21 February 1859 year
Under Novomoskovsk (now Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine), was born into the family of one of the leaders of the gendarmerie corps Mikhail Rodzianko — the last chairman of the State Duma and one of the leaders of the February Revolution of 1917.
In a moment of grave danger, the worst policy is to turn a blind eye to the seriousness of the situation.
At 18, he graduated from the Page Corps and served in the Cavalry Guards Regiment. At 23, he retired with the rank of lieutenant. He was the leader of the Novomoskovsk nobility and chairman of the provincial zemstvo council. From 1899, he held the title of Chamberlain of the Imperial Court.
Following the Tsar's Manifesto of October 17, 1905, he became one of the leaders of the Octobrist Party—right-wing liberals who advocated a Constitution. In 1907, at 48, he was elected to the third State Duma. He served as its speaker for almost a year.
I believed and still believe in the vital power and state importance for our Motherland of the representative system granted to Holy Rus' by the unyielding will and wisdom of our great sovereign.
At that time, the Octobrist faction was the most influential – after the electoral reforms, the number of their mandates increased sevenfold: from 20 to 148. Rodzianko was friends with the prime minister. Stolypin and supported his reforms. For his loud speeches and heavy frame, he earned the nickname "samovar" (or, according to another version, "drum") from the deputies. He liked to call himself "the second person in the empire" and demanded that police officers salute him on the street.
In 1912, at 53, he headed the State Duma of the 4th convocation.
Despite the mistakes of the first two Dumas, the idea of popular representation became firmly established in the minds of the people as a factor necessary in the state system.
He was a wealthy man - he owned a mansion in Petersburg, a sawmill, a mill and 9000 dessiatines of land.
During World War I, he opposed Nicholas II's assumption of the duties of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and demanded the resignation of his ministers. He was one of the leaders of the Progressive Bloc and the official intermediary between the Duma and the tsarist government.
During that period, he criticized the royal family for getting closer to Rasputin, and considered Nicholas II weak-willed and weak-willed.
In 1916, he discussed the possibility of a palace coup with the Cadets, and in early 1917, with the British ambassador and generals of the Russian army.
In February 1917, a few days before the revolution, he wrote a note to the Tsar about the state of affairs in the country. He warned of the "collapse of the army," the problems with food and industry, and hinted at inept policies—"the result of human handiwork."
Unfortunately, in Russia the government's attitude towards society is built on a principle that is the exact opposite [from Europe]: public initiative is not trusted, it is seen as a dangerous enemy; public organizations, despite all the enormous services they have rendered to the country and the army, are persecuted.
He proposed introducing public control and allowing trade unions, and establishing a dialogue with society.
The hour strikes twelve, and the time is too near when any appeal to the people's reason will be belated and useless.
He headed the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and advocated for the abdication of Nicholas II; it was to him that the Tsar's reply telegram was sent on March 2, agreeing to his abdication.
If someone had told me two days ago that this very hand would be writing the abdication of Nicholas II, I would have called whoever said it crazy, and I would have considered myself crazy. But today I can't say anything against it.
He stubbornly continued to call his committee the "Supreme Council," even when power passed into the hands of the Provisional Government. In the summer, he supported the "Kornilov rebellion," but then disavowed any "Fronde" or "counterrevolution."
During the October Revolution, he tried to organize the defense of the Provisional Government, but soon after the failure, he left for the Don and joined the Volunteer Army.
In 1920, he left Russia. Among the émigrés, he was persecuted as a "seditious person" and a "revolutionary." Shortly before his death, he was beaten by former Wrangel officers.
He died in 1924, at 64, in Yugoslavia, three days after Lenin’s death, which is why the news of his passing remained in the shadows.
