The last hardline Interior Minister of tsarism, who urged a "small victorious war" to hold back revolution
"We need a small victorious war to hold back revolution" — the words attributed to Plehve on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, as recorded by his rival Sergei Witte.
Born into a Russified German noble family, Plehve rose to prominence as Director of the Police Department after Alexander II's assassination in 1881, systematically destroying the terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya through a network of secret agents. As Minister of the Interior from 1902, he crushed peasant uprisings in Poltava and Kharkov, curtailed the zemstvos, briefly experimented with Zubatov's police-sponsored trade unions before shutting them down, and pursued an uncompromising hardline defense of the autocracy. On 28 July 1904, Yegor Sazonov of the SR Combat Organization threw a bomb into his carriage on Izmailovsky Prospekt, killing him. His death opened the door to Sviatopolk-Mirsky's 'era of trust' and the political crisis on the very eve of Bloody Sunday.
Career Timeline
- 1867Entered the Ministry of Justice as assistant prosecutor
- 1879Prosecutor, Saint Petersburg Chamber of Justice
- 1881Director of the Police Department
- 1884Senator of the Governing Senate
- 1885Assistant Minister of the Interior
- 1894State Secretary and Chief of Codification
- 1899Minister State-Secretary for the Grand Duchy of Finland
- 1902Minister of the Interior and Chief of Gendarmes