Chaikovskii, Nikolai Vasilevich

Chaikovskii, Nikolai Vasil’evich 

Born Dec. 26, 1850 (Jan. 7, 1851), in Viatka (now Kirov); died Apr. 30, 1926, in London. Russian political figure.

Of noble birth, Chaikovskii graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1872. He took part in the student disturbances of 1868 and 1869. An opponent of S. G. Nechaev, he was a member of the Chaikovskii circle; after that group was disbanded in autumn 1874, he emigrated. Chaikovskii settled in London in 1880 and helped organize the Foundation of the Free Russian Press.

Chaikovskii joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR’s) in 1904 and returned to Russia in 1906. In 1910 he broke with the SR’s and withdrew from politics. During World War I, Chaikovskii was a leader of the All-Russian Union of Cities (seeZEMSTVO AND MUNICIPAL UNIONS). After the February Revolution of 1917 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Trudovik Popular Socialist Party.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Chaikovskii actively opposed Soviet power, helping organize the Union for the Rebirth of Russia. When interventionists landed in Arkhangel’sk in August 1918, he became chairman of the Supreme Administration of the Northern Oblast, and in September 1918 he was elected in absentia to the Ufa Directory. He emigrated in January 1919 and joined A. I. Denikin’s government in early 1920. After Denikin was defeated, Chaikovskii took up residence in London.

REFERENCES

”N. V. Chaikovskii.” Katorga i ssylka, 1926, no. 5, pp. 211–232.