The Presidential Library’s rarities reveal a personality of Konstantin Pobedonostsev

June 2, 2017, marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev. There is dedicated to K. P. Pobedonostsev (1827-1907) collection, gathering information on the life and work of a prominent Russian statesman, a legal scholar, The Chief Procurator (Ober-Prokuror) of the Most Holy Governing Synod, a founder of the system of parish schools, public and neoclassical secondary schools in Russia, on the Presidential Library website.

The collection includes 154 documents – mainly there are the materials from the Russian State Historical Archive: diaries, memos, projects, correspondence, and biographical sources. In addition, the Presidential Library presented on its website a series of reports by Konstantin Petrovich: The most loyal report of the Ober-Prokuror of the Most Holy Governing Synod on the Office of the Orthodox Confession for 1903-1904 and other years; Collected works of Moscow and other writings.

Interest in the personality and state activity of K. P. Pobedonostsev is not a coincidence. Opened in May 2009 Presidential Library is located in the building of the Most Holy Governing Synod, where the Chief Procurator Pobedonostsev firmly and consistently pursued his views on the policy of the time. However, these views were not some kind of indisputable truth and underwent a significant transformation under the influence of certain tragic events in Russia of that period.

So, in the late 1850s Pobedonostsev acted as a writer-publicist of liberal views. However, after the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, Pobedonostsev came out with a sharp criticism of the reforms of the 1860s and 1870s. Rejecting liberal principles, he became the author of the manifesto “On the inviolability of the autocracy.” Most fully his position of a mature politician-statesman is expressed in Collected works of Moscow, where he criticized the foundations and principles of the state structure of modern Western European culture.

Being a son of the Moscow professor, Pobedonostsev, after graduating in 1846 from the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, was engaged in judicial activities in the Moscow departments of the Governing Senate. With state service, he successfully combined pedagogical activity - for six years he lectured at the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. Subsequently, A. F. Koni, who was listening to the lectures of Professor Pobedonostsev while he was a student, recalled: “The excellent civil-law course, clear, compressed, accurate and instructive, was read to us by the then Chief Prosecutor of the Senate's eighth department Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev.”

A fundamental “Course of Civil Law” was born in the future from these lectures and thorough research work in the field of law and included definitions of the concepts of property, proprietary rights; the analysis of ways of acquisition and the termination of the property right; the grounds and boundaries of limitation of the owner’s rights. Three parts of this actual today work of Pobedonostsev are available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library.

In 1880, Pobedonostsev was appointed Chief Procurator of the Most Holy Governing Synod and remained in office for 26 years, becoming one of the most influential figures in the Russian political elite. A movie entitled Ober-Prokuror of the Most Holy Governing Synod Constantine Pobedonostsev tells about this more thoroughly.

Having a reputation as an excellent connoisseur of legal science and a brilliant lecturer and educator, K. P. Pobedonostsev for a long time was the tutor of the future emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II. He in particular developed a strong relationship with Alexander III. His communication with Alexander, first tsarevich, and from March 1, 1881, the emperor, was not interrupted until the death of the latter in 1894.

From The letters of Pobedonostsev to Alexander III. Vol. 1 edition we can read in a letter dated 1895: “Forgive me, Your Majesty, that I probably too often bother you with my writings. But what to do when the heart can’t wait in such matters, in which only Your Majesty could offer a strong support and a lively longing towards the truth… Unfortunately, the reduction of churches and the closing of the old parishes, to which the people are accustomed, happened exactly at such a time, when, with the liberation of the peasants, the need for temples was more urgent than ever before.” Extensive collection of letters of K. P. Pobedonostsev to Alexander III is the most important source, reflecting the true role of Pobedonostsev in the mechanism of governance of the Russian Empire.

The philosopher and literary critic V. V. Rozanov in the newspaper “Russkoye Slovo” (the Russian word) wrote an obituary on the death of the Chief Prosecutor: “Pobedonostsev died. And an entire state, public and even literary system died along with him; deceased a remarkable, perhaps the most outstanding person in the history of the XIX century; a whole historical style of a complete and long epoch sank into the grave, quietly died after a long illness.”