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Dmitry Andreyevich Tolstoy () (March 13, 1823 – May 7, 1889) was a Russian
statesman, a member of the
State Council of Imperial Russia (1866). He belonged to the
comital branch of the
Tolstoy family.
Tolstoy graduated from the
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1843. He held a managing position at the Ministry of the Navy beginning in 1853. Tolstoy was an over-procurator of the
Holy Synod in 1865–1880, simultaneously holding a post of the Minister of National Enlightenment in 1866–1880. In 1871, Tolstoy was in charge of the college reform, which would result in the prevalence of the classical education (included
Latin and
Greek languages and ancient literature, among other things). In 1872, as Education minister, Tolstoy agreed to the opening by
V. I. Guerrier of his Higher Women's Courses in Moscow, thus establishing higher education for women in Russia.
In 1882–1889, Tolstoy was the
Interior Minister and Chief of
Gendarmerie. He is considered one of the pillars of the political
reaction in the 1880s and supporter of the strong authority. Tolstoy's activities were aimed at backing the
nobility, regulating
peasantry's
modus vivendi and spreading his administration's influence over local authorities. On Tolstoy's initiative, they issued the so called
"Temporary regulations" in 1882, which limited the
freedom of press to an even greater extent. Tolstoy, together with A. Pazukhin<!--full name/link?-->, outlined and...
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