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this was “stupidity or treason,” nimbly raising the
issue on many people's minds that the czar's Ger-
man-born wife's allegiances were not entirely
with Russia. After the
FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
, Mil-
iukov's erudition and intellectual brilliance did
not help him in the chaos of Russia's revolution-
ary politics in 1917, when he quickly proved
unable to adapt to a rapidly changing situation.
He was appointed minister of foreign affairs in
the first Provisional Government but was its first
political casualty when his note to the Allies
reasserting Russia's postwar territorial aspirations
was leaked to the public, and he was forced to
resign by socialist public opinion, which inter-
preted it as a continuation of czarist imperialist
foreign policies. He watched the disintegration of
the Provisional Government from the sidelines
and after the October Revolution helped form
the Volunteer Army under General
ALEKSEEV
.
After the defeat of the anti-Bolshevik resistance
in 1920, Miliukov moved to France, where he
was active in émigré politics and wrote numer-
ous works, including a
History of the Russian Revo-
lution,
in which he had played an important role.
interests in history and geography. From 1845 to
1856 he taught at the academy and continued to
publish while also devising operational plans for
the impending Russian campaign against Turkey.
His scholarly interests and commitment to mili-
tary education found expression in his role as
one of the founders of the historical journal
Voen-
nyi zhurnal
(Military Journal) and, in 1858, of
Voennyi sbornik
(Military Review). After further
service as chief of staff to the Caucasian armies,
he became deputy war minister in 1860 and the
following year, minister of war. Although not a
democrat, he did pursue his goal of military
reform with conviction and energy. His national-
ist feelings came to the surface, as with other
contemporaries, in his strong defense of Russia's
brutal suppression of the
POLISH REBELLION OF
1863-64
. As a military reformer, Miliutin advo-
cated the creation of a national army that tran-
scended class divisions, and his reforms of the
czarist army, while not entirely successful in
achieving this goal, did introduce new standards
of professionalism and modernity. He was pro-
moted to field marshal and named a count in
1878, but his influence waned dramatically after
the assassination of Alexander II. The new czar,
ALEXANDER III
, hardly a reformer, had little use
for Miliutin, who resigned as minister in May
1881. For his services he was rewarded with a
seat on the State Council, the highest but ulti-
mately powerless consultative political body in
the empire prior to the 1905 Revolution.
Miliutin, Dmitrii Alekseevich
(1816-1912)
official
Together with his brother Nikolai Alekseevich
Miliutin (1818-72), Dmitrii Miliutin was one the
leading officials whom historians have called
“enlightened bureaucrats” deeply involved in
the planning and execution of Czar
ALEXANDER
II
's Great Reforms. Born in Moscow into the
family of an insolvent factory owner, Miliutin
graduated from the Moscow University pension-
ate with a silver medal in 1832. After a junior
officer commission, he entered the Military
Academy in 1836, and upon graduation was
posted to the Guards general headquarters with
the rank of staff captain. After active service in
the Caucasus, in 1840 he embarked on an
extended tour of western Europe, from which
he developed an intense interest in political
economy, law, and administration to add to his
Minin and Pozharsky
patriotic leaders
Two 17th-century Russian patriots whose monu-
ment stands on Moscow's
RED SQUARE
in tribute
to their contributions during the last stage of the
TIME OF TROUBLES
(1598-1613). Kuzma Minin
(?-1616) was a butcher from the Volga River
town of Nizhnii Novgorod, while Prince Dmitrii
Mikhailovich Pozharsky (1578-1642) had
gained some military experience in previous
years. Although the Time of Troubles dated to
1598 and the end of the Rurikid dynastic line,
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