POBÉDONOSCEV, KONSTANTINI PETROVIĆ. — Russian jurist and statesman, b. in Moscow on 18 Nov. 1827, d. in St Petersburg on 10 March 1907.
After completing his studies in law, P. entered the Senate chancery; then, from 1860 to 1865, he held the chair of civil law at the University of Moscow and taught jurisprudence to the sons of Emperor Alessandro III. In 1865 he became a councillor in the Ministry of Justice, in 1868 a senator, in 1872 a member of the State Council, and from 1880 to 1905 chief procurator of the S. Synod.
P. set forth a synthesis of his political, social, and religious ideas in Miscellanee moscovite (Moscow 1896), where he criticizes Western culture on account of rationalism and parliamentarianism, to which he opposes religious faith, love of tradition, respect for sovereign autocracy, and the hierarchical structure of society. In his Corso del diritto civile (St Petersburg 1896), P. defended Russia’s traditional political and juridical institutions and judged any reform of them premature and dangerous. As a friend and adviser of the imperial family, P. exercised great influence over domestic policy under Alessandro III and Nicola II. He maintained that autocracy should stand against the political currents tending toward constitutional monarchy, which he considered disastrous for Russia, and recommended the ruthless repression of such movements. As chief procurator of the S. Synod, P. directed ecclesiastical affairs despotically for 25 years; by skilfully manipulating the complex bureaucratic machinery, he succeeded in neutralizing the opposition of the most authoritative representatives of the hierarchy, who claimed greater autonomy for the bishops in the administration of the Church.
When the liberal currents prevailed in 1905, P. was dismissed from office and withdrew into private life. He also published several historical and juridical studies, and his Russian version of the Imitazione di Cristo became popular. P.’s tragic error lay in his stubborn conservatism, with which he obstructed the work of those who, through timely reforms, attempted to avert the imminent catastrophe of the dynasty and of the Russian Church, to both of which he too was sincerely attached.