On July 15, 1904, an explosion occurred on Izmailovsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. On that day, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve, Minister of the Interior, was killed by a terrorist bomb thrown into a carriage heading towards Tsarskoye Selo. This murder was the next link in a long chain of crimes committed by terrorist organizations in Russia, who saw the shedding of blood as the only way to build a new life.
Youth and years of study
The future head of the most important of the state ministries Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Plehve was born in 1846 into a poor noble family living in the Kaluga province. As a child, he ended up with his whole family in Warsaw, where he entered the gymnasium, but the uprising that broke out in 1863 forced them to return to their homeland.
In his native Kaluga, he graduated from the gymnasium, having received a gold medal upon graduation. Vyacheslav Konstantinovich received further education already in Moscow, having entered the law faculty of the university. Natural abilities, as well as perseverance and accuracy,inherited from his father (a German nobleman), helped him to brilliantly complete his course of study in 1867 and, having a candidate of law degree and the rank of collegiate secretary, get a position in the Moscow District Court.
Beginning of civil service
The next fourteen years Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich held various positions in the Ministry of Justice. Over the years, he had to, receiving regular appointments, move several times from city to city, until, finally, fate brought the young lawyer to the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg. Here in 1879, while holding the position of prosecutor of the Judicial Chamber, the 33-year-old lawyer was noticed by Emperor Alexander II and noted by him as a possible candidate for future vacancies.
However, Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich managed to realize himself to the fullest extent after the emperor, so favorable to him, was killed by terrorists in 1881. Alexander III, who ascended the throne, instructs Plehve to head the State Police Department. At a time when the country was literally choking in the blood spilled by militants of various terrorist organizations, this position could rightly be called a key one.
Head of a critical department
The sovereign was not mistaken in his choice. The newly appointed head of the most important of the departments used his strength to fight lawlessness in all its manifestations. His main success of that period was the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya - representatives of the most active and ruthless anti-government group inRussia.
To control the activities of such structures, Plehve managed to create in the country a network of secret agents, unprecedented at that time, introduced into the ranks of military organizations. This provided the police with the opportunity to "play ahead of the curve" and rid the country of many of the bloodshed planned by the militants. In the same period, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich took part in the creation of a legislative framework that made it possible to counteract terror more effectively.
Another appointment
His works were duly appreciated, and soon Plehve took the post of deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior, and a year later he was a real Privy Councilor. In view of the extraordinary circumstances that have developed in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich is sent there as Secretary of State. Here his activities covered all aspects of life. He put a lot of effort into streamlining the work of the Finnish Senate, drawing up the Charter of military service and uniting the Grand Duchy with the Russian Empire.
Back in St. Petersburg
In 1902, after another high-profile crime committed by revolutionary terrorists and costing the life of the Minister of Internal Affairs D. S. Sipyagin, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich was appointed to his place and returned to St. Petersburg. Here, under his command is the corps of gendarmes, with the help of which he launches a comprehensive struggle against opposition and revolutionary movements. Plehve's policy of that period is tough and uncompromising.
Thanks to his active measures, it was possible to localize peasant uprisings in several southern provinces, preventing them from developing into large-scale popular unrest. When the need arose to introduce changes into the legal sphere of the activities of the zemstvo councils, Plehve successfully completed this task. Vyacheslav Konstantinovich, despite being busy, combined official activities with social work, becoming a member of the first monarchist organization in Russia, the Russian Assembly.
Terrorist gunpoint
Despite the fact that, while holding high government posts, Plehve, to the best of his ability, counteracted extreme manifestations of anti-Semitism, it was his revolutionary organizations in Russia who were accused of a series of pogroms that occurred in Chisinau in 1903. This was the reason for choosing him as the next victim of the assassination.
The murder of Plehve was taken over by a fighting cell of the Social Revolutionaries, who saw in terror the only effective means of solving social problems. This action was led by the famous provocateur E. Azef. According to his plan, the militants established a route by which the Privy Councilor regularly traveled to Tsarskoye Selo to report to the sovereign. On one of the sections of the path, armed members of the organization should have been waiting for him. The day of the murder was also set.
Tragedy on Izmailovsky Prospekt
After a number of delays due to organizational reasons, the plan was implemented. Yegor Sozonov, a socialist-revolutionary and half-educated student, threw a bomb into the minister's carriage. His photo completesarticle. It happened on July 15, 1904 in St. Petersburg, near the Varshavsky railway station. Already in prison and barely recovering from the wounds received in the explosion, he wrote in his diary that he prayed to God for only one thing: that his enemy would not remain alive.
After the tragic death of Vyacheslav Konstantinovich, his widow Zinaida Nikolaevna remained, who died in 1921, and two children - son Nikolai, who, following the example of his father, became a lawyer, and daughter Elizaveta, who married Senator N. I. Vuich and completed her days in exile.
