Timiriazev, Vasilii

Born Mar. 19 (31), 1849; died 1919. Russian state figure; leading figure in the Russian financial oligarchy.

Timiriazev, a descendant of the dvorianstvo (nobility), graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1875. He served in the Ministry of Finance and in December 1902 became deputy minister. From Oct. 28, 1905, through Feb. 18, 1906, and from Jan. 14, 1909, through Nov. 5, 1909, he was minister of trade and industry. Timiriazev was infamous for his obsequiousness to the camarilla of the imperial court and to major business firms. In early 1906 he tried to revive the Gaponovshchina, a tsarist program of creating sham workers’ organizations to undermine the revolutionary movement.

In 1906, Timiriazev became deputy chairman of the Council of Conferences of Representatives From the Stock Market and Agriculture, and in 1914 he became chairman. He was a member of the State Council on behalf of Industry and Trade from 1906 to 1917. In 1915 he became a member of the Special Conference on State Defense. Timiriazev was also a member and chairman of the council of the Russian Bank for Foreign Trade, the council of the Petrograd Private Commercial Bank, and the board of directors of approximately ten major joint-stock companies.