Purishkevich V. M. (1870-1920), public and political figure

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
PURISHKEVICH Vladimir Mitrofanovich (1870-1920) was a public figure, publicist, and Full State Counsellor (1912). He graduated from the Department of Classics at the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Novorossiisk University (Odessa, 1895). From 1900, he served in the Ministry of Home Affairs, in 1905 - in the Main Administration On the Affairs of the Press. From 1905, he was a member of the Russian Assembly; in 1905-13, with some interruptions, he served as a member of its Council. He was one of the founders and leaders of the Union of the Russian People (URP; November 1905), assistant to the head (deputy director) of its Main Council. He was a member of the Council of Elders in the Club of Moderate and Rightist Parties (1907). He was a Deputy of the Second, Third and Fourth State Duma, one of the leaders of the Rightist Faction, and member of its bureau. He was in charge of the Commission on publishing the Book of the Russian Sorrow (1908-14) about the public figures assassinated by terrorists. In December 1907, as a result of the conflict against A. I. Dubrovin he left the Union of the Russian People (and later was expelled). In the early 1908, he created the Russian National Union dedicated to Archangel Michael (in 1908-1911, Purishkevich served as an assistant to its Head, and from 1911, he was in charge of its Main Chamber). He was a member of the Administration of the Union of Rightist Press. He was a founding member and member of the Administration of the Society for Assisting Academic Life of Institutions of Higher Education (1911). He was an assistant to the Head (deputy director) of the 6th All-Russian Congress of the Russian People (19-23 February 1913). In the years of the World War I of 1914-18, Purishkevich served on the front line as a commissioner of the Society of the Red Cross, helping form two sanitary trains. He created the State Society of Russian Cartography, the objective of which was to determine the post-war borders (1916). He participated in the murder of G. E. Rasputin. On 28 August (old style: 10 September) 1917, he was arrested in Dvinsk; after October 1917, he was set free, and lived illegally. On 18 November (old style: 1 December) 1917, he was arrested in Russia Hotel (60 Moika River Embankment) on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary organization. On 3 January (old style: 16 January) 1918, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison, and was set free on probation after serving one year due to the illness of his son in April 1918 by order of F.E. Dzerzhinsky and N.N. Krestinsky and signed a statement confirming his voluntary intention to return to continue serving his sentence. He was amnestied on 1 May 1918. In September 1918, he moved to Kiev, participated in the Council of State Unification of Russia. In December 1918, he joined the Volunteers' Army. Purishkevich also organized the All-Russian National State Party, and published Kolokol journal. He authored numerous articles, poems, pamphlets and memoirs. He died of typhus in Novorossiisk. In St. Petersburg he lived in 39 Shpalernaya Street.

Works: Diary - How I murdered Rasputin. The reprinted publication. 1924. Moscow, 1990.

References: В. М. Пуришкевич // Политическая история России в партиях и лицах. М., 1993. С. 320-340; Розенталь И. С. Пуришкевич - известный и неизвестный: (К вопр. об эволюции правого радикализма в России) // Проблемы политической и экономической истории России: Сб. ст. М., 1998. С. 284-303; Кирьянов Ю. И. Правые партии в России, 1911-1917. М., 2001.

A. V. Repnikov. Dubrovin Alexander Ivanovich
Dzerzhinsky Ivan Ivanovich
Krestinsky Nikolay Nikolaevich
Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich
Rasputin Grigory Efimovich
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 60
Shpalernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 39
Кирьянов Ю.И. Правые партии в России, 1911 - 1917. М., 2001
В.М. Пуришкевич // Политическая история России в партиях и лицах. М., 1993
Розенталь И.С. Пуришкевич - известный и неизвестный: (К вопр. об эвалюции правого радикализма в России) // Проблемы политической и экономической истории России: Сб. ст. М., 1998
Дневник "Как я убил Распутина". Репр. воспр. изд. 1924 г. М., 1990 Ministry of Internal Affairs
The Russian Assembly , political organization
State Duma
Union of Archangel Michael, the political organization