the bridge by which he moved into the administrative offices of the Provisional Government in 1917.
Appointed Minister of State Charities in the last cabinet on 25 September 1917, he was then charged, amid the German advance and general political instability, with preparing the evacuation of Petrograd and the transfer of the Provisional Government and central state institutions to Moscow. The plan was never carried out, and on 25 October he met the Bolshevik seizure of power with only a small body of troops still backing the government.