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- MURAVIEV, Mikhail Nikolaevič
(l796-1866), Russian statesman and
- administrator, governor general of the
Northwest Territory, which included Lithuania and Belorussia, from
1863-65, born in St. Petersburg on Oct. 1,
- 1796. In his youth Muraviev was associated
with liberal Russian secret societies, and was briefly imprisoned after
the unsuccessful Decembrist revolt of 1825. He was released, however,
and s'oon began to rise rapidly
- in the tsarist bureaucracy. As governor of
Mogilev (1828-31), Muraviev repeatedly petitioned Nicholas I to abolish
the Lithuanian Statute in the western provinces and implement a program
of Russification in Lithuania. During the Polish-Lithuanian revolt of
1831 Muraviev was in charge of pacifying Belorussia and southeastern
Lithuania. As minister of state domains (1857-61), he actively opposed
the abolition of serfdom and left government service after the
emancipation. On May 1, 1863 Muraviev was
- appointed governor general of the
Northwest Territory, which included all of the Lithuanian provinces, and
was given extraordinary powers to deal with the anti-Russian rebellion
that had engulfed most of Lithuania and Poland. He left his post on May
1, 1865. Muraviev was made a Count in April, 1866 and died on Aug. 31 of
the same year.
Muraviev is best known in Lithuanian and Russian history for his harsh
suppression of the 1863 rebellion in Lithuania. He reinforced the local
Russian forces and energetically pursued Lithuanian rebel detachments
until the entire country was pacified by late 1864. Muraviev also
instituted a reign of terror throughout Lithuania. He carried out over
200 public executions, including that of Rev. Antanas Mackevičius
(q.v.), who had led peasant guerrillas against Russian troops in western
Lithuania. Muraviev also ordered the burning of entire villages and the
deportation of their inhabitants, including women and children, to
central Russia and Siberia. By his own reckoning, Muraviev deported
1,427 persons to Siberia and exiled
- over 1,500 people to various parts of
Russia. Over 4,000 were "resettled" outside Lithuania. More
than 2,000 persons were either jailed, forcibly recruited into the army
or sentenced to forced labor. The actual toll during Muraviev's
pacification of Lithuania was probably higher.
- In addition to his military activity and
civilian terror, Muraviev also introduced a program of Russification in
Lithuania. He was especially active against the Polonized Lithuanian
nobility and the Catholic Church. He believed that the nobility and the
Church were the driving forces behind the in- surrection in Lithuania
and proposed to the tsar a program to deal with these institutions. This
program called for the closing of all Catholic monasteries suspected of
harboring rebels, limiting the Church's power in ecclesiastical
administration, the elimination of the Polish language from all
Lithuanian schools and the removal from office of local Polish and
Lithuanian officials. All of these measures were implemented to some
degree during Muraviev's tenure as governor general in Vilnius. Over 30
monasteries were closed and the entire Catholic primary sch'ool system
was shut down. Muraviev attacked the nobility in Lithuania economically
by levying a tax of 10% on the incomes of Polish and Lithuanian
landowners, while the rates for German and Russian nobles were 3% and 1%
respectively. To increase the Russian presence in Lithuania, Muraviev
advocated the introduction of Russian primary schools, Russian Orthodox
missionary activity among the local inhabitants and the appointment of
more Russian officials to the Lithuanian provinces. He increased the
number of Russian landowners in Lithuania by confiscating the estates of
imprisoned and deported nobles and parceling them out to Russians. Also
Russian peasants, especially Old Believers, came to settle in Lithuania
during this time. Muraviev tried to use the Lithuanian peasantry against
the Polonized nobility. By reducing the peasants' redemption payments
and increasing their land allotments he hoped to make them allies of the
Russian government in its struggle with the nobility. The policy had
only limited success. Like other contemporary Slavophiles, Muraviev
mistakenly believed that most Lithuanian peasants were basically
Russians who were under the "pernicious" cultural influence
'of the Polish nobility and the Catholic Church.
In an effort to Russify the Lithuanian peasantry and reduce the
influence of the Church in the countryside, Muraviev banned the
publication of Lithuanian books in the Latin alphabet in the summer of
1864. This ban was formally proclaimed by General Kaufman, Muraviev's
successor, in September 1865; it was instigated by Ivan P. Kornilov
(q.v.), curator of the Vilnius educational district, who hoped by this
to reduce the influence of the Catholic clergy among the peasants.
Lithuanian books were now permitted only in the Cyrillic script. The ban
on the Latin alphabet met bitter resistance from both the Lithuanian
peasants and the Catholic Church and eventually proved a total failure.
- Muraviev had a great impact on nineteenth
century Lithuanian history. For most Lithuanians he became a symbol of
Russian repression and was widely known simply as "The
Hangman" (Korikas). More important, Muraviev's ban on the
Latin alphabet and his anti-Catholic policies gave rise to the
remarkable knygneSiat (q.v.) movement which, in turn, was a key
factor in the emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in the
nineteenth century.
-
- Bibl.: M. N. Muraviev, "Graf
M. N. Muraviev: zapiski ego Ob upravlenie v severo-zapadnom kraie i ob
usmirenie v nem miatezhna," Russkaia starina, XII (1882).
I-V (1883). VI (1884) ; C. R. Jurgela. Lietuvos sukilimas 1862-1864
metais, Boston, 1970; A. N. Mosolov, Vilenskie ocherki 1863-1865
gg., St. Petersburg, 1898; A. Janulaitis, 1863-1865 m. sakilimas
Lietuvoje, Kaunas, 1921; P. Šležas, "Muravjevo veikimas
Lietuvoje," Athenaeum, IV (1933, 46-86; Kornilov, Pamiati
grafa M, N. Muravievo/ St. 'Retersburg, 1898.
-
- Text from the ENCYCLOPEDIA LITUANICA I-VI.
Boston, 1970-1978
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