Pavel Dolgorukov
Encyclopedia
Prince Pavel Dimitrievich Dolgorukov (1866 - June 9, 1927) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n landowner and aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

 who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1927.

Prince Pavel was a member of the Dolgorukov
Dolgorukov
Dolgoroukov is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy. Among its...

 family, one of the oldest branches of the Russian aristocracy during the Tsarist era. He inherited great wealth and was involved in the work of the zemstvo
Zemstvo
Zemstvo was a form of local government that was instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of the zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were put into effect in 1864...

 (regional councils), particularly in the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 region where he owned an estate. Prior to the 1905 revolution
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...

, Dolgorukov identified himself primarily with the liberals. In 1905, he helped to found the Cadet
Cadet
A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

 party, and served as chairman of its central committee from 1911 to 1915. At one point, he was a member of the Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...

 in St Petersburg and led the Cadet faction there, but he preferred to work in his own constituency in Moscow.

Before the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Dolgorukov had shown some interest in the pacifist movement, but once Russia joined the war, he became a fervent supporter of the military effort. He was in charge of a Red Cross unit on the Galician front.

After the Bolsheviks swept to power in 1917, Dolgorukov was arrested in Petrograd and was imprisoned for a while in the fortress of Peter and Paul
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...

. Like the rest of his social class, he had lost all his wealth in the revolution. He made his way to the south and joined the White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...

, first under the leadership of Kornilov and then under Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian Army and one of the foremost generals of the White movement in the Russian Civil War.- Childhood :...

. According to an anecdote, he would proudly display a suit that a tailor had made for him from old sacks. His military fervour never left him; even after Denikin was in full retreat and the White cause was lost, he would preach resistance to anyone who would listen.

He went with General Wrangel
Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel
Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel or Vrangel was an officer in the Imperial Russian army and later commanding general of the anti-Bolshevik White Army in Southern Russia in the later stages of the Russian Civil War.-Life:Wrangel was born in Mukuliai, Kovno Governorate in the Russian Empire...

 to the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

, and after further defeats, took to the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 where he lived for several years as a penniless refugee.

In 1925, having grown sick and tired of exile, he slipped across the Russian border disguised as a peasant. The Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...

 arrested him but, failing to recognize their prisoner, released him. The following year, he was again wandering about southern Russia but this time he was detected and re-arrested by the Cheka.

On June 9, 1927, he was executed along with 19 other former officers and members of the Tsarist aristocracy. The Cheka had charged them with the assassination of Ambassador Voikov
Peter Voikov
Pyotr Lazarevich Voykov was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet diplomat.The son of a mining engineer, Voikov became involved in revolutionary activity on the side of the Mensheviks at the age of 15. Following a botched attempt on the life of the mayor of Yalta, he was expelled both from grammar...

 in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. They were shot without trial.

Pavel Dolgorukov had a twin brother named Pyotr
Pyotr Dmitrievich Dolgorukov
Prince Pyotr Dmitrievich Dolgorukov was Russian liberal politician.- Life :Graduate of Moscow University. Well-known zemstvo man and for many years chairman of Sudzha Zemstvo Board...

, who lived on until 1951.
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