Vyacheslav von Plehve
Russian politician (1846-1904)
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve (Russian: Вячесла́в Константи́нович фон Пле́ве, IPA: [vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ fɐn ˈplʲevʲɪ]; 20 April [O.S. 8 April] 1846 – 28 July [O.S. 15 July] 1904) was a Russian politician who served as the director of the police from 1881 to 1884 and later as the minister of the interior from 1902 until his assassination in 1904.
Biography
Born in Meshchovsk, Kaluga Governorate, Russia, on 20 April 1846, Plehve was the only son of schoolteacher Konstantin von Plehve and Elizaveta Mikhailovna Shamaev, daughter of a minor landowner. In 1851, Plehve's family moved from Meshchovsk to Warsaw in Russian-controlled Congress Poland, where his father accepted a job as an instructor in a gymnasium.
After studying law at Imperial Moscow University, he joined the Ministry of Justice in 1867. He served as assistant prosecutor in the Vladimir circuit court and as a prosecutor in Vologda. In 1876, he was appointed assistant prosecutor of the Warsaw Chamber of Justice, and in 1879 as prosecutor of the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Justice.
In 1881, he investigated the murder of Alexander II and then joined the Interior Ministry as a Director of the Department of Police, also in charge of the Secret Police. He is credited with the destruction of numerous "People's Will" terrorist groups.
He became a member of the Governing Senate in 1884 and assistant minister of the Interior in 1885. As an assistant minister, at first under Count Dmitry Tolstoy (in office 1882-1889) and later under his successor, Ivan Durnovo (in office 1889-1895), Plehve had shown definite administrative talent.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Vyacheslav von Plehve” is russian politician (1846-1904). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Vyacheslav, Plehve and Russian, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q351927. VIAF identifies the subject as 25899437. The Library of Congress control number is n80040715. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1846, 1904, 1881 and 1884.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vyacheslav von Plehve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.