IGNATYEV, COUNT NIKOLAI PAVLOVICH°

IGNATYEV, COUNT NIKOLAI PAVLOVICH° (1832–1908), Russian reactionary and antisemitic statesman. After the assassination of Alexander II (March 1881), Ignatyev was appointed minister of the interior, retaining this office until June 1882. Among his duties was the investigation of the causes of the wave of anti-Jewish riots which swept across southern Russia after the assassination of the czar. Ignatyev set up provincial commissions of inquiry, instructing them to lay the responsibility for the riots on the Jews, who, it was alleged, exploited the Russian peasants. He prepared extensive projects for the transfer of the Jews to Achal-Tekke, in the plains of central Asia, for settlement on the land. It was he who permitted the first wave of emigration from Russia to the West in 1881–82. Toward the close of his period of office he passed the "Temporary Regulations" which were ratified by Alexander III on May 2–3, 1882 (see may laws ). These regulations sought to prevent the settlement of Jews in the rural regions of the pale of settlement . As a result of public pressure, the czar was compelled to dismiss Ignatyev, replacing him by Count Dimitri Tolstoi. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dubnow, Hist Russ, 3 (1920), index S.V. Ignatyev, Nicholas Pavlovich. (Abraham N. Poliak)