Nikolai Gredeskul
Encyclopedia
Nikolay Andreyevich Gredeskul (1864-1930?) was a Russian
liberal
politician.
's law school, Gredeskul became a law
professor (1890) and later dean of the law school there . In late 1904, with social tensions rising as Russian defeats in the Russo-Japanese War
mounted, he joined other prominent Russian professors in calling for political reform and an academic union and was instrumental in founding the liberal Soyuz Osvobozhdeniya (Liberation League). Gredeskul admitted that the professoriat's traditional hostility to student protests, e.g. during the student unrest in 1899, may have been a mistake . With the easing of restrictions on independent press during the Russian Revolution of 1905
, he founded and edited Mir, a liberal newspaper in Kharkiv.
(aka the Kadet party) and a member of its Central Committee. In December 1905, after the suppression of the Moscow
uprising, Gredeskul's paper was closed by the authorities, he was arrested and then exiled to the Arkhangelsk
region. While in exile, he was elected to the First State Duma
from the Kadets in February 1906, which ended his exile. He went to the capital, St. Petersburg, where he was elected Second Deputy Chairman of the Duma when it was convoked in April 1906. After the government dissolved the Duma on July 9, 1906, Gredeskul signed the Vyborg Manifesto
, which called for passive resistance to the government. He was arrested, imprisoned for three months and barred from running in future Duma elections.
During the revolution, Gredeskul moved to St. Petersburg and became a professor of law at the St. Petersburg Polytechnical Institute. He coined the term "psychology of despair" to describe the psychology of the Russian society in the wake of the revolution's defeat . Considered one of the Kadets' leading theoreticians, Gredeskul defended radical traditions of the Russian intelligentsia
against criticism from the Right by Vekhi
authors in 1909. In late 1911, after the assassination of prime minister Pyotr Stolypin
by Bogrov, a former secret police informer, Gredeskul argued that with the decline in revolutionary terrorism after 1907, the government should abandon its covert operations as well .
, he published a pamphlet on the problem of ethnic minorities in Russia, which suggested that his views were evolving in the nationalist direction . In 1916 he began writing for Alexander Protopopov
's Russkaya Volya (Russian Will), a nationalist newspaper, which led to Gredeskul's resignation from the Kadet Central Committee. Gredeskul edited Russkaya Volya between the February Revolution
of 1917 and the October Revolution of 1917, when it was closed down by the new Bolshevik
government.
and argued that Russian intellectuals should come to terms with the new government, which he saw as evolving in a more nationalist direction, anticipating Nikolay Ustryalov's ideas by a few months. In the summer of 1920, Bolshevik authorities arranged a speaking tour of the country for him .
In the 1920s, Grudeskul joined the Communist Party
and was employed by the government as a university professor in Leningrad
. He tried to combine Marx
and Nietzsche
in his book Russia, Before and Now (Rossiia prezhde i teper):
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
politician.
Law professor
After graduating from the University of KharkivKharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
's law school, Gredeskul became a law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
professor (1890) and later dean of the law school there . In late 1904, with social tensions rising as Russian defeats in the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
mounted, he joined other prominent Russian professors in calling for political reform and an academic union and was instrumental in founding the liberal Soyuz Osvobozhdeniya (Liberation League). Gredeskul admitted that the professoriat's traditional hostility to student protests, e.g. during the student unrest in 1899, may have been a mistake . With the easing of restrictions on independent press during the Russian Revolution of 1905
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...
, he founded and edited Mir, a liberal newspaper in Kharkiv.
Liberal politician
In October 1905, at the height of the revolution, Gredeskul became one of the founding members of the Constitutional Democratic partyConstitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...
(aka the Kadet party) and a member of its Central Committee. In December 1905, after the suppression of 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...
uprising, Gredeskul's paper was closed by the authorities, he was arrested and then exiled to the Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
region. While in exile, he was elected to the First State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
from the Kadets in February 1906, which ended his exile. He went to the capital, St. Petersburg, where he was elected Second Deputy Chairman of the Duma when it was convoked in April 1906. After the government dissolved the Duma on July 9, 1906, Gredeskul signed the Vyborg Manifesto
Vyborg Manifesto
The Vyborg Appeal was a declaration issued by Kadets and Trudoviks politicians, former deputies of the disbanded Russian First State Duma on July 9, 1906....
, which called for passive resistance to the government. He was arrested, imprisoned for three months and barred from running in future Duma elections.
During the revolution, Gredeskul moved to St. Petersburg and became a professor of law at the St. Petersburg Polytechnical Institute. He coined the term "psychology of despair" to describe the psychology of the Russian society in the wake of the revolution's defeat . Considered one of the Kadets' leading theoreticians, Gredeskul defended radical traditions of the Russian intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
against criticism from the Right by Vekhi
Vekhi
Vekhi , is a collection of seven essays published in Russia in 1909. It was distributed in five editions and elicited over two hundred published rejoinders in two years...
authors in 1909. In late 1911, after the assassination of prime minister Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...
by Bogrov, a former secret police informer, Gredeskul argued that with the decline in revolutionary terrorism after 1907, the government should abandon its covert operations as well .
Nationalist evolution
Although at first Gredeskul was somewhat to the Left of the Constitutional Democratic party's center , after 1910 he moved to the Right and in 1912-1914 argued for an alliance with the Progressive faction and the Left wing of the Octobrists . In 1916, at the height of World War IWorld 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...
, he published a pamphlet on the problem of ethnic minorities in Russia, which suggested that his views were evolving in the nationalist direction . In 1916 he began writing for Alexander Protopopov
Alexander Protopopov
Alexander Dmitriyevich Protopopov was a Russian statesman, politician Octobrist Party.- Biography :Member of Third and Fourth Dumas...
's Russkaya Volya (Russian Will), a nationalist newspaper, which led to Gredeskul's resignation from the Kadet Central Committee. Gredeskul edited Russkaya Volya between the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917 and the October Revolution of 1917, when it was closed down by the new Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government.
After the 1917 Revolution
After the Bolshevik takeover, Gredeskul stayed in Soviet RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
and argued that Russian intellectuals should come to terms with the new government, which he saw as evolving in a more nationalist direction, anticipating Nikolay Ustryalov's ideas by a few months. In the summer of 1920, Bolshevik authorities arranged a speaking tour of the country for him .
In the 1920s, Grudeskul joined the Communist Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and was employed by the government as a university professor in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. He tried to combine Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
in his book Russia, Before and Now (Rossiia prezhde i teper):
- Superman, if one looks only at his internal meaning ... is a man of superior will and superior doubts ... in this internal meaning [the image of Superman] is glorious to a proletarian, not at all so to a bourgeois.
Works
- "К учению об осуществлении права" (On the Theory of Law Implementation), Kharkov, 1900, 235 pp.
- "Социологическое изучение права" (Sociological Study of the Law), St. Petersburg, 1900, 13 pp.
- "Лекции по общей теории права" (Lectures on the General Theory of the Law), St. Petersburg, 1909, 317 pp.
- "Россия и её народы: Великая Россия как программа разрешения национального вопроса в России" (Russia and her Peoples: Great Russia as a Program to Solve the Nationalities Question in Russia), Petrograd, M. V. Popova, 1916, 79 pp.
- "Россия прежде и теперь" (Russia, Before and Now), [Leningrad?], 1926, 254 pp.
Trivia
- Gredeskul's descendants are scattered around the world, including Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Australia, and USA. Foreign spelling of his surname varies from Gredeskul to Gredeskoul.
- It is believed by his relatives that he died during Siege of LeningradSiege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
in 1942.