Dmitry Tolstoy
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Count Dmitry Andreyevich Tolstoy (Russian: Дми́трий Андре́евич Толсто́й) (3. (13), 1823–5.7(4.25), 1889) was a Russian statesman, a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia (1866). He belonged to the comital branch of the Tolstoy family.
Tolstoy graduated from the Tsarskoselsky Lyceum in 1843. He held a managing position at the Ministry of the Navy beginning in 1853. Tolstoy was an over-procurator of the Holy Synod in 1865–1880, simultaneously holding a post of the Minister of National Enlightenment in 1866–1880. In 1871, Tolstoy was in charge of the college reform, which would result in the prevalence of the classical education (included Latin and Greek languages and ancient literature, among other things).
In 1882–1889, Tolstoy was the Interior Minister and Chief of Gendarmerie. He is considered one of the pillars of the political reaction in 1880s and supporter of the strong authority. Tolstoy's activities were aimed at backing the nobility, regulating peasantry's modus vivendi and spreading his administration's influence over local authorities. On Tolstoy's initiative, they issued the so called "Temporary regulations" in 1882, which limited the freedom of press to an even greater extent. Tolstoy, together with A. Pazukhin, outlined and prepared the so-called "counterreforms", which would become very unpopular in Russia.
Tolstoy was elected President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1882. He wrote a number of books on Russian history.
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- (Russian) Dmitry Tolstoy
| Preceded by: Alexander Vasilyevich Golovnin |
Minister of National Enlightenment 1866–1880 |
Succeeded by: Andrey Saburov |
| Preceded by: Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev |
Minister of Interior 1882–1889 |
Succeeded by: Ivan Durnovo |
