Early life He was born in
Tiflis,
Caucasus Viceroyalty,
Russian Empire, in 1826, into the
Melikov family of
Armenian origin, to Prince Tariel Zurabovich Loris-Melikov and his wife, Princess Ekaterina Ahverdova, and was educated in
St Petersburg, first at the
Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, and afterwards at the Guards' Cadet Institute. While at the Lazarev Institute, a practical joke against one of his instructors landed him in hot water and led to his expulsion from the school. He joined a
hussar regiment, and four years afterwards (1847) he was sent to the
Caucasus, where he remained for more than twenty years, and made for himself during troubled times the reputation of a distinguished
cavalry officer and an able administrator. In the latter capacity, though a keen soldier, he aimed always at preparing the warlike and turbulent population committed to his charge for the transition from military to normal civil
administration, and in this work, his favorite instrument was the schoolmaster.
Military career Loris-Melikov first saw action against the forces of another power during the
Crimean War. He served as the commander of a cavalry squadron on the Russo-Ottoman borderlands and took part in the battles at
Bayandur,
Aleksandropol, and
Kars. He was recognized for his military exploits and promoted to major general. During the
Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878, he served as the chief of staff of
Grand Duke Michael. At the rank of adjutant-general, he was given command of the Aleksandropol Detachment on the frontier with the
Ottoman (a force that amounted to 32 battalions, four squadrons, and 112 field guns). After taking the fortress of
Ardahan, he was repulsed by
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha at
Zevin, but subsequently defeated his opponent at
Ajaria, took
Kars by storm, and laid siege to
Erzurum. For these services, he received the title of
count. He was awarded the
Order of Saint George of the second degree on October 27, 1877, for his service in Ajaria.
Civil administrator ,
Tbilisi,
Georgia. In the following year, Loris-Melikov became the temporary governor-general of the region of the Lower
Volga to combat an outbreak of the
plague. The measures he adopted proved so effectual that he was transferred to the provinces of Central Russia to combat the
Nihilists and
Anarchists, who had adopted a policy of
terrorism and had succeeded in assassinating the governor of
Kharkov. His success in this struggle has led to his appointment as chief of the Supreme Administrative Commission, which had been created in
St Petersburg after the February 1880 assassination attempt on
Alexander II to deal with the
terrorist agitation in general. Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extralegal measures, even after an attempt on his own life soon afterwards. He believed that the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent and recommended to the emperor, Alexander II, a large scheme of administrative and economic reforms. Alexander, who was beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the simple method of police repression hitherto employed, lent a willing ear to the suggestion. When the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov as the
minister of the Interior with exceptional powers. The proposed
scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand but was never to be carried out. The emperor signed a
ukase creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, to prepare reforms in various branches of the administration, and while popular people's representatives from the
Zemstvos were granted positions, they were not allowed to vote. The intellectuals of Russia derided these reforms as rubber-stamping and an unwillingness to put forward any substantial constitutional reforms. This ukase was designed and advocated by Loris-Melikov, and on the very day (13 March 1881) of its acceptance by the emperor,
the emperor was assassinated. But after the assassination, Loris-Melikov hesitated about publishing the order for a popular commission, and waited for the new emperor, who turned out to be very opposed to the Constitution in Russia.
Alexander III at once adopted a strongly anti-reformist policy. When the new emperor started to undo some of the reforms that his father, Alexander II, had promulgated, Loris-Melikov resigned and lived in retirement until he died in
Nice on 22 December 1888. ==Popular culture==