View source for Dmitry Tolstoy

{{Short description|Russian politician (1823–1889)}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2012}}
[[Image:Tolsoy DA.jpg|thumb|Tolstoy in 1887]]
{{Conservatism in Russia|Politicians}}

Count '''Dmitry Andreyevich Tolstoy''' ({{langx|ru|Дми́трий Андре́евич Толсто́й}}; {{OldStyleDate|13 March|1823|1 March}}, [[Moscow]] &ndash; {{OldStyleDate|7 May|1889|25 April}}, [[Saint Petersburg]]) was a Russian politician and a member of the [[State Council of Imperial Russia]] (1866). He belonged to the [[count|comital]] branch of the [[Tolstoy family]].

== Career ==
Tolstoy graduated from the [[Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum]] in 1843. He held a managing position at the Ministry of the Navy beginning in 1853. Tolstoy was an [[Procurator (Russia)|Over-Procurator]] of the [[Holy Synod]] in 1865&ndash;1880, simultaneously holding a post of the Minister of National Enlightenment in 1866&ndash;1880.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In 1882&ndash;1889, Tolstoy was the [[interior minister]] and Chief of [[Special Corps of Gendarmes|Gendarmerie]]. He is considered one of the pillars of the political [[reactionary|reaction]] in the 1880s and supporter of the strong authority. Tolstoy's activities were aimed at backing the [[nobility]], regulating [[peasant]]ry's ''[[modus vivendi]]'', and spreading his administration's influence over local authorities. On Tolstoy's initiative, they issued the so-called ''"Temporary regulations"'' in 1882, which limited the [[freedom of press]] to an even greater extent. Tolstoy, together with A.&nbsp;Pazukhin<!--full name/link?-->, outlined and prepared the so-called "counterreforms", which would become very unpopular in Russia. As one of the great counter reformers of the post Crimean period Tolstoy used his position as minister of education to promote study at university and secondary levels that would bolster Russia as a nation with honest people in power looking to maintain Orthodoxy and Autocracy: something in danger during Tolstoy's rule as the post Crimean period of reform amounted also to increasing rebellion and student dissent. Tolstoy did his best to educate a Russia, and moreover a Russian elite that would maintain Orthodoxy and Autocracy while being in mountable competition with the West. His focus was on consolidating his power over education while suppressing revolutionary attitudes by just censorship, etc.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Tolstoy was elected president of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|St.&nbsp;Petersburg Academy of Sciences]] in 1882. He wrote a number of books on Russian history.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== Higher education ===
In 1871, Tolstoy was in charge of the college reform, which would result in the prevalence of the classical education (included [[Latin]] and [[Greek language]]s and ancient literature, among other things). 

Feminist activists [[Maria Trubnikova]], [[Nadezhda Stasova]], and [[Anna Filosofova]] began pushing, in 1867, for Russian universities to create courses for women.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Rappaport |first=Helen |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-101-4 |volume=2 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |pages=671–672}}</ref>{{rp||page=671|pages=}} Demonstrating "considerable skill in rallying popular support", according to the historian Christine Johanson, the women wrote a carefully-worded petition to [[Alexander II of Russia|Tsar Alexander II]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Johanson |first=Christine |title=Women's Struggle for Higher Education in Russia: 1855–1900 |date=1987 |publisher=[[McGill University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-0565-0 |location=Kingston, Canada |pages= |chapter=Chapter II: The Politics of Minimal Concessions – Women's Courses in Moscow and St. Petersburg}}</ref>{{rp||page=37|pages=}} They gathered over 400 signatures among middle and upper-class women.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=37|pages=}} However, there was widespread opposition to the education of women, particularly by Tolstoy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Muravyeva |first=Marianna |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms: Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries |publisher=[[Central European University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-615-5053-72-6 |editor-last=de Haan |editor-first=Francisca |editor-link=Francisca de Haan |pages=125, 526–529 |editor-last2=Daskalova |editor-first2=Krassimira |editor-link2=Krassimira Daskalova |editor-last3=Loutfi |editor-first3=Anna}}</ref>{{rp||page=528|pages=}}<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=37|pages=}} Tolstoy argued that women would abandon education after being married, and dismissed the signatories by stating that they were "sheep" merely following the latest fashion.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=38|pages=}} He rejected the petition in late 1868, but allowed mixed-gender public lectures which women could attend, under pressure from the Tsar (then [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]).<ref name=":1" />{{rp||page=528|pages=}}<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=|pages=37–38}} However, these were rapidly taken up, overwhelmingly by women.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=|pages=38–39}}

The feminist trio also appealed to war minister [[Dmitry Milyutin]], who agreed to host the courses after being persuaded by his wife, daughter, and Filosofova. Tolstoy countered by allowing the lectures at his own apartments, where he could monitor them.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=|pages=38–39}} The political movement in favor of women's education continued to grow, and by October 1869, the Russian government permitted a limited set of courses for women on advanced subjects (including "chemistry, history, anatomy, zoology, and Russian literature").<ref name=":1" />{{rp||page=528|pages=}}<ref name=":0" />{{rp||page=671|pages=}}<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=39|pages=}} Stasova organized these and recruited the professors to teach them; the courses began in January 1870. Attended by over 200 women, they became known as the ''Vladimirskii'' courses, after their host beginning in 1872, the Vladimir college.<ref name=":1" />{{rp||page=528|pages=}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite Efron|Толстой, Дмитрий Андреевич}}

==External links==
*{{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20051224193204/http://museum.edu.ru/catalog.asp?cat_ob_no=12721&ob_no=12782 Dmitry Tolstoy]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before = [[Alexander Vasilyevich Golovnin]]
| title= [[Minister of National Enlightenment]] 
| years= 1866&ndash;1880
| after=[[Andrey Saburov]]}}
{{succession box | before = [[Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev]]
| title = [[List of Ministers of Interior of Imperial Russia|Minister of Interior]] 
| years = 1882&ndash;1889
| after = [[Ivan Durnovo]]}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box | before = [[Fyodor Petrovich Litke]]
| title = President of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]]
| years = 1882&ndash;1889
| after = [[Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia|Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolstoy, Dmitry}}
[[Category:1823 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Moscow]]
[[Category:People from Moskovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Tolstoy family|Dmitriy]]
[[Category:Counts of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Interior ministers of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Education ministers of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the State Council (Russian Empire)]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Most Holy Synod]]
[[Category:Demidov Prize laureates]]
[[Category:Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]