POBEDONOSTSEV, KONSTANTIN PETROVICH. - Russian jurist and statesman, b. in Moscow on 18 Nov. 1827, d. in St. Petersburg on 10 March 1907.
After completing his studies in jurisprudence, P. entered the chancery of the Senate, then from 1860 to 1865 held the chair of civil law at the University of Moscow and taught jurisprudence to the sons of Emperor Alexander III. In 1865 he became a councillor at the Ministry of Justice, in 1868 a senator, in 1872 a member of the Council of State, and from 1880 to 1905 high procurator of the Holy Synod.
The synthesis of his political, social and religious ideas was set out by P. in the Moscow Miscellanies (Moscow 1896), where he criticizes Western culture on account of its rationalism and parliamentarianism, to which he opposes religious faith, love of tradition, respect for sovereign autocracy and for the hierarchical structure of society. In his Course of Civil Law (St. Petersburg 1896) P. defends the traditional Russian political and juridical institutions and judges any reform of them premature and dangerous. As a friend and counsellor of the imperial family, P. exercised a great influence on domestic policy under Alexander III and Nicholas II. He upheld existing autocracy against the political currents tending toward constitutional monarchy, considering it ruinous for Russia, and recommended the merciless repression of such movements. As high procurator of the Holy Synod, P. for 25 years directed ecclesiastical affairs despotically and, by skillfully manipulating the complex bureaucratic machine, was able to neutralize the opposition of the most authoritative representatives of the hierarchy, who claimed for the bishops greater autonomy in the administration of the Church.
When in 1905 the liberal currents gained the upper hand, P. was dismissed from his office and retired to private life. He also published several historical-juridical studies, and his Russian version of the Imitation of Christ became popular. P.'s tragic error lies in his obstinate conservatism, with which he hindered the work of those who, by timely reforms, were attempting to avert the imminent catastrophe of the dynasty and of the Russian Church, to which he too was sincerely attached.