The Siberian “holy man” who reached the imperial bedchamber
November 1, 1905. Nicholas II wrote in his diary: "At 4 o'clock we went to Sergiyevka. We drank tea with Militsa and Stana. We made the acquaintance of a man of God — Grigori from Tobolsk province."
A Siberian peasant mystic. His ability to calm the heir's haemophilia won the Empress's absolute trust, and during the war he swayed ministerial appointments. Murdered in December 1916 by aristocrats hoping to save the monarchy. The dynasty collapsed two months later.
Career timeline
1900sFrom Siberian pilgrim to the Petersburg salons
1905–07Introduced at court; calms the heir’s attacks
1911–16Patronage scandals; the wartime “ministerial leapfrog”
The Duma monarchist who took the tsar's abdication and became an ideologue of the White movement
At the tsar's train in Pskov, Shulgin — unwashed and unshaven for four days — appeared before Nicholas II in a dirty jacket. A member of the suite told him: 'We will not forget this little jacket of yours.'
Vasily Shulgin was a leading conservative politician in the late Russian Empire, a deputy in the II, III, and IV State Dumas and editor of Kievlyanin, who championed Russian nationalism and constitutional monarchy. In March 1917 he traveled to Pskov with Alexander Guchkov and personally received Nicholas II's abdication, but could not avert the revolutionary catastrophe. During the Civil War he served as an ideologue of the White movement, then emigrated to Yugoslavia; in 1944 he was arrested by Soviet forces and spent 12 years in Vladimir Central Prison. Amnestied in 1956, he remained in the USSR, wrote memoirs, and appeared in the 1965 documentary The Verdict of History, a living witness to the old order who was defeated but never submitted.
Career timeline
1907–1917Deputy, II, III, IV State Dumas (Volhynia)
1913–1917Editor, Kievlyanin newspaper
1915Co-founder, Progressive Bloc; led Progressive Nationalists
1917.3With Guchkov, received Nicholas II's abdication in Pskov
1918–1920White movement propagandist and ideologue; editor of Rossiya and Velikaya Rossiya
1920–1944Exile in Yugoslavia; wrote memoirs Dni and Three Capitals
1947–1956Sentenced to 25 years; served 12 in Vladimir Central Prison
1956–1976Amnestied; lived in Vladimir, wrote Lenin's Experiment, starred in The Verdict of History
