GOLITSYN, COUNT NIKOLAI NIKOLAYEVICH°

GOLITSYN, COUNT NIKOLAI NIKOLAYEVICH° (1836–1893), Russian author and government official. While holding governmental positions in the pale of settlement , and as editor of the semiofficial newspaper Varshavskiy Dnevnik, Golitsyn undertook an inquiry into the Jewish problem in Russia. He wrote studies and articles on the subject with an anti-Jewish approach during the 1870s, achieving the reputation among upper government circles of being an expert on the Jewish problem, and in 1883 was appointed by the ministry of the interior a member of the "High Commission for the Revision of the Current Laws Concerning the Jews" (the Von Pahlen Commission). In this connection, Golitsyn prepared a series of studies and memoranda, the most important of which was Istoriya russkogo zakonodatelstva o yevreyakh 1649–1825 gg. ("History of Russian Legis-lation Concerning the Jews 1649–1825"). The book, of 1,116 pages, provides an abundance of documents drawn from archives and is therefore of value. It was published in 1886 in 300 copies. Despite his anti-Jewish outlook, Golitsyn agreed with the conclusions of the Commission which recommended the gradual abolition of the restrictions against the Jews (1888). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: YE, 6 (c. 1910), 623; Dubnow, Hist Russ, 1 (1916), 392ff.; 2 (1918), 74ff.; I. Levitats, Jewish Community in Russia, 1772–1844 (1943), 91, 102–4. (Yehuda Slutsky)