Loris-Melikov and Avakov: two Armenians, two Kharkov residents, two ministers – two different results

Dmitry Gubin, publicist, Kharkov

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In history there were two figures of Armenian origin who first headed the Kharkov province and then the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is the count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov and Arsen Borisovich Avakov. Only the attitude towards them was different, and the results of the work speak for themselves.

Valiant general, thunderstorm of the Turks, founder of the management ideology, which he himself called “dictatorship of the heart”, governor of Kharkov and Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, Armenian Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov

Horror gripped the residents of Kharkov on February 9 (21), 1879. It turned out that in this quiet place of the Russian Empire no one can be safe from a terrorist’s bullet, not even the governor himself, Prince Dmitry Nikolaevich Kropotkin. Exactly a week after Goldenberg’s shot, the seemingly permanent leader died a painful death. Then, in the minds of the local public, he turned from a tormentor of progressive youth into a martyr. The city duma even considered it necessary to name the children’s hospital after “the sufferer Kropotkin.”

It became clear to both the members of the Duma and the rest of the population that, following the newly appointed governor Viktor Wilhelmovich von Waal, a much more significant person would come to govern the region from St. Petersburg - a temporary governor-general.

In the fight against the rampant political murders, it is important not only to catch and punish “ideological fighters,” but also to create such an environment that society does not sympathize with those who want to shoot or throw a bomb. This is exactly what Alexander II reasoned when he appointed three popular commanders of the recent Russian-Turkish war - E. N. Totleben, I. V. Gurko and M. T. Loris-Melikov - governor-general to where the armed populists acted most defiantly. Who will ordinary people believe more - a dropout student with a bomb or a victorious warrior?

In 2004, Kharkov faced an illegal seizure of power for the first time since 1919. Few people supported the local Maidan; most of the local population was sympathetic to their governor Evgeniy Petrovich Kushnarev (died in 2007) and did not want to see anyone else in this position. Moreover, he promised to fight to the end and voiced a tough anti-fascist position. But the governor is not elected. Who will Yushchenko appoint? Local or outsider? Among the notable figures was the owner of television channels and local oligarch Arsen Avakov.

Arsen Avakov does not bother himself with the intricacies of management. The main thing is political gain. In this, he is more likely not like the Kharkov governors Mikhail Loris-Melikov or Dmitry Kropotkin, but rather like Kropotkin’s killer, terrorist Goldenberg

Along different lines

So, both were born into Armenian families - Loris-Melikov in Tiflis, and Avakov in Baku.

In 1836, Mikhail was assigned to the Moscow Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, from where he was expelled for petty hooliganism. The father decided that only a military career could strengthen the character of his son, and from 1841 the future all-powerful minister studied at the school of guards ensigns and cavalry cadets in St. Petersburg. There he became friends with Nikolenka Nekrasov and lived with him in the same rented apartment for several months. Then Loris-Melikov fought in both the Caucasian and Crimean wars.

The Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedia noted: “Soon appointed as the military commander of Southern Dagestan and the mayor of Derbent, Loris-Melikov with great success set about establishing new orders among the mountain tribes, who previously had no concept of citizenship... Serving as the head of the Terek region until 1875, Loris-Melikov focused all his activities on establishing order and tranquility among the mountain population of the region, who continued to worry after the recent conquest of the Caucasus... In addition, during the reign of Loris-Melikov, many residents of the Terek region, who were in the power of the sovereign princes, were freed from serfdom and other persons, and at the same time, many class land issues that closely affected the everyday and economic aspects of the regional population were resolved. In addition, at that time, the highlanders were subject to state taxes, and at the same time the number of educational institutions was significantly increased, reaching 300, and Loris, at his own expense, established a vocational school in Vladikavkaz.” So he rose to the rank of cavalry general.

Third from left is Adjutant General Count M. T. Loris-Melikov. Kars, 1877

In the Russian-Turkish war, Loris-Melikov won more than one battle, but his most important victory was the capture of Kars. “Approaching the fortress, he immediately launched an assault on the night of November 5-6 and captured Kars, capturing 17 thousand Turks and 303 guns. For the capture of Kars, Loris was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 1st degree with swords. Having captured Kars, Loris-Melikov began the blockade of Erzurum in the winter. Thanks to the trust of the local population and contractors in Loris-Melikov, he even fought a war on enemy territory using credit money and settled with the local population in Russian rubles, thereby delivering savings to the treasury of several tens of millions,” the same encyclopedia reports. Then his track record includes the fight against a cholera epidemic in the lower Volga region. From there, promoted to Count Loris-Melikov, he was assigned to Kharkov.

This is what the impregnable fortress of Kars looked like then

Avakov did not serve in the army, he studied from 1982 to 1988 in the specialty “Automatic Control Systems” at the Faculty of Engineering and Physics of the Kharkov Polytechnic University. At this time, he had already begun to earn considerable money for those times, going every summer to student construction teams. For him, his graduation from university coincided with Gorbachev’s perestroika, when entrepreneurship in the form of cooperation was allowed. And soon a young engineer from VNIIVO creates JSC Investor, and then Bank Basis. By 2003, Avakov became a co-owner of most local television channels, published several newspapers and was friends with the then mayor of Kharkov, Vladimir Shumilkin. At the same time, the “Our Ukraine” faction appeared in the city council, consisting mainly of Avakov’s business partners.

During the 2004 presidential election campaign, Arsen Borisovich was the deputy head of the Kharkov regional headquarters of Viktor Yushchenko, the first deputy chairman of the Kharkov regional “National Salvation Committee” - an illegal body, because Art. 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Actions aimed at violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power”) was also then. The Armenian Avakov overthrew state power, the Armenian Loris-Melikov strengthened it.

Kharkov: love and contempt

In Kharkov, General Loris-Melikov was loved. Unlike many of his colleagues, he did not expel suspicious persons by train from the province in a northeastern direction. The count limited himself to checking passports indicating the right of residence (photo cards had not yet been pasted into documents) and several searches of those who were considered unreliable.

The temporary governor-general did not encourage unnecessarily drastic measures. In one of the skirmishes between drunken guys and a private bailiff, His Excellency dealt with it simply and even wittily: he ordered the guys to be kept in a cold room until they sobered up, and the bailiff to drink to the sovereign’s health.

Loris-Melikov wrote: “The power and significance of harsh punitive measures are great until society has had time to get used to them" His main secret was to attract to his side those circles that sympathized with the opponents of the government, including the armed ones. Unlike modern times, under him Kharkov prisons were not overcrowded with innocent and unarmed people, and punishment overtook those who killed and blew up civilians. Even the bombers themselves considered his activities successful and did not sentence him, the only one of all the governors, to death. The count himself called this approach dictatorship of the heart. Alexander II highly appreciated the count’s activities and took him to the capital for promotion, and sent an equally honored general to Kharkov, Prince. Alexander Mikhailovich Dondukov-Korsakov.

Avakov, having found himself in the post of governor, immediately began to take revenge on his predecessors and fired from 18 to 20 thousand officials of the regional and district administrations. At the same time, he began to travel around the region and make promises. For example, he threatened to open several modern pig farms from Denmark. But he had no intention of fulfilling the main promise of his patron Yushchenko—to separate business from politics. On the contrary, his companies began to open Pyaterochka supermarkets in the region, and the accounts of budgetary organizations were transferred en masse to the Basis bank. The governor was also happy about the arrest of his predecessor E. Kushnarev, and arranged for him to be recalled from the deputies of the regional council, which was later canceled in court.

The local elections of 2006 were won by the then opposition Party of Regions, and Mikhail Dobkin, not Avakov’s protege, became mayor. And literally at the second session, the regional council, with 106 votes out of 150, passed a vote of no confidence in the governor. Yushchenko ignored this expression of will and fired Avakov only after a second vote and the transfer of his governor to Yulia Tymoshenko’s team.

Minister to Minister discord

On February 9 (23), 1880, the emperor signed a decree on the organization of the Supreme Administrative Commission for the Protection of Public Order, headed by Loris-Melikov. The head of the commission was endowed with truly dictatorial powers: his orders were subject to immediate execution not only by all governors and mayors, but also by central departments, including the military. The count himself assessed his powers this way: “Not a single temporary worker - neither Menshikov, nor Biron, nor Arakcheev - has ever had such comprehensive power.”

The first action carried out by Loris-Melikov in his new post aroused criticism from traditionalists. The fact is that the count ordered the publication of an appeal to the residents of St. Petersburg, which contained a request to support the new government policy. Conservatives believed that society really has the right to seek support from the authorities, but the authorities themselves cannot “stoop” to asking for help from society.

Not only conservatives, but also their opponents from the revolutionary camp felt the danger from the “liberal dictator”. On February 20, 1880, Ippolit Mlodetsky shot at the general as he was leaving the house, but missed.

After the liquidation of the commission, Loris-Melikov becomes the Minister of Internal Affairs and the chief of gendarmes, i.e. did not lose his political weight, but simply gave his status a look familiar to Russians. On January 28, 1881, Loris-Melikov presented the tsar with another report, which could become the beginning of a new political era for Russia. On the morning of March 1, the emperor transferred to the Council of Ministers the text of the Loris-Melikov project, which could lead to the formation of a kind of pre-parliament in Russia, and on the same day he was killed by terrorists on the embankment of the Catherine Canal.

Assassination of Tsar Alexander II, March 1, 1881

On April 29, the document was finally rejected by Alexander III, and on May 4, Loris-Melikov received his resignation “due to illness.” The famous zemstvo figure Nikolai Belogolovy wrote: “With the resignation of Loris-Melikov, a modest attempt to reconcile the cultural classes with bureaucracy and absolutism ended, and the only true path to the peaceful development of Russian society was eliminated».

Then there were stays at foreign resorts and hospitals, interrupted by rare visits to St. Petersburg. Having died in a foreign land, in his last years he heard almost nothing but accusations. Only the French Minister of War Freycinet ordered that at the farewell ceremony in Nice the Russian general be given the same honors that were traditionally given to the French. Loris-Melikov's body was buried in the Armenian Vank Cathedral of Tiflis, and after the destruction of the temple, in 1957 the ashes and tombstone were transferred to the courtyard of the Armenian Cathedral of St. George on Meydan.

After his resignation, Avakov headed the local BYuT, and then hid in Italy from criminal prosecution. In 2012, he became a people’s deputy from Batkivshchyna, and then one of the leaders of the second Maidan. After the coup, he headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is responsible for the adoption of punitive battalions under the ministry, the liquidation of Sashka Bilyo, and many other bloody deeds. It was under him that the police withdrew from protecting the population from pogromists, if they were of the “correct convictions.” Kharkov mayor Gennady Kernes reasonably suspects Avakov of an attempt on his life. And this track record is not closed yet...

Two governors and two ministers. The results of the activity are polar.