P.D. Sviatopolk-Mirskii and A.A. Lopukhin: The Political Police and Mirskii's ‘Spring’

Abstract

Plehve's assassination created serious problems for Lopukhin. His failure to protect Plehve had seriously damaged his reputation; furthermore, once Lopukhin had accepted the job as Plehve's police chief he implicitly joined his ministers' patronage–clientele network and this automatically made him some very powerful enemies. With the disintegration of Plehve's network Lopukhin became vulnerable to their machinations and unless he could find another patron to protect him from them, and from the charge of ineptitude in the handling of Plehve's security, his career would probably be at an end. Lopukhin's immediate concern, however, was his obligation to discover the causes in the breakdown of security which led to Plehve's assassination. Lopukhin did not embark on an official investigation into the role of the political police in the Plehve assassination, launching instead an informal enquiry into the affair, questioning L.A. Rataev, the chief of the Foreign Agentura and Azef s immediate superior, about how such a plot could go undiscovered. Although Rataev looked into the matter and reported to Lopukhin that he did not find any evidence of Azef s involvement in Plehve's death,¹ Lopukhin was not satisfied with Rataev's cursory investigation and he turned the enquiry over to E.P. Mednikov. Mednikov recalled Rataev to St Petersburg for further questioning. Mednikov, like Lopukhin, was dissatisfied with Rataev's explanations. ‘Well if Raskin [one of Azef's klichki] knows nothing … [about the plot to kill Plehve]’, exclaimed Mednikov, ‘it signifies a bad business’.² Nevertheless, Mednikov did nothing more than chastise Rataev for failing to elicit the proper information from Azef,³ and he was allowed to return to his post as if nothing had happened. In September, Lopukhin received Rataev's reports on the Paris Conference of revolutionary and opposition groups convened to discuss the unification of their forces. The raw intelligence on this importantgathering was supplied by Azef. This confirmed Lopukhin's suspicions about his principal sotrudnik. ‘This circumstance,’ Lopukhin remembered, ‘indicated to methat Azef undoubtedly belonged to the central committee of the [SR] party’ where, according to Lopukhin's reasoning, he must have learned the details of the plot to kill Plehve. Azef had obviously lied to Rataev about his role in the revolutionarymovement and perhaps worse. Lopukhin, now deeply suspicious of Azef, decided to dismiss him from the service; however, nothing came of his intention.⁴