Политика первых лет царствования Николая II на страницах дневника графа Шереметева

Abstract

The article deals with the policy’s perception of Nicholas II’s reign first years by Count Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Based on the count’s diary, the author shows their dissatisfaction with the appointment of Ivan Logginovich Goremykin as a Minister of the Interior. They saw him as the liberal and the apostate from the conservative course of Alexander III. The article examines episodes from Goremykin's four-year tenure as Minister of Internal Affairs, which in the eyes of Sheremetev and Maria Feodorovna looked like the confirmation of chosen course malignancy: The Khodynka Tragedy, discussion on zemstvos’ network expansion in the provinces, student unrest in 1899. In their opinion, all the frustrations were based on the uncertainty of Goremykin’s policy, the lack of a clear conservative course, which the ministers of Alexander III had. The timid attempt to continue the zemstvo reform of Alexander II was perceived by Sheremetev extremely painfully as the evidence of Nicholas II's commitment to liberalism, which the count considered disastrous for Russia. According to Maria Feodorovna, the “liberal” policy of Goremykin resulted from the lack of contacts between her son and people who could objectively tell about the true state of affairs in the country, and those ministers who surrounded Nicholas II were looking for benefits primarily for themselves. The author draws to the conclusion that Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev and Maria Feodorovna were not able to change the political course of Nicholas II, who gradually dismissed influential ministers of Alexander III’s reign, thereby demonstrating a desire to rule on his own.