1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Milyukov, Paul Nikolayevich

MILYUKOV, PAUL NIKOLAYEVICH (1859-), Russianpolitician and historian, was born in 1859. He studied historyand humanities at the university of Moscow, was expelled fortaking part in students' riots, but was readmitted and allowedto take his degree. He specialized in the study of Russianhistory and received the degree of Master in History for a learnedwork on the State Economics of Russia in the First Quarter of the18th Century. He lectured with great success at the universityand at a training institute for girl teachers; these lectureswere afterwards expanded by him in his book Outlines ofRussian Culture (3 vols., translated into German). He also startedan association for “home university reading,” and, as its firstpresident, edited the first volume of its programme, which waswidely read in Russian intellectual circles. His liberal opinionsbrought him into conflict with the educational authorities, andhe was dismissed in 1894 after one of the ever-recurrent university“riots.” He was even imprisoned for some time as a politicalagitator. When liberated he went to Bulgaria, and wasappointed professor in the university of Sofia, where he lecturedin Bulgarian with great success. He delivered also interestingcourses of lectures in the United States—at summer sessions inChicago and later on the Lowell lectures in Boston. Russia andIts Crisis presents a condensed report of one of these courses.

In 1905 the meetings of the Zemstvos which gave expressionto the public indignation against the Government brought himback to Russia. He became the political editor of an importantliberal paper, the Retch, and took an active part in the formationof the Constitutional Democratic party (Cadets), whichaimed at political freedom and at a constitution on advanceddemocratic lines, based on universal suffrage. Milyukov becamethe leader of that party and had a great influence on the courseof events in 1906, although he was not elected a member eitherof the first or of the second Duma. When the Tsar dissolvedthe first Duma he was one of the principal prompters of the“Viborg Manifesto,” in which the members of the assemblydeclared themselves ready to follow the people in resistingarbitrary rule. This ill-conceived pronouncement ended incomplete fiasco, and disqualified its signatories from participationin political elections. Milyukov had not signed as he was not amember of the Duma, and remained free from the persecutionwhich set in with the Stolypin reaction. He was elected to thethird and the fourth Duma, and played the part of a leader ofthe opposition, systematically criticising the policy of theGovernment and the attempts at compromise on the part of theOctobrists. In the fourth Duma, however, he was in favour ofa progressive block, in which liberal Octobrists took a share, asthis rendered the action of the Duma more effective. When theWorld War broke out he stood squarely for a policy of nationalunion and active coöperation with the Entente, but the ineptitudeand corruption of the War Office and of the Court drovehim into an attitude of increasing hostility. On Nov. 1 1916he delivered in the Duma a famous speech in which he askedpointedly, in connection with Sturmer's muddle: “Is itstupidity or is it treason?” His conduct at that time wascharacteristic of the state of mind of advanced Liberals—they wereso disgusted at the misgovernment of the Sturmers, Protopopovsand Galitzins that they were unable and unwilling to make astand against the growing discontent of the masses. Theythought and said: “We must win the war, but it is impossibleto win the war with these people at the head.”

When the revolt of the troops broke the back of the oldrégime Milyukov took office in Prince Lvov's Provisional Governmentas Minister of Foreign Affairs. In a speech delivered toa revolutionary mob in the Taurida Palace he proclaimed hispreference for a constitutional monarchy. His hope was thatNicholas II. would abdicate in favour of his son and the GrandDuke Michael Alexandrovich would consent to act as Regentfor his nephew. This plan came to nothing on account of theunwillingness of Nicholas II. to part with his son. Milyukovstrongly disapproved of Kerensky's policy and of the demagogicweakness of the parties in power—the social revolutionariesand Mensheviks. He would have hailed a restoration ofdiscipline in the army and an energetic resumption of the war onthe side of the Allies, but there was no basis for such areconstruction at a time of revolutionary intoxication. When theBolsheviks seized power he escaped to Kiev and lived there forsome time under the rule of Skoropadsky, the German-appointedHetman of the Ukraine. In this atmosphere, saturated byGerman influence, he gave up the cause of the Allies as lost, andbegan to speculate on the possibility of rebuilding the RussianState with the help of the Kaiser. He had conversations on thesubject with von Munn, the German envoy in Kiev, andadvised his fellow Cadets in the same sense. The majority ofthe latter were, however, firmly opposed to any pact with thearch-enemy of Russia, and the turnover on the western frontput an end to these plans. After the Armistice Milyukov wentto London and subsequently to Paris, where in 1921 he wasdirecting a journal (Last News) in which he advocated analliance with patriotic Socialists. (P. Vi.)