Nikolai Pokrovsky
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Nikolai Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (Russian: Николай Николаевич Покровский) (January 27, 1865, St Petersburg – December 12, 1930, Kaunas) was a Russian politician and the last foreign minister of the Russian Empire.
Nikolai Pokrovsky attended law schools of the Moscow State University and St Petersburg University. In 1889, he began his career at the Ministry of Finance. In 1902-1903, Pokrovsky was a deputy chairman (chairman from 1904) of the Department of Taxation of the Ministry of Finance. In 1906, he was appointed deputy finance minister and mainly oversaw taxation affairs. In 1914-1916, Pokrovsky was a member of the State Council (retaining his post of the deputy finance minister until July of 1914). From January to November of 1916, Pokrovsky held the post of state inspector. On November 30 of 1916, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs. Some of the English newspapers regarded his nomination as a sign of final suppression of Germanophilic agitation in Russia. On November 19 of 1916, Pokrovsky announced in the State Duma that the treaty of 1915 with Great Britain and France (later signed by Italy, as well) had finally established Russia’s right on the straits and Constantinople. Also, he said that Russia would never sign a peace treaty with Germany, which caused a storm of applause in the Duma. During his 3-month tenure as a foreign minister, Nikolai Pokrovsky announced his resignation four times over disagreements with the minister of the interior Alexander Protopopov. Pokrovsky favored the attraction of the American financial capital into the Russian economy. With the support of the Ministry of Finance, he proposed to send a special commission on economic and financial affairs to the United States. In January of 1917, Pokrovsky prepared a document, in which he defended the idea of establishing close ties with the US in light of this country’s potentially decisive role in ending the war. In his note to the tsar from February 21, Pokrovsky expressed his confidence in victory over Germany and inquired about a possibility to prepare an expeditionary force for deployment in Constantinople by October of 1917. During a session of the Council of Ministers on February 25 of 1917, Pokrovsky proposed the resignation of the whole government. He was sent to negotiate this matter with the State Duma and Progressive Bloc. On February 26, Pokrovsky reported about his negotiations with the Bloc (led by Vasili Maklakov) at the session of the Council of Ministers in the Mariinsky Palace. The Bloc spoke for the resignation of the government.
After the February Revolution, Pokrovsky headed the Russo-American Committee on Assistance to the Economic Rapprochement between Russia and the US. After the October Revolution, Pokrovsky emigrated from Russia and taught at the Kaunas University.
