Alexander
Protopopov was born in Russia in 1866.
He was a textile manufacturer and a deputy in the Duma
and its vice chairman in 1914.
In
September, 1916, Nicholas
II
appointed Protopopov as his Minister of the Interior. His fellow deputies
in the Duma
saw his acceptance of this post as political treachery. Rumours circulated
that he owed the position to the influence of Alexandra
and Gregory Rasputin.
It was also claimed that Protopopov and Boris
Sturmer were involved in peace talks with Germany
and Austria-Hungary.
Protopopov,
who was suffering from advanced syphilis and this made his physically
weak and mentally unstable.
After
the abdication of Nicholas
II,
the Provisional
Government
ordered the arrest of Protopopov. He was still in prison when the
Bolsheviks gained power and on 1st
January, 1918, he was executed.
(1)
Bernard Pares, a British academic, met
several of the leading political figures in Russia during the summer
of 1914.
Protopopov was elected to the Duma, and was actually chosen
as Vice-President; there he posed as a moderate liberal asking for
an extension of parliamentary rights.
Suffering
from ill health, which was later to develop into progressive paralysis,
he sought the attentions of Rasputin, who put him through a prolonged
cure.
Rodzianko,
who was a poor judge of men, took account of him; so also did Guchkov,
who regarded him as a man who could get things done. In the Duma,
as elsewhere, Protopopov played for popularity, and was this to be
considered as a member of the Progressives. Protopopov was in reality
not Rodzianko's man, but Rasputin's.
(2)
Alexander Kerensky, Russia and History's
Turning Point (1965)
I returned to Petrograd during the third week in September.
A new Minister of the Interior had just been appointed, and the choice
had fallen on Alexander Protopopov, former vice-president of the Duma.
In the course of a few months this man, who was in fact the last Minister
of the Interior of the Russian Empire, managed to incur the wrath
and hatred of the whole nation.
Soon afterwards
the whole story came out. Evidently, Protopopov was suffering from
an incurable venereal disease, for which he had been under the care
of Dr. Badmayev for many years. It was in Badmayev's house that he
met Rasputin, who had had no difficulty in subjugating a man with
a disturbed mind, although Protopopov did do his best to conceal his
friendship with Rasputin. Rasputin introduced him to the Tsarina,
whom he charmed. It was she who subsequently suggested him for the
post of Minister of the Interior.
(3)
In his book With the Russian Army: 1914-1917, Alfred
Knox described how Alexander Protopopov
arrived at the Duma after the abdication
of Nicholas II.
A student
standing in the open space before the Taurida Palace was accosted
by an individual in an old fur coat with muffled-up face. "Tell
me, you are a student?" "Yes." "I ask you to take
me to the Executive Committee of the Imperial Duma. I am the former
Minister of the Interior, Protopopov"; then in a lower voice
with lowered head: I also wish well to my country, and that is the
reason I have come of my own free will. Take me to the people who
want me."
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
