The Provisional Government's last technocrat who directed the defense of the Winter Palace
As the palace fell, Palchinsky burst in before the advancing Red Guards shouting that an agreement had been reached and a deputation from the City Council and Soviet was on its way.
A mining engineer from Kazan who sympathized with anarchist ideas in his youth, Palchinsky took part in the 1905 Revolution and was forced into emigration. In 1917 he served as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and briefly as Governor-General of Petrograd; on 25 October, as Kishkin's assistant, he directed the defense of the Winter Palace and, moments before the building fell, burst in to announce the ministers' decision to surrender to the Bolshevik forces. Released and reintegrated under the Soviet system, he chaired the Russian Technical Society and consulted on GOELRO and the Dnieper hydroelectric project, but was caught in the repressive aftermath of the Shakhty Trial, arrested in 1928, and shot the following year for 'counter-revolutionary wrecking.'
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1900Mining engineer, Donbas coalfield survey
- 1902–1905Manager, Golovinsky coal mines, Irkutsk
- 1906–1913Emigration (London, Turin, Rome); mining dept., Turin World Exhibition
- 1915–1917Central War Industry Committee
- 1917.03–10Deputy Minister of Trade & Industry; Governor-General of Petrograd (Aug–Sep)
- 1917.10.25Head of Winter Palace defense, arrested
- 1918–1928Chairman, Russian Technical Society; GOELRO & Dnieprostroi consultant
- 1928–1929Arrested, sentenced to death, executed
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905Participant in the 1905 RevolutionHe took part in the 1905 Revolution.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionDe facto commander of the Winter Palace defenseOn the night of 25-26 October, as Kishkin’s deputy and de facto chief of the Winter Palace defense, he ordered Chudnovsky’s brief arrest, received Antonov-Ovseenko, and announced the ministers’ decision to surrender to the cadets.
Soviet economic planning and the economics of mining
From 1918 Palchinsky chaired the Russian Technical Society. He worked on surveying Russia’s shale resources and organized the research institute “Surface and Subsoil,” publishing a journal under the same name. Appointed a professor at the Petrograd Mining Institute in 1920, he taught integrated courses on natural gases and resins from a geological and economic perspective. During the 1920s he served on the Central Council of Experts and the Scientific and Technical Council of the Supreme Council of the National Economy’s Main Economic Administration, and was a permanent consultant to Gosplan. He contributed to drafting the GOELRO electrification plan and advised on the Dnieper hydroelectric project. A leading specialist in the economics of mining, he also edited a five-volume work on natural mineral construction materials. This career shows how he applied his technical and economic expertise under the Soviet system after serving as an industrial and military-administrative official in the Provisional Government. The sources do not, however, identify him as the final decision-maker for these plans.
Arrested again in April 1928, Palchinsky was accused of participating in the council of an association of engineering organizations. On 22 May 1929, the OGPU Collegium sentenced him to death, accusing him of leading a conspiracy and wrecking in railway transport and the gold-and-platinum industry. The Saint Petersburg encyclopedia records that he was shot the same day. This ended his career as a technical expert and illustrates the repression directed at specialists.