Mikhail Nikolaevich Muravev

Born Oct. 1 (12), 1796, in Moscow; died Aug. 29 (Sept. 10), 1866, in St. Petersburg. Count; Russian statesman; general of the infantry (1863).

Upon graduating from Moscow University in 1811, Murav’ev entered military service. He fought in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the foreign campaigns of the Russian Army in 1813–14. Murav’ev was a member of the Union of Salvation and the Union of Welfare. He left the Decembrist movement in 1821. He was arrested in the Decembrist affair in 1825 but was acquitted. Murav’ev was appointed deputy governor of Vitebsk Province in 1826 and governor of Mogilev Province in 1828. He took part in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830–31. Murav’ev became a member of the State Council in 1850 and was minister of state properties from 1857 to 1861. He was an opponent of the peasant reforms. Murav’ev was governor-general, with extraordinary powers, of the northwestern region during the Polish uprising of 1863–64. He was branded the “hangman” by public opinion for his cruelty in the suppression of the uprising. Murav’ev implemented a policy of russification in the region and carried out a land reform. He was named head of the Supreme Investigating Commission on the D. V. Karakozov affair in 1866. Murav’ev’s memoirs were published in Russkaia starina (1882, nos. 11–12; 1883, nos. 1–5; and 1884, no. 6) and in Russkii arkhiv (1885, part 2, no. 6).