Boris Stürmer
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Boris Vladimirovich Stürmer (Russian: Борис Владимирович Штюрмер, Boris Vladimirovich Shtyurmer) (July 27, 1848 - September 9, 1917) was a Russian statesman. He served as Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Interior Minister of the Russian Empire for several months during 1916.
A graduate of the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Stürmer worked at the first department of the Governing Senate and ministry of Justice. From 1872 to 1892 the worked at Ministry of the Imperial Court. In 1883 he prepared coronation of Tsar Alexander III. In 1890 he was elected president of Tver Zemstvo (local self-government) and managed to reconcile conservative governor and liberal Zemstvo members. Appointed Governor of Novgorod in 1894 and Yaroslavl in 1896, he was considered capable and efficient administrator. Since 1902 Stürmer worked as a department head in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs under Vyacheslav von Plehve. In 1904 he was admitted into the State Council of Imperial Russia. In State Concil Stürmer was one the right-wing leaders.
Stürmer's career took a plunge under Pyotr Stolypin, but he resurfaced in connection with the 1913 countrywide celebrations of the tercentenary of the Romanov Dynasty, when he accompanied the Tsar on a journey along the Volga and was nominated for the post of the mayor of Moscow.
At the height of World War I, Stürmer petitioned Tsar Nicholas II to sanction the change of his German surname to Panin.[1] Since the Panins were a distinguished family of Russian nobility, the monarch could not agree to Stürmer's request until he had consulted all members of the Panin family. Pending these proceedings, Stürmer was appointed Prime Minister with a high degree of political latitude (20 January 1916). He was simultaneously acting as Minister of the Interior (from March 1916) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (from July).
Stürmer's government was deeply unpopular with all ranks. He was suspected of archreactionary views and Germanophilia. His ill-starred attempt to conscript non-Russians into the active army touched off a bloody Kyrgyz uprising known as the Urkun. After the Brusilov Offensive even the Tsar had to concede that Stürmer was as much of a red rag to the parliament as to everyone else.[2] On 19 November he was sacked.
Following his resignation, Stürmer ran for a seat in the fifth State Duma. He was arrested by the Russian provisional government after the February Revolution in 1917 and died at the Peter and Paul Fortress later that year.
[edit] References
- ^ Letters of Nicholas II to his wife, Jan. 1916
- ^ Massie, Robert K., Nicholas and Alexandra, New York, Ballantine Books, 1967, ISBN 0345438310.
| Preceded by Ivan Goremykin |
Prime Minister of Russia February 2, 1916—November 23, 1916 |
Succeeded by Alexander Trepov |
| Preceded by Sergei Sazonov |
Foreign Minister of Russia 1916 |
Succeeded by Nikolai Pokrovsky |
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