Mikhail Tereshchenko. Tereshchenko Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko provisional government
Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, large landowner, sugar factory Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko was born on March 30 (March 18, old style) 1886 in Kyiv. His father came from Cossack merchants in the city of Glukhov (now a city in the Sumy region of Ukraine), and was the owner of sugar refineries.
Mikhail Tereshchenko graduated from the Kyiv Gymnasium and the University of Leipzig.
As an external student, he passed exams in a course at the Law Faculty of Moscow University. From 1911 to 1912 he was an official on special assignments (without salary) under the Directorate of Imperial Theaters.
After 1910, he was a Freemason and was one of the well-known “Masonic Five” - together with members of the Provisional Government Alexander Konovalov, Alexander Kerensky, Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Efremov.
In 1912-1914 he was the owner of the private publishing house "Sirin" in St. Petersburg.
In 1912, Tereshchenko was elected to the IV State Duma.
During the First World War (1914-1918) he participated in the creation of Red Cross hospitals.
In 1915-1917 he was chairman of the Kyiv Regional Military-Industrial Committee.
In the fall of 1916 - at the beginning of 1917, together with Nikolai Nekrasov and Alexander Guchkov, he developed a plan for a palace coup, as a result of which Emperor Nicholas II was supposed to abdicate the throne in favor of his son, Tsarevich Alexei, with the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
According to some reports, Tereshchenko became the first client of the Petrograd branch of the American National City Bank, which opened in January 1917, from which he received a loan of 100 thousand dollars, without negotiations, without specifying the purpose of the loan, security, or repayment terms.
From March to May 1917, he served as Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government.
Tereshchenko, on behalf of the government, signed guarantees on Russia’s fulfillment of the tsarist loans.
From May 18 (May 5, old style) 1917, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs after the departure of Pavel Miliukov. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he supported Russia’s fulfillment of its allied obligations, which meant the continuation of its participation in the First World War, although formally it adopted the slogan of “peace without annexations and indemnities.”
In June 1917 he took part in the 1st All-Russian Congress of Soviets of the RSD. At the end of June, as part of the government delegation (Alexander Kerensky, Nikolai Nekrasov, Irakli Tsereteli), he participated in negotiations with the Ukrainian Central Rada and the preparation of a draft declaration, which was one of the reasons for the government crisis.
On September 14 (September 1, old style), due to emergency circumstances and before the final formation of the government, he was appointed a member of the Directory, and from September 18 (September 5, old style) - Deputy Minister-Chairman. On September 25 (September 12, old style) he submitted his resignation and went to Moscow for personal negotiations with a Moscow group of industrialists on the composition of the government.
On October 7 (September 25, old style) Tereshchenko was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. On October 24 (October 11, old style) at a government meeting, instead of the “war to a victorious end” formula, he put forward another one - “war until the army is combat-ready.” The Provisional Government instructed him to make a statement in the Pre-Parliament that it was acting in full harmony with the Allied Powers. Tereshchenko's report on foreign policy on October 29 (October 16, old style) did not meet with approval in any of the political groups of the Pre-Parliament, and newspapers, including right-wing ones, criticized his speech as completely vague and unsatisfactory. At the same time, Tereshchenko came into conflict with Minister of War Alexander Verkhovsky, who declared that it was impossible for Russia to continue the war.
On the night of November 8 (October 26, old style), Mikhail Tereshchenko was arrested in the Winter Palace along with other ministers of the Provisional Government and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Released from the fortress in the spring of 1918.
From Petrograd he went to Finland, then to Norway, and was denied an entry visa to France. He was able to reunite with his family in France five years later.
He successfully did business abroad and was a co-owner of several financial companies and banks in France and Madagascar. He was a philanthropist, created shelters for Ukrainian emigrants and helped in their settlement, but did not advertise this side of his activities.
Tereshchenko was married to a Frenchwoman, Margaret Noe, and this marriage produced two daughters and a son, Peter (1919-2004), who lived in France and worked as an engineer in the USA and Brazil. In 1923, the couple divorced; in 1926, Mikhail Tereshchenko married the Norwegian Ebba Horst.
His grandson, Peter's son, Michel Tereshchenko, was born and, however, in the 2000s he decided to invest in the homeland of his ancestors and began investing in Ukrainian agricultural production. In March 2015, he received a passport as a citizen of Ukraine, and in October 2015, he was elected mayor of the city of Glukhov.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
, as part of the “Historical Calendar” section, we have started a new project dedicated to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. The project, which we called “Gravediggers of the Russian Kingdom,” is dedicated to those responsible for the collapse of the autocratic monarchy in Russia - professional revolutionaries, confrontational aristocrats, liberal politicians; generals, officers and soldiers who have forgotten about their duty, as well as other active figures of the so-called. “liberation movement”, voluntarily or unwittingly, contributed to the triumph of the revolution - first the February, and then the October. The column continues with an essay dedicated to the millionaire Freemason M.I. Tereshchenko, who made a significant contribution to the collapse of the tsarist autocracy and became the Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government.Born on March 18, 1886 in Kyiv into a family of large landowners who came from Cossack merchants, who eventually became the largest Ukrainian dynasty of sugar producers. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Tereshchenko family owned over 150 thousand dessiatines of land (163.5 thousand hectares), sugar refineries and sawmills, a cloth factory, distilleries in Kyiv, Podolsk, Chernigov, Oryol and other provinces of the Russian Empire.
Mikhail Tereshchenko had every opportunity to receive an excellent education. Already in early childhood, he was fluent in French, English and German, understood ancient Greek and Latin, and later mastered a total of 13 languages. After graduating from the 1st Kyiv Gymnasium, Tereshchenko studied at Kiev University, and in 1905-1908, while abroad, he studied political economy under the guidance of the famous economist Karl Bücher at the University of Leipzig. In 1909, a talented young man graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University as an external student, after which he worked there for about three years at the department of Roman and civil law. Tereshchenko was forced to quit his scientific and teaching activities by his liberal views: in 1911, along with many other opposition-minded teachers (about 130 people), he left Moscow University in protest against the reduction of university autonomy and the dismissal of the university leadership by order of the conservative Minister of Public Education L. .A. Casso.
After leaving the university, M.I. Tereshchenko in 1911‒1912 served as an official on special assignments (without pay) under the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg. Around the same time, he received hereditary nobility and the court rank of chamber cadet. At the same time, Tereshchenko did not give up his family business: he was a member of the board of the All-Russian Society of Sugar Refiners, a member of the board of the Volga-Kama Bank and the accounting committee of the Kyiv branch of the Azov-Don Bank; Together with his sisters, he owned the publishing house “Sirin” and published books by writers of the “Silver Age”. Mikhail Tereshchenko, being one of the richest people in Russia (his personal fortune was estimated at 70 million rubles) was known as a philanthropist and collector. In 1913, he became the owner of the second largest blue diamond in the world - the Tereshchenko diamond (42.92 carats), and, having inherited a rich collection of works of art from his father, continued to expand it. His collection included paintings by I.I. Shishkina, I.E. Repina, V.M. Vasnetsova, M.A. Vrubel, V.V. Vereshchagin, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse and many others, sculptures by M.M. Antokolsky. Mikhail Tereshchenko led a secular lifestyle, was fond of mountaineering, was a balletomane and theatergoer, and was friends with Alexander Blok and Fyodor Chaliapin.
“In the public, Tereshchenka was given the figurative nickname of “a groom with a fortune,”‒ noted in his memoirs a liberal politician, progressive, deputy of the IV State Duma . “It is explained by the fact that he is young, handsome and inherited a fortune of tens of millions from his father, a famous sugar refiner in the south.” St. Petersburg mayor Count I.I., who met Tereshchenko. Tolstoy spoke of his new acquaintance as follows: “I liked Tereshchenko himself: he seems intelligent and broken, although one cannot deny the presence in him of the consciousness of a millionaire and the corresponding aplomb, which somewhat spoils the overall excellent impression...»
It seemed that the young millionaire had nothing to be dissatisfied with. At first glance, the tsarist autocracy did not interfere with him personally and did not hinder him in anything, with the exception of one very important “but”: despite his millions, Tereshchenko and bankers like him, industrialists and large merchants could not gain power in Russia , otherwise only if the Emperor personally calls them to certain government posts. And they, well educated, rich and successful, wanted to independently decide the fate of the country and determine the direction of its development. All this forced 25-year-old Mikhail Tereshchenko to become a Freemason, to enter the well-known Masonic “five”, whose members, in addition to him, were A.I. Konovalov, I.N. Efremov, N.V. Nekrasov and A.F. Kerensky, and already in 1912 he headed the Masonic lodge “Supreme Council of the Peoples of Russia”. By this time M.I. Tereshchenko, who was actively involved in big politics, supported the Progressives - the party of big business, which sought to unite the Cadets and Octobrists within the framework of a common liberal front.
When the First World War began, M.I. Tereshchenko went to the Southwestern Front as an authorized representative of the advance detachment of the Red Cross, soon becoming an assistant in charge of sanitary organizations on this front. He was a member of the Main Committee of the Union of Cities, served as an authorized representative of the Main Committee of the Zemstvo Union, and in July 1915 he headed the Kiev Military-Industrial Committee, at the same time becoming a comrade of the Chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee A.I. Guchkova. However, Zemgor and the military-industrial committees, created during the war to help the government provide everything necessary for the front and rear, almost immediately turned into politicized unions of the liberal opposition. The entrepreneurs, zemstvo officials, and industrialists who were part of them, who carried out their activities mainly at the expense of government subsidies, did not cope with their obligations, profited from the fulfillment of military orders and, strengthened by state funding, began to conduct anti-government propaganda. Wanting to achieve his goals - liberalization and democratization of the country - to blackmail the tsarist government with the labor movement, as well as to bring the latter under his control, in 1916 Tereshchenko, together with his like-minded people, supported the idea of creating working groups under military-industrial committees.
Shortly before the February Revolution, he, together with A.I. Guchkov and N.V. Nekrasov participated in the discussion of plans for a coup d'etat, involving his close friend General A.M. in it. Krymov, actively “processed” in the “right direction” the commander of the Southwestern Front, General A.A. Brusilova. According to V.B. Lopukhina, Tereshchenko “donated a million rubles for the revolution”, “became an ardent oppositionist to the tsarist government” And “persistently promoted the palace coup planned before the revolution”. Gendarmerie General A.I. Spiridovich, recalling the January days of 1917, wrote: “Tereshchenko, who arrived from Kyiv, member of the State Duma Shidlovsky and General Krymov argued the need to overthrow the Monarch.”
“Guchkov’s closest conspiracy group included: member of the State. Duma Nekrasov, chamber cadet Prince D.L. Vyazemsky, who was the head of the 17th forward detachment of the Red Cross, chamber cadet M.I. Tereshchenko, who served at the disposal of the director of the Imperial Theaters, a Kiev millionaire, also the Commissioner-in-Chief of the Red Cross and a member of the Military-Industrial Committee, as well as Major General Krymov, who served on the Romanian Front, ‒ Spiridovich writes in his memoirs . - All members of the group, except Krymov, were in Petrograd in those days. Tereshchenko came from Kyiv, where he was on close terms with Prince Dolgoruky, who was under the Empress Maria Fedorovna. There, in Kyiv, friends had a pleasant time at the Continental Hotel and talked about current events. Tereshchenko took Prince Dolgoruky aside and informed him that he was leaving for Petrograd, where the Tsar would be required to abdicate. The empress will be imprisoned in a monastery. That officers of His Majesty’s Own Regiment and Convoy were involved in the conspiracy, he named names and even named one colonel. The coup was scheduled for February 8. To the question of the book. Dolgoruky, what will they do if His Majesty does not agree to abdicate? Tereshchenko replied that then the Emperor would be eliminated... Tereshchenko left. (...) Meanwhile, having returned to Kyiv from Petrograd, Tereshchenko again told Prince. Dolgoruky that the plan could not be implemented.”
Later Tereshchenko spoke about the mood of the pre-revolutionary days: “I cannot help but remember the last months before the revolution, when General Krymov turned out to be the only general who, out of great love for his homeland, was not afraid to join the ranks of that small group of people who decided to carry out a coup. General Krymov repeatedly came to St. Petersburg and tried to convince doubters that there was no longer any time to delay. He and his friends were aware that if they did not take leadership of the palace coup, the masses would do it, and they understood perfectly well what consequences and what disastrous anarchy this could threaten.”.
Immediately after the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, on March 2, 1917, 30-year-old M.I. Tereshchenko, on the recommendation of Guchkov, was appointed Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government, which surprised many then. As historian N.N. rightly notes. Yakovlev , “in the opinion of professional politicians, a courteous young man, a theatergoer and a music lover, did not in any way correspond to the post of Minister of Finance planned for him”. As A.A. recalled Bublikov, “it was an anecdotal element of the office”: “...A completely exceptional element of the government in terms of curiosity was the new Minister of Finance - M.I. Tereshchenko. It is absolutely impossible to explain who he represented in the cabinet, just as it was never possible to find out who “invented” him - everyone denied (...) A young man with experience as a minor official in the ballet department, unknown to anyone in Russia, in finance Knowing absolutely nothing, he, however, was the only one with Kerensky who managed to hold on to a ministerial post - first of finance, and then of foreign affairs - until the Bolshevik coup. His management of the department was of a very unique nature. During the 3 months that he was at the head of the Ministry of Finance, he never bothered to accept a report from the Director of the State Treasury Department - this chief accountant of the Russian State!
In May 1917, after being forced to resign as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tereshchenko headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, continuing the course of unity with the Entente allies and war until victory. In this post, Tereshchenko also negotiated with representatives of the Ukrainian Central Rada on issues of Ukrainian autonomy and tried to resolve the issue (however, without any result) of providing the deposed Emperor Nicholas II and his family with asylum in Great Britain. But as head of the Foreign Ministry, Tereshchenko failed to rise to the occasion. The manager of the affairs of the Provisional Government highlighted such qualities of Tereshchenko as “his souplesse (flexibility), his very secularism, his lack of strong convictions, a thoughtful plan, complete amateurism in matters of foreign policy”. And a major official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs V.B. Lopukhin left the following memories of the new minister: “After Miliukov’s departure, the young Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government, Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko, was appointed as his successor. Upon closer acquaintance, he showed himself to be not just a young man, but excessively young - younger than his years. (...) When taking over the management of the department, Tereshchenko asked to gather employees. He announced that he would give them a speech. We gathered in the columned hall of the minister’s apartment. The young minister did not come out for a long time. I went to pull Tereshchenko out of his office, where I found him running back and forth, cramming a cheat sheet. Impetuous in his movements, a little excited in view of the upcoming speech, he did not leave the office, but ran out into the hall and, without stopping, began blurting out his crib sheet as he went, running from place to place along a group of numerous employees stretched out in a line. The ministerial young ladies stood in front, filling mainly the temporary departments of the ministry formed on the occasion of the war (...). It turned out that Tereshchenko was addressing precisely the young ladies. He fervently urged them to continue the war. He warned: “Whoever is against war is not on the same path with us.” He repeated this leitmotif of a simple and clumsily put together speech more often than necessary for its success, and on it he broke off his word... (...) They joked that Tereshchenko mistakenly grabbed for his speech a cheat sheet from Kerensky, who had just received portfolio of the Minister of War and Navy and in epileptic cries of the troops calling for an offensive in approximately the same terms.”
According to diplomat G.N. Mikhailovsky, Tereshchenko “sought, without, however, leaving the general framework of pre-revolutionary politics, to position himself in a new way as a representative of a revolutionary and democratic government, which cannot speak the same language as the tsarist one”. According to the diplomat, the new minister managed to get along with his allies and the Council of Deputies somewhat better than Miliukov, but “He was completely impersonal within his department, the further he went, the more he became an obedient instrument in the hands of his senior staff. If Miliukov on Balkan issues, for example on Constantinople, took his own position and forced the department to accept it, then Tereshchenko, on the contrary, listened very carefully to what they told him and always agreed... All department directors and department heads were infinitely pleased with him, since he did not interfere with their management of the department.”
In September 1917, Tereshchenko was introduced by Kerensky to the Directory, becoming Deputy Minister-Chairman on September 5. However, the growing distrust of the socialists forced Tereshchenko to resign on September 12 and go to Moscow to negotiate with business circles on the composition of the new government. In a letter to Kerensky, Tereshchenko, who had begun to rule, wrote: “Counter-revolution, although not necessarily monarchical, represents the only hope of saving the state from collapse”. But already on September 25, when the third coalition government was created, Tereshchenko again received the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. And exactly a month later, during the Bolshevik seizure of power, he, along with other ministers of the Provisional Government, was arrested and sent to prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
A prominent monarchist of the guard, Colonel F.V., who was imprisoned at the same time. Vinberg noted in his prison diary: “Here they are - Moscow moneybags, representatives of large Russian industry. Sated with the luxury of their lives, finding boring the limited, but such a useful and respectable specialty of their life's activity, they wanted to enter broad political life and in it find application for their abilities and ambitious dreams. They generously lent their millions to the underground, poor in intelligence, but rich in criminal and evil plans, which was preparing the coup. No matter how quickly bitter disappointment replaced the rose-colored hopes of the unlucky ambitious, enlightenment came too late: the impetus for the destruction of Russia had already been given, and now nothing can free their conscience from the consciousness that they themselves were largely involved in the destruction of the Motherland. I saw almost all these rich people in my prison and described what a pitiful, repentant look all these Tretyakovs, Konovalovs, Smirnovs, Tereshchenkos took on.”
However, in relation to M.I. Tereshchenko Vinberg was more supportive: “For the information of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I can note that Tereshchenko is here[in prison] He has become very handsome: before he was all shaved, but now he has grown a black beard, which suits him very well. I understand that he enjoys great success in the world; but... isn't he too young for the duties of the Chancellor of the Russian Republic? (...) Of these people who have now arrived, only Tereshchenko makes a definitely good impression: a sweet, handsome, well-mannered person, smart, educated, well-read.”
Released by the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1918, Tereshchenko hastened to emigrate to Finland, moved to Norway, and then lived in France and England. While in a foreign land, he supported the White movement and foreign intervention against Soviet Russia. Since it was Tereshchenko, on behalf of the Provisional Government, who signed guarantees that Russia would fulfill its obligations under the tsarist loans, he had to answer for them, since the Bolsheviks refused to pay previous debts. At the request of the Association of Tsarist Loan Bondholders, all his property and fortune were expropriated. The former minister got a job as a small bank employee, but later, thanks to his organizational talents, he became a co-owner of several banks and financial companies in France and Madagascar. He also did charity work, helping Russian emigrants in need. M.I. died Tereshchenko at the age of 71 on April 1, 1956 in Monaco.
Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences
March 18, 1886 - April 1, 1956
major Russian entrepreneur, owner of sugar refineries, large landowner
Family and education
Born into a family of large sugar refiners and landowners in the Kyiv province, who came from Cossack origins (Mikhail Tereshchenko’s personal fortune was estimated at approximately 70 million rubles). Father - Ivan Nikolaevich (1854--1903), mother - Elizaveta Mikhailovna (d. 1921). He was married to a Frenchwoman, Margaret, née Noe, and in this marriage two daughters and a son, Pyotr Mikhailovich (1919-2004), who lived in France and worked as an engineer in the USA and Brazil, were born. In 1923 the couple divorced, in 1926 Mikhail Tereshchenko married a Norwegian woman, Horst.
Already in early childhood he was fluent in French, English, German, and understood ancient Greek and Latin (later he was fluent in a total of 13 languages). He graduated from the Kyiv gymnasium, studied at Kiev University, and in 1905-1908 studied economics at the University of Leipzig. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University (1909, as an external student).
Lawyer, publisher, sugar refiner
In 1909-1911 he worked at the department of Roman and civil law at Moscow University, left it along with other liberal teachers in protest against the dismissal of the rector, assistant rector and vice-rector of the university by order of the Minister of Public Education L. A. Casso. In 1911-1912 he was an official on special assignments (without pay) under the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. He was promoted to chamber cadet. Together with his sisters, he owned the Sirin publishing house, which published books by Silver Age writers, including Andrei Bely’s novel Petersburg. He maintained friendly relations with Alexander Blok. He led a secular lifestyle and was considered a balletomane. Mason, member of the Galpern lodge. At the same time, he was actively involved in the family business, was a member of the board of the All-Russian Society of Sugar Refiners, a member of the board of the Volga-Kama Bank and the accounting committee of the Kyiv branch of the Azov-Don Bank.
Activities during the First World War
After the outbreak of the First World War, he was a representative of the advance detachment of the Red Cross on the Southwestern Front, then an assistant in charge of sanitary organizations on this front. He was a member of the Main Committee of the Union of Cities, and served as an authorized representative of the Main Committee of the Zemstvo Union. From July 1915 he was chairman of the Kyiv Military-Industrial Committee; in 1915-1917 he was also a comrade of the chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee A.I. Guchkov. He was a member of the Special Conference on Defense. Shortly before the February Revolution, he participated in planning a coup d'etat (together with A.I. Guchkov and N.V. Nekrasov; General A.M. Krymov, an acquaintance of Tereshchenko, was also involved in the conspiracy).
Minister of the Provisional Government
In the first composition of the Provisional Government he was Minister of Finance. Together with A.F. Kerensky and N.V. Nekrasov, he insisted on creating a coalition government with representatives of the socialist parties. In the second to fourth government, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he supported Russia’s fulfillment of its allied obligations, which meant the continuation of its participation in the First World War, although formally he accepted the slogan of “peace without annexations and indemnities,” abandoning the unpopular thesis of his predecessor P. N. Milyukov about “ conquest of Constantinople and the straits." In October 1917 he came into conflict with Minister of War A.I. Verkhovsky, who believed that the army could no longer fight.
On July 2, 1917, together with the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs I. G. Tsereteli, he visited Kyiv to negotiate the division of powers of the Central Rada and the Executive Committee of the Kyiv City Duma, which played the role of the representative of the Provisional Government in Kyiv. The delegation recognized the legislative powers of the Central Rada. At the same time, the delegation, without agreement with the Provisional Government, outlined the geographical boundaries of the Rada’s jurisdiction, including several southwestern provinces of Russia. These events caused a government crisis in Petrograd: on July 2 (15), all the cadet ministers resigned in protest against the actions of the Kyiv delegation.
| Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government of Russia | ||
|---|---|---|
| March 1917 - May 1917 | ||
Kyiv, Russian Empire
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Family and education
Born into a family of large sugar refiners and landowners in the Kyiv province, who came from Cossack origins (Mikhail Tereshchenko’s personal fortune was estimated at approximately 70 million rubles). Father - Ivan Nikolaevich (1854--1903), mother - Elizaveta Mikhailovna (d. 1921). He was married to a Frenchwoman, Margaret, née Noe (Marie Margaret Noe, 1886-1968), in this marriage two daughters and a son were born, Pyotr Mikhailovich (1919-2004), who lived in France and worked as an engineer in the USA and Brazil. The couple divorced, and Mikhail Tereshchenko married Norwegian Ebba Horst.
Already in early childhood he was fluent in French, English, German, and understood ancient Greek and Latin (later he was fluent in a total of 13 languages). Graduated from the 1st Kyiv Gymnasium. He studied at Kiev University and studied economics at the University of Leipzig. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University (as an external student).
Lawyer, publisher, sugar refiner
He was actively involved in the family business, was a member of the board of the All-Russian Society of Sugar Refiners, a member of the board of the Volzhsko-Kama Bank and the accounting committee of the Kyiv branch of the Azov-Don Bank.
Activities during the First World War
Minister of the Provisional Government
The manager of the affairs of the Provisional Government, V.D. Nabokov, highlighted such qualities of Tereshchenko as “his souplesse(flexibility), his very secularism, his lack of firm convictions, a thoughtful plan, complete amateurism in matters of foreign policy” (however, these qualities allowed him to establish relations with various political forces). According to diplomat G. N. Mikhailovsky, Tereshchenko “sought, without, however, leaving the general framework of pre-revolutionary politics, to position himself in a new way as a representative of a revolutionary and democratic government, which cannot speak the same language as the tsarist government.” Mikhailovsky also noted that
how much better, compared to Miliukov, Tereshchenko managed to get along with both the allies and the Council of Deputies, how completely impersonal he was within his department, the further, the more he became an obedient tool in the hands of its senior staff. If Miliukov on Balkan issues, for example on Constantinople, took his own position and forced the department to accept it, then Tereshchenko, on the contrary, listened very carefully to what they told him and always agreed... All department directors and department heads were infinitely pleased with him, since he did not interfere with their management of the department.
Together with other ministers of the Provisional Government, Tereshchenko was arrested by the Bolsheviks in the Winter Palace and was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Emigrant
In the spring of 1918 he was released, emigrated to Finland, from there to Norway, then lived in France and England. He supported the White movement and foreign intervention against Soviet Russia. S was a member of the Commerce, Industry and Finance Committee. Having lost his fortune in Russia, he successfully did business abroad and was a co-owner of several financial companies and banks in France and Madagascar. He was a philanthropist, created shelters for disadvantaged emigrants and helped in their settlement, but did not advertise this side of his activities.
Collector
From his father and other representatives of the dynasty, Tereshchenko inherited a rich collection of works of art, primarily paintings and sculptures by Russian masters. The collection included “A Stream in the Forest”, “Among the Flat Valley”, “Oak Grove” and “First Snow” by I. I. Shishkin; “Student” N. A. Yaroshenko; “Portrait of V. Garshin” by I. E. Repin; “Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom” by V. M. Vasnetsov; "Twilight" Ap. M. Vasnetsova; “Girl against the background of a Persian carpet” by M. A. Vrubel; “Players” by P. A. Fedotov, as well as paintings
, Russian church
Kyiv, Russian Empire
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko(March 18 (March 30), Kyiv - April 1, Monaco) - a major Russian and French entrepreneur, owner of sugar refineries, large landowner, banker. B - Minister of Finance, later - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government of Russia. A prominent figure in the Russian emigration, art collector, publisher.
Family and education
Born into a family of large sugar refiners and landowners in the Kyiv province, who came from Cossack origins (Mikhail Tereshchenko’s personal fortune was estimated at approximately 70 million rubles). Father - Ivan Nikolaevich (1854--1903), mother - Elizaveta Mikhailovna (d. 1921). He was married to a Frenchwoman, Margaret, née Noe (Marie Margaret Noe, 1886-1968), in this marriage two daughters and a son were born, Pyotr Mikhailovich (1919-2004), who lived in France and worked as an engineer in the USA and Brazil. The couple divorced, and Mikhail Tereshchenko married Norwegian Ebba Horst.
Already in early childhood he was fluent in French, English, German, and understood ancient Greek and Latin (later he was fluent in a total of 13 languages). Graduated from the 1st Kyiv Gymnasium. He studied at Kiev University and studied economics at the University of Leipzig. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University (1909, as an external student).
Lawyer, publisher, sugar refiner
Art collector
From his father and other representatives of the dynasty, Tereshchenko inherited a rich collection of works of art, primarily paintings and sculptures by Russian masters. The collection included “A Stream in the Forest”, “Among the Flat Valley”, “Oak Grove” and “First Snow” by I. I. Shishkin; “Student” N. A. Yaroshenko; “Portrait of V. Garshin” by I. E. Repin; “Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom” by V. M. Vasnetsov; "Twilight" Ap. M. Vasnetsova; “Girl against the background of a Persian carpet” by M. A. Vrubel; “Players” by P. A. Fedotov, as well as paintings by V. V. Vereshchagin and sculptures by M. M. Antokolsky. He replenished it with works by Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse, Van Dongen, Derain, Frieze, Vallotton, Vlaminck, many of which he personally selected while visiting Paris, and paintings by the best Russian artists of his time - Roerich, Petrov-Vodkin, Sudeikin, Grigoriev, Mashkov, Lentulov . After nationalization in 1918, the collection of Tereshchenko's paintings and sculptures, housed in the Tereshchenko Palace built by the architect Vikenty Beretti, was turned into the state-owned Kiev National Museum of Russian Art, officially opened on the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1922 in the same building on Tereshchenkovskaya Street.
Activities during the First World War
Minister of the Provisional Government
In the first composition of the Provisional Government he was Minister of Finance. Together with A.F. Kerensky and N.V. Nekrasov, he insisted on creating a coalition government with representatives of the socialist parties. In the second to fourth government, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he supported Russia’s fulfillment of its allied obligations, which meant the continuation of its participation in the First World War, although formally he accepted the slogan of “peace without annexations and indemnities,” abandoning the unpopular thesis of his predecessor P. N. Milyukov about “ conquest of Constantinople and the straits." In October 1917 he came into conflict with Minister of War A.I. Verkhovsky, who believed that the army could no longer fight.
The manager of the affairs of the Provisional Government, V.D. Nabokov, highlighted such qualities of Tereshchenko as “his souplesse(flexibility), his very secularism, his lack of firm convictions, a thoughtful plan, complete amateurism in matters of foreign policy” (however, these qualities allowed him to establish relations with various political forces). According to diplomat G. N. Mikhailovsky, Tereshchenko “sought, without, however, leaving the general framework of pre-revolutionary politics, to position himself in a new way as a representative of a revolutionary and democratic government, which cannot speak the same language as the tsarist government.” Mikhailovsky also noted that
how much better, compared to Miliukov, Tereshchenko managed to get along with both the allies and the Council of Deputies, how completely impersonal he was within his department, the further, the more he became an obedient tool in the hands of its senior staff. If Miliukov on Balkan issues, for example on Constantinople, took his own position and forced the department to accept it, then Tereshchenko, on the contrary, listened very carefully to what they told him and always agreed... All department directors and department heads were infinitely pleased with him, since he did not interfere with their management of the department.
Together with other ministers of the Provisional Government, Tereshchenko was arrested by the Bolsheviks in the Winter Palace and was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Emigrant
In the spring of 1918 he was released, emigrated to Finland, from there to Norway, then lived in France and England. He supported the White movement and foreign intervention against Soviet Russia. S was a member of the Commerce, Industry and Finance Committee. Having lost his fortune in Russia, he successfully did business abroad and was a co-owner of several financial companies and banks in France and Madagascar. He was a philanthropist, created shelters for disadvantaged emigrants and helped in their settlement, but did not advertise this side of his activities.
Bibliography
- Serkov A. I. Russian Freemasonry. 1731-2000. Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 2001. pp. 793-794.
- Mikhailovsky G. N. Notes. Book 1. M., 1993.
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Notes
External sources
- Saltan A. . Oligarch. Everything about Ukrainian nouveau riche(November 29, 2015). Retrieved February 12, 2016.
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Russia (1918-1920)Excerpt characterizing Tereshchenko, Mikhail Ivanovich
- Ma bonne amie, je crains que le fruschtique (comme dit Foka - the cook) de ce matin ne m "aie pas fait du mal. [My friend, I'm afraid that the current frishtik (as the cook Foka calls it) will make me feel bad. ]– What’s wrong with you, my soul? You're pale. “Oh, you are very pale,” said Princess Marya in fear, running up to her daughter-in-law with her heavy, soft steps.
- Your Excellency, should I send for Marya Bogdanovna? - said one of the maids who was here. (Marya Bogdanovna was a midwife from a district town who had been living in Bald Mountains for another week.)
“And indeed,” Princess Marya picked up, “perhaps for sure.” I will go. Courage, mon ange! [Don't be afraid, my angel.] She kissed Lisa and wanted to leave the room.
- Oh, no, no! - And besides the pallor, the little princess’s face expressed a childish fear of inevitable physical suffering.
- Non, c"est l"estomac... dites que c"est l"estomac, dites, Marie, dites..., [No, this is the stomach... tell me, Masha, that this is the stomach...] - and the princess began to cry childishly, painfully, capriciously and even somewhat feignedly, wringing his little hands. The princess ran out of the room after Marya Bogdanovna.
- Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! [My God! Oh my God!] Oh! – she heard behind her.
Rubbing her plump, small, white hands, the midwife was already walking towards her, with a significantly calm face.
- Marya Bogdanovna! It seems it has begun,” said Princess Marya, looking at her grandmother with frightened, open eyes.
“Well, thank God, princess,” said Marya Bogdanovna without increasing her pace. “You girls shouldn’t know about this.”
- But how come the doctor hasn’t arrived from Moscow yet? - said the princess. (At the request of Lisa and Prince Andrey, an obstetrician was sent to Moscow on time, and he was expected every minute.)
“It’s okay, princess, don’t worry,” said Marya Bogdanovna, “and without the doctor everything will be fine.”
Five minutes later, the princess heard from her room that they were carrying something heavy. She looked out - the waiters were carrying a leather sofa that was in Prince Andrei's office into the bedroom for some reason. There was something solemn and quiet on the faces of the people carrying them.
Princess Marya sat alone in her room, listening to the sounds of the house, occasionally opening the door when they passed by, and looking closely at what was happening in the corridor. Several women walked in and out with quiet steps, looked at the princess and turned away from her. She did not dare to ask, she closed the door, returned to her room, and then sat down in her chair, then took up her prayer book, then knelt down in front of the icon case. Unfortunately and to her surprise, she felt that prayer did not calm her anxiety. Suddenly the door of her room quietly opened and her old nanny Praskovya Savishna, tied with a scarf, appeared on the threshold; almost never, due to the prince’s prohibition, did not enter her room.
“I came to sit with you, Mashenka,” said the nanny, “but I brought the prince’s wedding candles to light in front of the saint, my angel,” she said with a sigh.
- Oh, I'm so glad, nanny.
- God is merciful, my dear. - The nanny lit candles entwined with gold in front of the icon case and sat down with the stocking by the door. Princess Marya took the book and began to read. Only when steps or voices were heard, the princess looked at each other in fear, questioningly, and the nanny. In all parts of the house the same feeling that Princess Marya experienced while sitting in her room was poured out and possessed everyone. According to the belief that the fewer people know about the suffering of a woman in labor, the less she suffers, everyone tried to pretend not to know; no one spoke about this, but in all the people, in addition to the usual sedateness and respect for good manners that reigned in the prince’s house, one could see one common concern, a softness of heart and an awareness of something great, incomprehensible, taking place at that moment.
No laughter could be heard in the big maid's room. In the waitress all the people sat and were silent, ready to do something. The servants burned torches and candles and did not sleep. The old prince, stepping on his heel, walked around the office and sent Tikhon to Marya Bogdanovna to ask: what? - Just tell me: the prince ordered me to ask what? and come tell me what she says.
“Report to the prince that labor has begun,” said Marya Bogdanovna, looking significantly at the messenger. Tikhon went and reported to the prince.
“Okay,” said the prince, closing the door behind him, and Tikhon no longer heard the slightest sound in the office. A little later, Tikhon entered the office, as if to adjust the candles. Seeing that the prince was lying on the sofa, Tikhon looked at the prince, at his upset face, shook his head, silently approached him and, kissing him on the shoulder, left without adjusting the candles or saying why he had come. The most solemn sacrament in the world continued to be performed. Evening passed, night came. And the feeling of expectation and softening of the heart in the face of the incomprehensible did not fall, but rose. Nobody was sleeping.
It was one of those March nights when winter seems to want to take its toll and pours out its last snows and storms with desperate anger. To meet the German doctor from Moscow, who was expected every minute and for whom a support was sent to the main road, to the turn to the country road, horsemen with lanterns were sent to guide him through the potholes and jams.
Princess Marya had left the book long ago: she sat silently, fixing her radiant eyes on the wrinkled face of the nanny, familiar to the smallest detail: on a strand of gray hair that had escaped from under a scarf, on the hanging pouch of skin under her chin.
Nanny Savishna, with a stocking in her hands, in a quiet voice told, without hearing or understanding her own words, what had been told hundreds of times about how the late princess in Chisinau gave birth to Princess Marya, with a Moldavian peasant woman instead of her grandmother.
“God have mercy, you never need a doctor,” she said. Suddenly a gust of wind hit one of the exposed frames of the room (by the will of the prince, one frame was always displayed with larks in each room) and, knocking off the poorly closed bolt, fluttered the damask curtain, and, smelling cold and snow, blew out the candle. Princess Marya shuddered; The nanny, having put down the stocking, went to the window and leaned out and began to catch the folded frame. The cold wind ruffled the ends of her scarf and the gray, stray strands of hair.
- Princess, mother, someone is driving along the road ahead! - she said, holding the frame and not closing it. - With lanterns, it should be, doctor...
- Oh my god! God bless! - said Princess Marya, - we must go meet him: he doesn’t know Russian.
Princess Marya threw on her shawl and ran towards those traveling. When she passed the front hall, she saw through the window that some kind of carriage and lanterns were standing at the entrance. She went out onto the stairs. There was a tallow candle on the railing post and it was flowing from the wind. The waiter Philip, with a frightened face and another candle in his hand, stood below, on the first landing of the stairs. Even lower, around the bend, along the stairs, moving footsteps in warm boots could be heard. And some familiar voice, as it seemed to Princess Marya, said something.
- God bless! - said the voice. - And father?
“They’ve gone to bed,” answered the voice of the butler Demyan, who was already downstairs.
Then the voice said something else, Demyan answered something, and footsteps in warm boots began to approach faster along the invisible bend of the stairs. "This is Andrey! - thought Princess Marya. No, this cannot be, it would be too unusual,” she thought, and at the same moment as she was thinking this, on the platform on which the waiter stood with a candle, the face and figure of Prince Andrei appeared in a fur coat with a collar sprinkled with snow. Yes, it was him, but pale and thin, and with a changed, strangely softened, but alarming expression on his face. He walked onto the stairs and hugged his sister.
-You didn’t receive my letter? - he asked, and without waiting for an answer, which he would not have received, because the princess could not speak, he returned, and with the obstetrician, who entered after him (he met with him at the last station), with quick steps he again entered the the stairs and hugged his sister again. - What fate! - he said, “Dear Masha,” and, throwing off his fur coat and boots, he went to the princess’s quarters.
The little princess was lying on pillows, wearing a white cap. (Suffering had just released her.) Black hair curled in strands around her sore, sweaty cheeks; her rosy, lovely mouth with a sponge covered with black hairs was open, and she smiled joyfully. Prince Andrei entered the room and stopped in front of her, at the foot of the sofa on which she was lying. Brilliant eyes, looking childish, scared and excited, stopped at him without changing expression. “I love you all, I haven’t done harm to anyone, why am I suffering? help me,” her expression said. She saw her husband, but did not understand the significance of his appearance now before her. Prince Andrei walked around the sofa and kissed her on the forehead.
“My darling,” he said: a word he had never spoken to her. - God is merciful. “She looked at him questioningly, childishly and reproachfully.
“I expected help from you, and nothing, nothing, and you too!” - said her eyes. She wasn't surprised that he came; she did not understand that he had arrived. His arrival had nothing to do with her suffering and its relief. The torment began again, and Marya Bogdanovna advised Prince Andrei to leave the room.
The obstetrician entered the room. Prince Andrei went out and, meeting Princess Marya, again approached her. They started talking in a whisper, but every minute the conversation fell silent. They waited and listened.
“Allez, mon ami, [Go, my friend,” said Princess Marya. Prince Andrey again went to his wife and sat down in the next room, waiting. Some woman came out of her room with a frightened face and was embarrassed when she saw Prince Andrei. He covered his face with his hands and sat there for several minutes. Pathetic, helpless animal groans were heard from behind the door. Prince Andrei stood up, went to the door and wanted to open it. Someone was holding the door.
- You can’t, you can’t! – a frightened voice said from there. – He began to walk around the room. The screams stopped and a few seconds passed. Suddenly a terrible scream - not her scream, she could not scream like that - was heard in the next room. Prince Andrei ran to the door; the scream stopped, and the cry of a child was heard.
“Why did they bring the child there? thought Prince Andrei at the first second. Child? Which one?... Why is there a child there? Or was it a baby born? When he suddenly realized all the joyful meaning of this cry, tears choked him, and he, leaning with both hands on the windowsill, sobbed, began to cry, as children cry. The door opened. The doctor, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, without a frock coat, pale and with a shaking jaw, left the room. Prince Andrey turned to him, but the doctor looked at him in confusion and, without saying a word, walked past. The woman ran out and, seeing Prince Andrei, hesitated on the threshold. He entered his wife's room. She lay dead in the same position in which he had seen her five minutes ago, and the same expression, despite the fixed eyes and the paleness of her cheeks, was on that charming, childish face with a sponge covered with black hairs.
“I love you all and have never done anything bad to anyone, so what did you do to me?” her lovely, pitiful, dead face spoke. In the corner of the room, something small and red grunted and squeaked in Marya Bogdanovna’s white, shaking hands.
Two hours after this, Prince Andrei entered his father’s office with quiet steps. The old man already knew everything. He stood right at the door, and as soon as it opened, the old man silently, with his senile, hard hands, like a vice, grabbed his son’s neck and sobbed like a child.
Three days later the funeral service was held for the little princess, and, bidding farewell to her, Prince Andrei ascended the steps of the coffin. And in the coffin was the same face, although with closed eyes. “Oh, what have you done to me?” it said everything, and Prince Andrei felt that something was torn away in his soul, that he was guilty of a guilt that he could not correct or forget. He couldn't cry. The old man also entered and kissed her wax hand, which lay calmly and high on the other, and her face said to him: “Oh, what and why did you do this to me?” And the old man turned away angrily when he saw this face.
