Mikhail Loris-Melikov

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Tarielovich and the family name is Loris-Melikov.

Count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov (Russian: Граф Михаил Тариелович Лорис-Меликов, Armenian: Միքայել Լոռու-Մելիքյան; October 21 [O.S. November 2] 1824 – 24 December 1888) was a Russian-Armenian statesman, General of the Cavalry, and Adjutant General of H. I. M. Retinue.

Count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov Михаил Тариелович Лорис-Меликов Միքայել Լոռու-Մելիքյան
An 1888 portrait of Loris-Melikov by Ivan Aivazovsky.
Interior Minister of the Russian Empire
In office 6 August 1880 – 4 May 1881
Monarchs	Alexander II Alexander III
Preceded by	Lev Makov
Succeeded by	Nikolay Ignatyev
Personal details
Born	(1824-10-21)21 October 1824 Tiflis, Georgia Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia)
Died	24 December 1888(1888-12-24) (aged 64) Nice, France
Resting place	St. Kevork Armenian Apostolic Church, Tbilisi, Georgia
Spouse	Princess Nina Ivanovna Argutinska-Dolgorukova
Awards	Order of Saint Anna, Order of Saint Vladimir, Order of Saint Stanislaus, Order of the White Eagle
Military service
Allegiance	Russian Empire
Branch/service	Imperial Russian Army Cavalry
Rank	General of the Cavalry & Adjutant general
Unit	IX Russian Army Corps
Battles/wars	Caucasian War Crimean War Russo-Turkish War Battle of Kars Battle of Kızıl Tepe Battle of Aladzha

The Princes of Lori - Loris-Melikovs are the representatives of an old noble family whose ancestors in the 14th century owned the town of Lori and the province of the same name. They belonged to the top aristocratic society of Georgia. In Russian nobility the princely family of the Loris-Melikovs was approved in 1832.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Tiflis, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire in 1826, to Prince Tariel Zurabovich Loris-Melikov and his wife, Princess Ekaterina Ahverdova, and was educated in St Petersburg, first at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, and afterwards at the Guards' Cadet Institute. He joined a hussar regiment, and four years afterwards (1847) he was sent to the Caucasus, where he remained for more than twenty years, and made for himself during troubled times the reputation of a distinguished cavalry officer and an able administrator. In the latter capacity, though a keen soldier, he aimed always at preparing the warlike and turbulent population committed to his charge for the transition from military to normal civil administration, and in this work his favorite instrument was the schoolmaster.

Military career

In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, he commanded a separate corps d'armée on the Turkish frontier in Asia Minor. After taking the fortress of Ardahan, he was repulsed by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha at Zevin, but subsequently defeated his opponent at Ajaria, took Kars by storm, and laid siege to Erzerum. For these services he received the title of Count. He was awarded the Order of Saint George of the second degree on October 27, 1877, for his service in Ajaria.

Civil administrator

Tombstone of Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov. Pantheon of St. Kevork Armenian Apostolic Church, Tbilisi, Georgia.

In the following year, Loris-Melikov became the temporary governor-general of the region of the Lower Volga to combat an outbreak of the plague. The measures he adopted proved so effectual that he was transferred to the provinces of Central Russia to combat the Nihilists and Anarchists, who had adopted a policy of terrorism, and had succeeded in assassinating the governor of Kharkov.^[1]

His success in this struggle led to his appointment as chief of the Supreme Administrative Commission which had been created in St Petersburg after the February 1880 assassination attempt on the Tsar to deal with the terrorist agitation in general.^[2] Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extralegal measures, even after an attempt on his own life soon afterwards. He believed that the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent and recommended to the emperor Alexander II a large scheme of administrative and economic reforms. Alexander, who was beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the simple method of police repression hitherto employed, lent a willing ear to the suggestion. When the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers.^[3]

The proposed scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand but was never carried out. The emperor signed a ukase creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, to prepare reforms in various branches of the administration, and while popular peoples' representatives from the Zemstvos were granted positions, they were not allowed to vote. The intellectuals of Russia derided these reforms as rubber-stamping and an unwillingness to put forward any substantial, constitutional reforms. This ukase was designed and advocated by Loris-Melikov, and on the very day (13 March 1881) of its acceptance by the emperor, the emperor was assassinated.^[4] But after the assassination, Loris-Melikov hesitated about publishing the order for a popular commission, and waited for the new tsar, who turned out to be very opposed to a constitution in Russia.^[5] Alexander III at once adopted a strongly anti-reformist policy.

When the new Tsar started to undo some of the reforms that his father, Alexander II, had promulgated, Count Loris-Melikov resigned several months later and lived in retirement until his death at Nice on 22 December 1888.^[6]

Awards

• Golden Weapon for Bravery (1848)
• Order of Saint Anna 4th degree (20.07.1848)
• Order of Saint Anna 3rd degree (03.07.1850)
• Order of Saint Anna 2nd degree (25.01.1852)
• Golden Weapon for Bravery (28.02.1854)
• Order of Saint Vladimir 4th degree (15.05.1854)
• Order of Saint Vladimir 3rd degree (20.10.1855)
• Order of Saint Stanislaus 1st degree (06.06.1859)
• Order of Saint Anna 1st degree (26.06.1860)
• Order of Saint Vladimir 2nd degree (13.10.1861)
• Order of the White Eagle (19.04.1865)
• Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (30.08.1869)
• Diamond insignia for the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (08.09.1871)
• Order of St. George 3rd degree (14.05.1877)
• Order of St. George 2nd degree (27.10.1877)
• Order of Saint Vladimir 1st degree (14.11.1877)
• Order of St. Andrew (30.08.1880)

Foreign

• Turkish Order of the Medjidie 2nd degree (1858)
• Mecklenburg-Schwerin Order of the Wendish Crown 2-й степени (1878)
• «Pour le Mérite» (1878)
• Montenegrin medal (1878)

Honorary Member Russian Academy of Sciences (29.12.1880).

See also

• Melikov

Notes

1. Frank, Joseph (2003). Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-691-11569-9.
2. Moss, Walter Gerald (2005). A History Of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. Anthem Series Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. London: Anthem Press. p. 38. ISBN 1-84331-034-1.
3. Kappeler, Andreas (2001). The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. London: Longman. p. 301. ISBN 0-582-23415-8.
4. Peter Kropotkin (1905-01-01). "The Constitutional Movement in Russia". revoltlib.com. The Nineteenth Century.
5. Peter Kropotkin (1901). "The Present Crisis in Russia". The North American Review.
6. Moss. History Of Russia, p. 45.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Loris-Melikov, Michael Tarielovich, Count". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 8–9.

Further reading

• Wright, Patricia. "Loris-Melikov: Russia, 1880-1." History Today (June 1974), Vol. 24 Issue 6, pp 413–419 online.

External links

• Armenian Aristocracy and the Military Tradition
• "Loris-Melikoff, Mikhail Tarielovitch Tainoff, Count" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.

Preceded by Lev Makov	Minister of Interior 1880 – 1881	Succeeded by Nikolay Ignatyev