Alexander Guchkov was born on October 27, 1862 in Moscow. Alexander Ivanovich came from a family of old Moscow merchants. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1881, he continued his education at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. Then the merchant's son went to Germany, where he listened to lectures on history and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, preparing himself for a scientific career. But life decreed otherwise.
In 1886, an honorary magistrate in Moscow. In 1892 - 1893 he participated in helping the starving in the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province.
Since 1893 he was a member of the Moscow City Council. With his participation, the construction of the Mytishchi water pipeline was completed and the first stage of sewerage was carried out.
From 1896 to 1897 he was a friend of the Moscow mayor. From 1897 he was a member of the Moscow City Duma, was a member of the railway, water and sewer commissions, as well as commissions on gas lighting, on insurance of hired labor, and on the development of the issue of charity for homeless and homeless children.
At the end of 1897, he entered the service of the security guard of the Chinese Eastern Railway and was enlisted as a junior officer in the Cossack hundred. From December 1897 to February 1899 he served in Manchuria, and then retired to the reserve and returned to Moscow.
Among the escapades of Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov that struck the imagination of his contemporaries was his expedition to South Africa in 1900, where he, along with his brother Fyodor, arrived as a volunteer to fight on the side of the Boers in the war against England. For several months he took part in the fighting, was captured by the British, was wounded in the leg. In this military campaign, Alexander Ivanovich showed courage that bordered on recklessness. By the way, even ill-wishers noted this character trait.
In January 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began, and on behalf of the city duma, as its representative and assistant to the chief commissioner of the Red Cross Society, in March Alexander went to the theater of operations, and at the end of the year he took the post of chief commissioner.
After the defeat of the Russian army, the Commissioner-in-Chief of the Red Cross observed with indignation the cowardly flight of many people from among service personnel hospitals that left the wounded to fend for themselves. In this situation, he made an extremely courageous and noble decision: to remain in Mukden along with non-evacuated soldiers and to facilitate the transfer of hospitals to the Japanese army in accordance with international standards.
The act made a great impression on contemporaries. Alexander Guchkov became one of the founders of the Union of October 17 party, as well as the authors of its policy documents. He founded the Octobrist newspaper "Voice of Moscow", in which he waged a stubborn struggle against the Cadets.
Later, he became a shareholder in the publishing house of Novoye Vremya. In December 1905, during a discussion in the Moscow City Duma of the issue of measures regarding the Moscow uprising.
Unable to get into the State Duma in Moscow under the effect of the electoral law of 1905, Guchkov at the end of 1906 rented a flour mill in the Kashirsky district, Tula province, to acquire a qualification, but this qualification was protested by the governor, and in the Second Duma Guchkov did not hit.
In May 1907, he was elected a member of the State Council by representatives of industry and trade, but in October 1907 he refused this title, preferring to stand as a candidate for the III State Duma, where he was elected by the first city curia of Moscow.
In the State Duma, as the leader of the Octobrist party, he immediately occupied a very prominent position. Almost all the time he was a member of the state defense commissions, until 1910 he was chairman.
He defended the freedom of the Old Believers, objected to new loans for the construction of battleships. His Duma activity called him into constant conflicts with other deputies. He challenged Milyukov to a duel, which did not take place, insulted Count Uvarov and refused to be called to an arbitration court, after which Uvarov challenged him to a duel in 1909. Guchkov slightly wounded Uvarov and was sentenced to imprisonment in the fortress for 4 weeks, but on the Highest order he served only one week.
In 1910, on March 8, after the refusal of N.A. Khomyakov, from the rank of chairman of the State Duma, Guchkov was elected to this post by a majority, 221 votes against 68. In his speech of thanks for the election, Guchkov declared that he was "a staunch supporter of the constitutional-monarchist system," that the Duma would have to "reckon with, and perhaps even reckon with, the State Council," and promised to protect "that independence of speech, freedom of criticism, with which tribune" of the State Duma.
After the meetings of the State Duma and the State Council were interrupted for three days in March 1911 in order to pass, in accordance with Article 87 of the Basic Law, a draft law on zemstvos in the western provinces, Guchkov, in protest, resigned as chairman and again became an ordinary deputy. In the elections to the Fourth Duma in 1912, he was not elected. In 1912, he was elected a member of the St. Petersburg City Duma.
In 1935 Guchkov fell seriously ill. Doctors diagnosed - bowel cancer and hid it from their patient. Being ill, Guchkov worked and believed in his recovery.
Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov died on February 14, 1936, from intestinal cancer in Paris, on February 17, a funeral liturgy was held, where the entire elite of the white emigration gathered. By the will of Guchkov, his body was cremated, and the urn with the ashes was immured in the wall of the columbarium at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Guchkov, Alexander Ivanovich(1862–1936), Russian statesman. Born October 14 (26), 1862 in Moscow in an old merchant family. Graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University; continued education abroad; listened to lectures on history and philosophy at Berlin, Vienna and Heidelberg universities. Initially, he planned to devote his life to a scientific career, but then abandoned this intention. In 1885-1886 he served in the Life Guards. In 1886 he was elected an honorary magistrate in Moscow. In 1892–1893 he organized assistance to the starving in the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province; awarded the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree. In 1893 he became a member of the Moscow City Council. In 1896–1897 he was a comrade (deputy) of the Moscow mayor. In 1897 he was elected a vowel (deputy) of the Moscow City Duma.
He was risk averse. In 1895, at the height of the anti-Armenian hysteria in Turkey, he visited the territories of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Armenians. In December 1897 he went to Manchuria and entered the service of the Cossack hundred guarding the Chinese-Eastern railway; in February 1899 he was transferred to the reserve for a duel and returned to Moscow. In the same year he left for South Africa, where he volunteered in the Anglo-Boer War on the side of the Boers; He was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner by the British. In 1900 he was in China during the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion against foreign domination. In 1903 he went to Macedonia to support local rebels in their struggle against Turkish oppression. After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, as a representative of the Moscow City Duma and assistant to the chief commissioner of the Red Cross Society in March 1904, he left for the front; with extraordinary energy he was engaged in the organization of the sanitary service; at the end of 1904 he became the chief commissioner of the Red Cross Society. After the defeat of the Russian army near Mukden in February 1905, in a situation of general panic and chaos, he refused to leave the non-evacuated wounded and handed over the hospital to the Japanese in accordance with international rules; a month later he was released by the Japanese command and returned to Moscow, where he was given a triumphant welcome.
During the First Russian Revolution of 1905–1907, he took a moderate-liberal position, advocating constitutional monarchy and the preservation of the territorial unity of the Russian Empire; led a debate with PN Milyukov on the issue of Poland's autonomy. Hailed the Manifesto October 17, 1905; became one of the founders of the "Union of October 17" (the Octobrist party); participated in the development of its program documents. In 1906 he headed the "Union". He condemned the anti-government actions of the revolutionaries, spoke in favor of applying harsh measures to them, demanding the introduction of courts-martial.
He was defeated in the elections to the 1st and 2nd State Dumas. In May 1907, with the support of P.A. Stolypin, he was elected to the State Council. In the summer of 1907, he received an offer from him to take the post of Minister of Trade and Industry, but put forward conditions unacceptable to the government. In October 1907 he became a deputy of the 3rd State Duma, heading the Octobrist faction and the state defense commission in it. Actively supported the policy of P.A. Stolypin. In November 1908 he openly demanded to cut the budget of the Grand Dukes, causing sharp discontent with Nicholas II. In March 1910 he was elected chairman of the Duma, but in March 1911 he resigned in protest against the government passing the Duma law on Zemstvos in the western provinces. In January 1912, he was one of the first to publicly condemn the sinister role of G.E. Rasputin at court; by this time he was finally convinced of the political doom of the Romanov dynasty. In the fall of 1912, he failed in the elections to the 4th State Duma. In November 1913, at a meeting of the Octobrists in St. Petersburg, he declared the impossibility of reforming the regime and the proximity of a revolutionary explosion.
With the outbreak of the First World War, he went to the front as a special commissioner of the Red Cross Society; organized hospitals and provided them with everything necessary. In July 1915 he became chairman of the Central Military Industrial Committee. In September, he was elected to the State Council from the commercial and industrial curia. He took an active part in the activities of the Duma Progressive Bloc, which united nationalists, Octobrists, Cadets, Progressives and Centrists. Together with N.V. Nekrasov and M.I. Tereshchenko, he developed plans for a palace coup and the creation of a “responsible ministry”.
During the days of the February Revolution, on behalf of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, on March 2 (15), 1917, together with V.V. Shulgin, he went to Pskov to Nicholas II to negotiate his abdication in favor of his son Alexei; the emperor, however, proclaimed his brother Michael as successor. Upon his return to Petrograd on March 3 (16), together with P.N. Milyukov, he tried to persuade Grand Duke Mikhail to accept the throne, but failed.
In the first composition of the Provisional Government, he took the post of military and naval minister. Cleaned up the high command. He carried out a number of measures to democratize the army (the abolition of titles, allowing military personnel to be members of political associations, the abolition of national, religious and estate restrictions on the production of officers, the introduction of an eight-hour working day at military factories). At the same time, he tried to prevent the creation of elected soldiers' committees in military units that controlled the decisions of commanders, thereby undermining the principle of one-man command, but was soon forced to sanction their existence. Being a supporter of the war to a victorious end, he made significant efforts to maintain discipline in the army and mobilize the military industry. In March, he appointed a "strong personality" - General L.G. Kornilov, commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District, who began to form special units to fight the revolution (detachments of "people's freedom"). In April, he suggested that the government resort to tough measures and liquidate the Soviets, but was supported only by Foreign Minister P.N. Milyukov. Realizing the impossibility of preventing the collapse of the armed forces, on April 30 (May 13) he resigned and returned to the post of chairman of the Central Military Industrial Committee.
In May 1917, he headed the Society for the Economic Revival of Russia, created to support moderate candidates in the elections to the Constituent Assembly and to combat the influence of socialists at the front. In the summer, together with M.V. Rodzianko, he founded the Liberal Republican Party, which he intended to make "the party of order". He actively supported L.G. Kornilov, who became the supreme commander in chief, in his plans to establish a military dictatorship. On August 14 (27), he spoke at the State Conference in Moscow condemning the economic chaos in the country and the impotence of state power.
During the Kornilov rebellion he was at the headquarters of the 12th Army; after the defeat of the rebellion on August 31 (September 13), 1917, he was arrested, but a few days later he was released on the orders of A.F. Kerensky. After living for some time in Petrograd, at the end of September he left for Moscow, and then for Kislovodsk.
The October Revolution met with hostility. In December 1917, he was one of the first to provide significant financial assistance to the Volunteer Army that was being formed on the Don; campaigned among the officers, urging them to join the ranks of volunteers. He was constantly under the threat of arrest by the Bolshevik authorities; in the spring of 1918 he went underground, and in June he fled from Kislovodsk. Hiding in Essentuki; in August, he made his way to Yekaterinodar, occupied by the Whites.
In the spring of 1919, on behalf of A.I. Denikin, he went to Europe as a diplomatic representative of the White movement. During his mission (1919-1920) he negotiated with the governments of France, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, achieving significant assistance in arms, ammunition and food. After the defeat of A.I. Denikin and P.N. Wrangel, he remained in the West. Lived in Paris; since 1921 he was a member of the leadership of the Foreign Red Cross. He did not belong to any emigrant group, but he participated in many all-Russian political events. Considered by the monarchist wing of emigration as one of the main culprits for the fall of the Romanovs; in 1921 in Berlin he was even beaten by the extremist Taborisky. By the end of the 1920s, he retired from public political activity. Shortly before his death, he began to write memoirs, which remained unfinished. He died in Paris on February 14, 1936 and was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
Ivan Krivushin
GUCHKOV ALEXANDER IVANOVICH
(b. 1862 - d. 1936)
Leader of the Octobrist Party in Russia, one of the organizers of the February Revolution of 1917, Minister of the Provisional Government.
Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov was born in a Moscow Old Believer (non-priest) merchant family. His great-grandfather was a serf, who later bought himself free, built a weaving factory and became an honorary citizen, merchant and manufacturer. The father of the future revolutionary, Ivan Efimovich, was a member of the Moscow Duma, a merchant of the first guild, an honorary citizen, one of the richest bankers in the empire. Ivan Efimovich was married to a Frenchwoman Caroline Vaquier, from whom Alexander Guchkov inherited his "southern temperament". He wrote about himself as an "adventurer", and his contemporaries called him either "an eccentric fanfaron", or a "pirate", or a "man of action".
Alexander Guchkov graduated from the Second Moscow Gymnasium and the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, attended lectures at Berlin, Vienna, and Heidelberg Universities. In 1885, he joined the Life Guards and rose to the rank of ensign.
Since 1886, Guchkov was repeatedly elected an honorary justice of the peace in Moscow. In 1893 he became a member of the Moscow City Council, and in 1896–1897 he served as deputy mayor of Moscow. Soon Alexander Ivanovich becomes a member of the City Duma. It seemed that he was destined for a brilliant career as a government official or head of Moscow. But at the age of 34, he abruptly changed his fate - leaving the Moscow "beau monde", he returned to military service. In 1897-1899, Guchkov served in the security guards of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria as an officer of the Cossack Hundred. He was expelled from the army for challenging one of the CER engineers to a duel. In general, Alexander Ivanovich, possessing an explosive and eccentric character, in his youth was considered not only a "secular lion", but also a duelist, he had six duels and several failed because of the opponents' refusal to shoot. Later, Guchkov had frequent conflicts even with the Duma deputies - he challenged the leader of the Cadets Milyukov to a duel, shot with Count Uvarov.
After leaving the army, in 1899, Alexander Guchkov, together with his brother Fedor, volunteered for the Anglo-Boer War in distant South Africa. He fought against the British on the side of the Boers, was wounded in the leg (after which he limped all his life), and for some time languished in captivity with the British.
In 1900, Guchkov left for China, where he witnessed the "Boxer Rebellion" of the Chinese against the British and French. And in 1903, Alexander Ivanovich managed to fight in Macedonia "for the freedom of the southern Slavs from the Turkish yoke." Witte described Guchkov as follows: "A lover of strong sensations and a brave man." Having married the daughter of the marshal of the Starobelsky nobility, Maria Zilotti, Guchkov seemed to settle down. Soon, two children appeared in the family.
At the beginning of 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and Guchkov rushed to the front as an assistant to the head of the Red Cross Society. During the Mukden battle, he is among the soldiers, and after the Russians flee from Mukden, he remains with the wounded in the abandoned Mukden, voluntarily surrendering to the Japanese troops.
Guchkov returned from captivity to revolutionary Moscow in May 1905. The City Duma was then almost the center of the revolution, and Alexander Ivanovich himself became recognized leader Russian liberal constitutionalists. He enthusiastically met the tsar's manifesto on October 17, 1905, in which he saw the main achievement of the revolution - "the voluntary renunciation of the monarch from the rights of unlimited monarchy." In October 1905, Guchkov became one of the largest political figures in Russia - the head of the Octobrist party "Union of October 17". In May 1907 he was elected to the State Council, but in October 1905 he refused this honor, but in September 1915 he was again re-elected. Alexander Guchkov was elected to the State Duma of the 3rd convocation, and from March 1910 to March 1911 he was chairman of the Third Duma.
In 1912, Guchkov received the title of real state councilor. He resigned from the post of chairman of the State Duma in protest against the adoption by the Duma of the Stolypin law on zemstvos in the western provinces. At the same time, Guchkov had personal friendly relations with Prime Minister Stolypin. Back in 1907, Stolypin offered him the post of Minister of Trade and Industry in his cabinet.
In the Third Duma, Alexander Guchkov headed the commission for state defense and a faction of the Octobrist party, which fought for a constitutional monarchy while maintaining the "united and indivisible Russian Empire." Since 1908, Guchkov sharply criticized the monarchy, the tsar and the "court camarilla", and a little later he became one of the main accusers of the royal favorite Grigory Rasputin, causing the hatred of the crowned spouses. The wife of the Emperor Alexander Feodorovna wrote to Nicholas II: “Oh, if only Guchkov could be hanged!”, “Guchkov is working against our dynasty.” At the same time, Guchkov was engaged in entrepreneurship, was the director of a large bank, and in 1917 his property and bank papers were valued at one million gold rubles.
With the outbreak of the First World War, in the fateful August 1914, Guchkov became a commissioner of the Red Cross at the front, organized hospitals and medical services, and in July 1915 he headed the Central Military Industrial Committee. In the fall of 1916, Guchkov, together with the influential Masons Tereshchenko and Nekrasov, prepared a palace coup, as a result of which a constitutional monarchy was to be established in Russia and a “government responsible to the people” was created under the regency of Mikhail Romanov.
Guchkov was one of the main organizers of the February Revolution of 1917; during the days of the uprising in Petrograd, he collaborated with the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. It was Alexander Guchkov who accepted on the evening of March 2, 1917 from Nicholas II a manifesto on the abdication of the Russian throne. From March 2 to April 30, 1917, Guchkov was the military and naval minister of the revolutionary Provisional Government of Russia. In his orders, he replaced the concept of "lower rank" with "soldier", abolished titles in the armed forces; demanded to say “you” when addressing soldiers and sailors, allowed servicemen to participate in organizations “formed for political purposes”, but condemned Order No. 1 of the Petrograd Soviet because it sowed anarchy in army units.
Guchkov advocated the abolition of national, religious, class and political restrictions on the promotion to officers, allowed the workers of military factories to elect factory committees. During his short term work as a minister in companies, regiments and armies, elected committees, soldiers in composition, were introduced. Guchkov replaced part of the army's top command staff, ridding it of reactionary generals and officers.
At the same time, he was a supporter of continuing the war with Germany "to the bitter end", for the fight against the influence of the Soviets in the army. Guchkov was the first to try to create "reliable military units"To curb anarchy and establish order, and nominated General Kornilov to the commanders-in-chief - dictators. Guchkov also thought of a military conspiracy to establish a "revolutionary dictatorship" in Russia. Sometimes Alexander Ivanovich let slip: "... we must again drive the crowd back into place."
Already on April 20, 1917, Guchkov declared that "the fatherland is in danger" not because of the German threat, but because of the "pacifist ideas" of the Russian socialists. Guchkov considered the pernicious influence of "Russian revolutionary democracy" to be the cause of the economic chaos and powerlessness of the government. At the end of April 1917, he announced his resignation from the post of minister due to general inaction and accusations against him from the "left" forces. In May 1917, Guchkov headed the Society for the Economic Revival of Russia, which helped "moderate" candidates in the elections to the Constituent Assembly and supported Kornilov in preparing a military coup.
In the summer of 1917, Alexander Guchkov became one of the founders of the Liberal Republican Party. After the defeat of the Kornilov rebellion on August 31, 1917, as the main ideologist of the rebellion, he was arrested, but on September 1, 1917, by order of Prime Minister Kerensky, he was released. Guchkov reacted with hostility to the October Revolution, went underground and hid under a false name. Until the summer of 1918, Guchkov lived in Soviet Russia, later he made his way to the location of the White Guard troops. Alexander Ivanovich can be safely called the organizer of the "white cause" - he was one of the first to give a significant amount of money for the formation of the Volunteer Army. But he could no longer play a noticeable role in the white movement because of his former revolutionary affiliation. In the spring of 1919, at the request of Denikin, Guchkov left for Europe to negotiate with the leaders of the Entente countries on supporting the white movement.
After the failure of the "white cause", Alexander Ivanovich and his family settled in Paris. In exile, Guchkov organizes the work of the foreign Russian Red Cross, tries to organize assistance to the starving in the USSR, and visits Masonic lodges. Russian emigrants-monarchists accuse him of "organizing the revolution and the death of the empire" and persecute him. Once they even beat old Guchkov.
In early February 1936, Alexander Ivanovich dies of intestinal cancer, and his ashes find peace in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where the Parisian Communards and the anarchist Makhno are buried.
From the book of 100 famous anarchists and revolutionaries author Savchenko Victor AnatolievichGERTSEN ALEXANDER IVANOVICH (born in 1812 - died in 1870) Famous Russian revolutionary democrat, publicist and writer. The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a German woman, Louise Haag, Alexander Herzen was born on March 25, 1812 in Moscow. The boy got a surname
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From the book Soldier's Valor author Vaganov Ivan MaksimovichTEPLENICHEV Alexander Ivanovich (02/03/1937). Member of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee from 07/13/1990 to 08/23/1991 Member of the CPSU Central Committee since 1990 Member of the CPSU since 1964 Russian. In 1956 he graduated from the Mozdok elevator
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From the book Silver Age. Portrait Gallery of Cultural Heroes of the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries. Volume 3. S-Z author Fokin Pavel EvgenievichALEXANDER IVANOVICH KUTEPOV From 1942 until the end of the war, AI Kutepov served in intelligence. His feats of arms began in Belarus, he went for "languages" in Ukraine and Moldova, Hungary and Romania. Exterminated the invaders in their own lair, disarmed the divisions
From the book Shchepkin author Ivashnev Vitaly IvanovichMININ ALEXANDER IVANOVICH It was on the Kursk-Oryol Bulge. The platoon of submachine gunners, which was given the calculation of Sergeant Minin, was ordered to advance to the outskirts of the Ponyri station, take possession of the hill, gain a foothold on it and help the battalion advance with their fire.
From the author's bookALEXANDER IVANOVICH SPITSYN The division in which Alexander Spitsyn fought liberated over 40 cities, thousands of villages and workers' settlements. Spitsyn crossed more than twenty rivers, he handed over 18 "languages" to the battalion headquarters. 12 destroyed machine guns, three pillboxes, ten fortified dugouts on
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From the author's book From the author's book From the author's bookAlexander Ivanovich Herzen Not only Turgenev, being in disgrace, was warmed by Shchepkin's friendly participation. The artist made similar trips to both Herzen and Shevchenko, but in the biographical literature these facts are either passed over in silence or are mentioned in passing, or even
Guchkov Alexander Ivanovich (1862-1936), Russian statesman. Born October 14 (26), 1862 in Moscow in an old merchant family. Graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University; continued education abroad; listened to lectures on history and philosophy at Berlin, Vienna and Heidelberg universities. Initially, he planned to devote his life to a scientific career, but then abandoned this intention. In 1885-1886 he served in the Life Guards.
In 1886 he was elected an honorary magistrate in Moscow. In 1892-1893 he organized assistance to the starving in the Lukoyanovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province; awarded the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree. In 1893 he became a member of the Moscow City Council. In 1896-1897 he was a comrade (deputy) of the Moscow mayor. In 1897 he was elected a vowel (deputy) of the Moscow City Duma.
He was risk averse. In 1895, at the height of the anti-Armenian hysteria in Turkey, he visited the territories of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Armenians. In December 1897 he went to Manchuria and joined the Cossack hundred guarding the Chinese Eastern Railway; in February 1899 he was transferred to the reserve for a duel and returned to Moscow. In the same year he left for South Africa, where he volunteered in the Anglo-Boer War on the side of the Boers; He was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner by the British.
In 1900 he was in China during the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion against foreign domination. In 1903 he went to Macedonia to support local rebels in their struggle against Turkish oppression. After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, as a representative of the Moscow City Duma and assistant to the chief commissioner of the Red Cross Society in March 1904, he left for the front; with extraordinary energy he was engaged in the organization of the sanitary service; at the end of 1904 he became the chief commissioner of the Red Cross Society. After the defeat of the Russian army near Mukden in February 1905, in a situation of general panic and chaos, he refused to leave the non-evacuated wounded and handed over the hospital to the Japanese in accordance with international rules; a month later he was released by the Japanese command and returned to Moscow, where he was given a triumphant welcome.
During the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, he took a moderately liberal position, advocating a constitutional monarchy and the preservation of the territorial unity of the Russian Empire; led a debate with PN Milyukov on the issue of Poland's autonomy. Hailed the Manifesto October 17, 1905; became one of the founders of the "Union of October 17" (the Octobrist party); participated in the development of its program documents. In 1906 he headed the "Union". He condemned the anti-government actions of the revolutionaries, spoke in favor of applying harsh measures to them, demanding the introduction of courts-martial.
He was defeated in the elections to the 1st and 2nd State Dumas. In May 1907, with the support of P.A. Stolypin, he was elected to the State Council. In the summer of 1907, he received an offer from him to take the post of Minister of Trade and Industry, but put forward conditions unacceptable to the government. In October 1907 he became a deputy of the 3rd State Duma, heading the Octobrist faction and the state defense commission in it. Actively supported the policy of P.A. Stolypin. In November 1908, he openly demanded to cut the budget of the Grand Dukes, causing a sharp discontent of Nicholas II. In March 1910 he was elected chairman of the Duma, but in March 1911 he resigned in protest against the government passing the Duma law on Zemstvos in the western provinces. In January 1912, he was one of the first to publicly condemn the sinister role of G.E. Rasputin at court; by this time he was finally convinced of the political doom of the Romanov dynasty. In the fall of 1912, he failed in the elections to the 4th State Duma. In November 1913, at a meeting of the Octobrists in St. Petersburg, he declared the impossibility of reforming the regime and the proximity of a revolutionary explosion.
With the outbreak of the First World War, he went to the front as a special commissioner of the Red Cross Society; organized hospitals and provided them with everything necessary. In July 1915 he became chairman of the Central Military Industrial Committee. In September, he was elected to the State Council from the commercial and industrial curia. He took an active part in the activities of the Duma Progressive Bloc, which united nationalists, Octobrists, Cadets, Progressives and Centrists. Together with N.V. Nekrasov and M.I. Tereshchenko, he developed plans for a palace coup and the creation of a “responsible ministry”.
During the days of the February Revolution, on behalf of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, on March 2 (15), 1917, together with V.V. Shulgin, he went to Pskov to Nicholas II to negotiate his abdication in favor of his son Alexei; the emperor, however, proclaimed his brother Michael as successor. Upon his return to Petrograd on March 3 (16), together with P.N. Milyukov, he tried to persuade Grand Duke Mikhail to accept the throne, but failed.
In the first composition of the Provisional Government, he took the post of military and naval minister. Cleaned up the high command. He carried out a number of measures to democratize the army (the abolition of titles, allowing military personnel to be members of political associations, the abolition of national, religious and estate restrictions on the production of officers, the introduction of an eight-hour working day at military factories).
At the same time, he tried to prevent the creation of elected soldiers' committees in military units that controlled the decisions of commanders, thereby undermining the principle of one-man command, but was soon forced to sanction their existence. Being a supporter of the war to a victorious end, he made significant efforts to maintain discipline in the army and mobilize the military industry. In March, he appointed a "strong personality" - General L.G. Kornilov, commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District, who began to form special units to fight the revolution (detachments of "people's freedom"). In April, he suggested that the government resort to tough measures and liquidate the Soviets, but was supported only by Foreign Minister P.N. Milyukov. Realizing the impossibility of preventing the collapse of the armed forces, on April 30 (May 13) he resigned and returned to the post of chairman of the Central Military Industrial Committee.
In May 1917, he headed the Society for the Economic Revival of Russia, created to support moderate candidates in the elections to the Constituent Assembly and to combat the influence of socialists at the front. In the summer, together with M. V. Rodzianko, he founded the Liberal Republican Party, which he intended to turn into a "party of order." He actively supported L.G. Kornilov, who became the supreme commander in chief, in his plans to establish a military dictatorship. On August 14 (27), he spoke at the State Conference in Moscow condemning the economic chaos in the country and the impotence of state power.
During the Kornilov rebellion he was at the headquarters of the 12th Army; after the defeat of the rebellion on August 31 (September 13), 1917, he was arrested, but a few days later he was released on the orders of A.F. Kerensky. After living for some time in Petrograd, at the end of September he left for Moscow, and then for Kislovodsk.
The October Revolution met with hostility. In December 1917, he was one of the first to provide significant financial assistance to the Volunteer Army that was being formed on the Don; campaigned among the officers, urging them to join the ranks of volunteers. He was constantly under the threat of arrest by the Bolshevik authorities; in the spring of 1918 he went underground, and in June he fled from Kislovodsk. Hiding in Essentuki; in August, he made his way to Yekaterinodar, occupied by the Whites.
In the spring of 1919, on behalf of A.I. Denikin, he went to Europe as a diplomatic representative of the White movement. During his mission (1919-1920) he negotiated with the governments of France, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, achieving significant assistance in arms, ammunition and food. After the defeat of A.I. Denikin and P.N. Wrangel, he remained in the West. Lived in Paris; since 1921 he was a member of the leadership of the Foreign Red Cross. He did not belong to any emigrant group, but he participated in many all-Russian political events.
Considered by the monarchist wing of emigration as one of the main culprits for the fall of the Romanovs; in 1921 in Berlin he was even beaten by the extremist Taborisky. By the end of the 1920s, he retired from public political activity. Shortly before his death, he began to write memoirs, which remained unfinished. He died in Paris on February 14, 1936 and was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
Russian capitalist and head of a large Moscow trading firm. One of the most controversial politicians of the early 20th century, leader of the Octobrists. Chairman of the 3rd State Duma, member of the State Council, chairman of the Central Military Industrial Committee, military and naval minister of the Provisional Government. (b. 1862 - d. 1936)
the day before regular elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in August 1999, journalists learned that the Society of Merchants and Industrialists of Russia had developed a project to train lobbyists for small and medium-sized businesses. Oleg Vtorov, Chairman of the Council of the Society, said in an interview that “in this document, we pose the question in this way: in the business environment, we need to look for suitable people, train them, and nominate them so that they can defend the interests of their class at all levels of government.” At the same time, modern “merchants and industrialists” are not afraid to use the term “lobbyists” aloud, which in “ explanatory dictionary” is interpreted as “behind-the-scenes businessmen who behind the scenes influence members of parliament through bribery and bribes; phenomenon that characterizes corruption ... "
“This is not entirely true,” says O. Vtorov. - In the US and in Europe, "lobbyism" is not a curse word, it is done by normal, serious people. But in Europe, the free market is two or three hundred years old, and lobbyists naturally emerge from the entrepreneurial environment. And we have to teach people again.” The Society hopes that when entrepreneurs are elected to the Duma, they will immediately begin to create laws that favor the development of business: “Let's say, a law on taxation is being considered. And in it, in the opinion of the entrepreneur, there are points that infringe on his interests. And he, the lobbyist, proposes, convinces, insists, votes. And only people who have felt in their own skin what entrepreneurial work is can do this effectively and competently. Or they twirled in the business environment, they know the problems, they have erudition, eloquence, assertiveness, the gift of persuasion.
By the way, before the revolution, the State Duma consisted of a third of merchants and industrialists. And the deputies openly engaged in lobbying. Duma Chairman A. I. Guchkov was reproached for this more than once. He answered this: “Why, in fact, it is impossible to lobby those who not only increase the economic power of the country, but also provide social sphere, salary, jobs, is engaged in charity, patronage?” By the way, found someone to blame! It was Guchkov who in 1905, at his own expense, equipped an ambulance train that saved our wounded on the fields of the Manchu battles. And many entrepreneurs disposed of their funds in a similar way.
If we try to describe in a few words this bright personality, like Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov, then first of all one should name courage, inflexibility of will, consistency, frankness and directness, sincere patriotism. These qualities of the politician and businessman Guchkov were admired by some and irritated by others, helping him achieve his goals in life and complicating his relationships with others.
The future capitalist and politician was born on October 14, 1862 in Moscow, in a merchant family of the Old Believers, long known in business circles in Russia. Even his grandfather, a former serf peasant Fyodor Alekseevich Guchkov, who moved to Moscow from the Kaluga province, founded in 1789 a cloth manufactory in the village of Preobrazhensky, which he soon turned into a large woolen factory. The success of F. A. Guchkov was due to his personal abilities and diligence, as well as the system of serf entrepreneurship that existed at that time, when a serf released for fishing, having become rich, paid a ransom. A significant role in the transformation of the former peasant into a breeder was played by the economic policy of the Preobrazhensky Old Believer community, where he was sent for training. Its essence was that any member of the community, under the guarantee of the trustees, could take an interest-free loan. At the same time, it was allowed to repay the loan not in in full if the profits were used to expand the business.
The sons of Fedor Alekseevich - Ivan and Efim - have been running the family textile business for almost 30 years. Having taken over from their father in 1825, the brothers visited trade and industrial centers England, Germany and France, where they ordered modern spinning and carding machines, and then established the first worsted and spinning factory in Russia to produce yarn from the wool of Spanish breed sheep. By the mid 1840s. they managed to make it "the most famous in Russia", as it is written in the Atlas of the industry of the Moscow province of that time. All foreign innovations and improvements were immediately introduced into production and then borrowed by breeders throughout Russia.
The factory produced sloe, cashmere and chandeliers; woolen, mixed with silk and paper, as well as stuffed fabrics; velvet carpets and chenille scarves and was considered the largest in Moscow. In 1853, about 2 thousand workers worked on it, and the amount of output produced per year was 700 thousand rubles in silver. Finance Ministers Kanakrin and Vronchenko often sent delegations of Russian dignitaries and foreign guests there. The sale of goods was carried out through company stores in Moscow on the Kuznetsky bridge and in St. Petersburg, as well as in the Baltic states, Poland, the Danube lands, Central Asia and Persia.
Over time, Efim Fedorovich began to engage in factory production, and Ivan Fedorovich in the 60s. 19th century was elected head of the Moscow merchant council, then - a member of the Council of Trade and Manufactories, an honorary magistrate of Moscow, served in the office of the State Bank, was elected to the foreman of the Moscow Exchange Committee. His sons - Alexander and Konstantin, twins Nikolai and Fedor - became the successors of the family business and work for the benefit of society. Nikolai Ivanovich, for example, was the mayor of Moscow and actually introduced universal primary education in the capital. However, social activities were at the expense of entrepreneurship: in 1876 the factory was closed, and Trading house"Efim Guchkov's sons" existed until 1911.
If the first generation of the Guchkovs was engaged exclusively in production and trade, then the second and third preferred finance. Their activities included large banks and insurance companies. In the activities of the next generation, to which Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov belonged, business took second place after politics.
Even as a child, Sasha Guchkov showed the qualities inherited from his French mother: enterprise, energy and a penchant for risky ventures, for which he was nicknamed "naughty." He was even going to flee to the Russo-Turkish war to fight for the liberation of Bulgaria. Alexander studied at the 2nd Moscow gymnasium on Razgulyai - one of the largest and most prestigious secondary educational institutions the end of the 19th century, where many famous public figures of Russia, artists, writers, and scientists were educated. At this time, the boy showed a penchant for the humanities, so in 1881 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University.
After graduating from the university in 1885, he set out to defend his master's degree in history, but was called up for active military service in the 1st Life Guards Yekaterinoslav Regiment as a private. Already in October of the same year, having passed the exam, Guchkov was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer and transferred to the reserve. Returning home, the young man remained for another year as a volunteer at the same faculty, studying with the famous professors V. I. Gerrier, P. G. Vinogradov, V. O. Klyuchevsky. Then Alexander listened to lectures on history and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg.
While still at Moscow University, Guchkov was involved in a circle of young historians, lawyers, and economists. Here, well-known scientists later made their first scientific reports: P. N. Milyukov, A. A. Kizevetter, S. F. Fortunatov, A. A. Manuilov, V. F. Deryuzhinsky. However, it was not enough for Guchkov's active nature to study history alone, his scientific career did not develop, and he devoted himself to social activities with all his passion. Alexander Ivanovich since 1888 was repeatedly elected an honorary magistrate, was a member of the Moscow City Council, and a member of the City Duma. With his active participation, the construction of a water supply system in Mytishchi was completed and the first stage of sewerage was carried out. In 1894, for his distinction in service, he received his first award - the Order of St. Anne, III degree. However, all this did not satisfy the young man, who longed for thrills. In 1895 Guchkov went to dangerous journey through the lands of the Ottoman Empire covered by anti-Armenian uprisings and crossed through Tibet. Then he entered the service as a junior officer of the Cossack hundreds on the protection of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria, traveled on horseback through China, Mongolia, Central Asia, but in 1899 he was dismissed from service for a duel. In the same year, he volunteered for South Africa and fought on the side of the Boers against the British, was wounded and even captured, but was released "on parole".
In 1903, on the eve of his own wedding, Guchkov rushed off to fight in Macedonia, where an anti-Turkish uprising began. The bride of Alexander Ivanovich, Maria Ilyinichna Siloti, waited for her fiancé, and the wedding nevertheless took place. In this marriage, two children were born: a son, Leo, who died in 1916, and a daughter, Vera.
The marriage did not change the character of Alexander Ivanovich. The Russo-Japanese War began, and he went to the theater of operations as a representative of the Moscow City Duma and the Committee Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, and also as an assistant to the chief authorized officer of the Red Cross Society under the Manchurian army. In the spring of 1905, Guchkov was captured by the Japanese, because he did not consider it possible to leave with the Russian troops retreating from Mukden and leave the wounded in the hospital. The Japanese released the famous capitalist, and he returned to Russia as a hero.
Once in Russia during the revolutionary events of 1905, Alexander Ivanovich became one of the leading figures in the liberal movement. He took part in zemstvo-city congresses, became one of the leaders of the right-wing, "Shilovsky" minority, participated in the creation and headed the "Union of October 17". Since 1906, Guchkov was the chairman of the Central Committee of this party of landowners and the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, participated in the work of all its congresses and conferences, making a considerable contribution to the reform Russian economy. Having become one of the ideologists of "Octoberism", he believed that the monarchy, in unity with the people through the Duma and the constitution, would contribute to social progress. Speaking for equality before the law, the guarantee of individual rights and the introduction of civil and political freedoms, the Octobrists did not raise the question of the elimination of landownership and supported the reforms of P. A. Stolypin.
In 1907, Guchkov was elected to the 3rd State Duma, where he headed the Octobrist faction and the Duma's defense commission. The following year, he bought a mansion for his family on Furshtatskaya Street and finally settled in St. Petersburg. March 1910 to March 1911 Alexander Ivanovich was already the chairman of the State Duma. Being a direct and uncompromising person, he often came into conflict with Duma deputies, sometimes reaching clashes. The "Moscow merchant" was perceived there as one of the main opponents of the throne and the dynasty. So, he challenged P. N. Milyukov to a duel, fought with Count Uvarov and gendarme lieutenant colonel Myasoedov. In several speeches devoted to the activities of the Military Ministry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Synod, he extremely sharply criticized the Grand Dukes and Rasputin.
For the next few years, Guchkov continued his entrepreneurial pursuits. He was a member of the board of the St. Petersburg Accounting and Loan Bank, became a member of the board of the Insurance Society and many other similar organizations. At the same time, he did not leave social activities either.
When did the first World War, the “politician-businessman”, as an authorized society of the Russian Red Cross, was actively engaged in organizing hospitals and providing them with medicines, equipment and personnel, often went to the front. He was one of the founders and chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee, a member of the Special Conference on the Defense of the State.
His popularity and influence during the war years increased dramatically. In September 1915, Alexander Ivanovich was elected a member of the State Council from the commercial and industrial curia. The war finally convinced Guchkov of the need for a change of power. Alexander Ivanovich spoke about this in October 1915 at a meeting of the Presidium of the Progressive Bloc, which united many members of the State Duma and the State Council in opposition to the government. “The regime of favorites, magicians, jesters,” he called the ruling circles of Russia in 1915. Soon, Alexander Ivanovich came to the idea of the expediency of a dynastic coup and the creation of a ministry responsible to the Duma from liberal politicians.
However, even the implementation of the existing projects did not have enough time, and mainly forces. Attempts by Guchkov and his supporters to involve any of the senior officers in plans to remove Nicholas II from state affairs were unsuccessful: most of the generals, even those who sympathized with the idea of a coup, flatly refused to participate in the conspiracy. Alexander Ivanovich himself played a prominent role in the culminating act of the monarchist drama at the end of February 1917. When the tsarist power in the capital fell, he abruptly changed his position and insisted on saving the monarchy "quickly and decisively". Without entering into any agreements on this matter with the Petrograd Soviet, he insisted on going to Nicholas II in Pskov and "bringing the abdication in favor of the heir." It was Guchkov, together with V.V. Shulgin, who delivered to the capital the very tsar's abdication manifesto, which marked the beginning of the collapse of the Russian Empire.
In the first composition of the Provisional Government, Guchkov received the portfolio of the Minister of War and the Navy. Observing the intensification of chaos in the country, he considered it possible and necessary to carry out tough measures to suppress the authorities parallel to the Provisional Government - the Soviets. But such tactics were not supported by the Cabinet of Ministers, and on May 2, Alexander Ivanovich resigned. However, he did not leave public activity: he was a participant in the State Conference in Moscow, a member of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament). He ideologically, organizationally and financially supported General L. G. Kornilov in his preparation for decisive measures to establish "order" in the country. After the elimination of the "Kornilov rebellion" in August 1917, Guchkov was arrested among its main organizers and leaders, but after a few days he was released.
By the beginning of 1917, the state of A. I. Guchkov was estimated at 600-700 thousand rubles. This capital was invested in joint-stock banks and industrial companies. But with the advent of the Bolsheviks to power, most of the state was nationalized. Alexander Ivanovich left first for Moscow, and then, in the autumn of 1917, for Kislovodsk. In the south of Russia, Guchkov first of all wanted to "get even" with the new rulers of Russia.
When General M. V. Alekseev began to form the Volunteer Army, he was one of the first, in December 1917, to give him 10 thousand rubles. Several times the Chekists tried to arrest Guchkov. spring next year he went underground, lived illegally near Essentuki, and then moved to Yekaterinodar. Here he became close to General A.I. Denikin, tried to figure it out himself and explain to Denikin the reasons for the unpopularity of the Volunteer Army among the people, psychological problems in an officer environment. In January 1919, at the request of Denikin, he left for Paris at the head of a special mission entrusted with negotiating with the governments of countries Western Europe on the provision of material assistance to the White movement.
This departure, in fact, became an emigration for Alexander Ivanovich. On his way to France, he visited Turkey and Italy. In May, together with his former assistant in the Military Ministry, Lieutenant-General D. V. Filatiev, he made a presentation at a joint meeting of representatives of Russian émigré organizations and the Entente. At the talks in Paris with French President R. Poincare, he tried to prove the need for expanding financial and military assistance to the white armies, and in the summer he held talks with the leaders of Great Britain. On the whole, however, he became convinced that the intervention in Russia did not enjoy the support of the West.
In his correspondence with Churchill, Guchkov demanded an early mortal blow against Bolshevism and the capture of Moscow and Petrograd. He proposed to recruit volunteers in Bulgaria to fight against Soviet power and to create an army from Russian prisoners of war who were abroad. Partly the result of his persistence was the provision in August 1919 of the English financial assistance to the government of the Russian North-Western region, created by General N. N. Yudenich in Revel.
In the summer of 1920, Alexander Ivanovich came to the Crimea for a short time to see the commander-in-chief P. N. Wrangel. A complete understanding was established between them. When the Russian army of Baron Wrangel was evacuated from the Crimea to Turkey, Guchkov put a lot of effort into its preservation.
In 1921-1923. Guchkov was the chairman of the Russian Parliamentary Committee, created in order to defend the "Russian cause" before the governments of Western European countries. He tried not to miss a single opportunity to fight the Soviet regime. However, he was rather strict about the choice of allies and fellow travelers in this struggle. So, Alexander Ivanovich warned General Wrangel against any contact with the ataman G. M. Semenov, whose detachments were known for their atrocities against the civilian population on Far East and stole part of the country's gold reserves, sent by A. V. Kolchak to Vladivostok. In January 1922, Wrangel proposed to Guchkov that he mobilize émigré forces, mainly commercial, industrial and banking circles, to disrupt the economic negotiations planned in Genoa with Soviet Russia. But this venture failed due to serious disagreements that existed among the Russian emigration.
In April 1922 an attempt was made to unite the various emigrant commercial and industrial groups. A meeting of their representatives was held in Paris. Alexander Ivanovich, knowing the situation, did not appear on it. He clearly saw that Russian emigre entrepreneurs were afraid to take on any moral and material obligations, to compromise themselves with a connection with Wrangel. Therefore, an experienced politician advised the baron not to establish strong ties, but also not to break with anyone. At the end of the year, Guchkov acted as the actual initiator of the coup d'etat in Bulgaria, considering this the only way to save the units of the Russian army stationed there. Russian officers took part in the preparation of the coup, and on June 9, 1923, the government of A. Stamboliysky was overthrown.
At the same time, Alexander Ivanovich began to insist on moving the center of the fight against Bolshevism to Russia. He suggested "penetrating" into Russia by all means: "individually, in groups, in the form of enterprises, trade, industrial, publishing, etc.", which, in his opinion, should have helped to get "local figures".
In exile, Guchkov withdrew from political organizations. He condemned the governments of European states for recognizing the Soviet government and being ready for economic cooperation with the Soviets. To counteract this, on the initiative of Alexander Ivanovich, an Information Bureau was formed at the Russian Economic Bulletin in Paris. It was supposed to collect information about the economic situation in the USSR and supply this information to interested individuals and organizations.
Guchkov, living first in Germany and then in France, participated in many all-Russian congresses, often traveled to countries where compatriots lived, worked in the Main Directorate of Foreign Russian Society Red Cross. In the early 1930s he headed the work of coordinating assistance to the starving in the USSR, constantly and with keen attention studied all the information about the situation in his homeland, monitored the situation among the Russian emigration, and analyzed the attitude of leading Western politicians towards Soviet power. Conducted active correspondence, published numerous articles, made various notes and references on these issues.
It is known that the intelligence services of the USSR were keenly interested in the activities of Guchkov in exile. They even managed to recruit his daughter, Vera Trail. Alexander Ivanovich learned that his every step was becoming known to Soviet intelligence only in 1932. Shocked by this, he fell seriously ill. In the winter of 1935, his health deteriorated especially, but he had no time for treatment. Only at the end of the year Guchkov agreed to take a course of examination. Doctors at the Boucicault Hospital diagnosed him with bowel cancer. He did not experience severe pain and therefore did not stop vigorous activity. He was even transferred to the private hospital Mirabeau, where there was a freer regime. There, Alexander Ivanovich dictated letters, spoke on the phone, and talked with visitors. He even set a condition for doctors: “I need to be able to work. This is my condition. I don't need an existence without a job."
And in recent months life, Alexander Ivanovich continued to reflect on the question: was the revolution inevitable and Civil War in Russia? He believed that there was little chance of avoiding them because of the "weak monarch" and the undermined moral foundations of the ruling class. He wrote memoirs, but they remained unfinished...
Guchkov died in Paris on February 14, 1936, according to P. N. Milyukov, "lonely, silent, among strangers and not completely unraveled." The funeral liturgy took place in the church. It was attended by almost all prominent representatives of the emigration, belonging to different parties and associations that were at odds with each other. "Left" and "right" politicians, military men, writers, artists, who in a different situation did not shake hands with each other, all came to honor his memory. The body of the famous politician-entrepreneur was cremated, and the urn with the ashes was installed in the columbarium at the Père Lachaise cemetery in the French capital.
Elena Vasilyeva, Yuri Pernatiev
From the book "50 famous businessmen of the XIX - early XX century."
