Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827-1907)

Reactionary views on democracy, general education

Copyright © 2002, 2007 by Hugo S. Cunningham
File added 990424
Moved and changed 2000/1128
Modified 2007/0705

Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827-1907) began his career as a writer, editor, and translator.
1860-1865: Professor of Civil Law at Moscow Univ., tutor in law and politics to sons of Alexander II. Heir apparent Grand Duke Nicholas died in 1865.
1865-1881: tutor to new heir apparent Grand Duke Alexander.
1880-1905: lay head of Russian Orthodox Church.
Notoriously reactionary advisor, especially to Alexander III (1881-1893).

Source:
Pobedonostsev, Konstantin P., Reflections of a Russian Statesman (translated 1898 by Grant Richards), reprinted by Ann Arbor Paperbacks/University of Michigan Press, 1973; paper, 271 pp.
This is a translation of Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev, Moskovskij Sbornik ("Moscow Notebook") (1896). I do not know if Pobedonostsev approved Richards's translation (including the changed title) or got any royalties from it.

Moskovskij Sbornik has been reprinted in recent times, eg as part of
K. P. Pobedonostsev Pro et Contra (Antologiya): Lichnost', obshchestvenno-politicheskaya deyatel'nost' i mirovozzrenie Konstantina Petrovicha Pobedonostseva v ocenke russkix myslitelej i issledovatelej, Izdatelel'stvo Russkogo Xristianskogo gumanitarnogo instituta, Sankt-Peterburg, 1996.
It has also been posted to the Internet (see below), since it has entered the public domain.

Russkij tekst

Democracy is a sham.

Chapter: "The Great Falsehood of Our Time" (pp. 32-58)
Section 3 (pp. 49-52)

Child labor is good; school is wasteful.


On-line text of K. P. Pobedonostsev, Moskovskij Sbornik (as of 2007/07)
http://gosudarstvo.voskres.ru/empire_2.htm#Pobed

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