Katkov, Mikhail Nikiforovich°
KATKOV, MIKHAIL NIKIFOROVICH°
KATKOV, MIKHAIL NIKIFOROVICH ° (1818–1887), journalist, publicist, and editor of the influential newspaper Moskovskiya Vedomosti. In his youth, Katkov was associated with the revolutionary circles of Herzen and Bakunin. From the 1840s, he was attracted by the ideas of British liberalism, but after the Polish revolt (1863), he joined the camp of the extremist Conservatives. He nevertheless remained faithful to his liberal principles with respect to the Jewish problem. At the height of the anti-Jewish riots (1881–82), he condemned the "sudden mobilization against the Jews" which was due to "malicious devisers of evil" who deliberately sought to confuse the consciousness of the nation and encourage it to solve the Jewish problem, not by reasoning and enquiry, but with the assistance of "upraised fists."
bibliography:
Nedelnaya Khronika Voskhoda, no. 30 (1887).
[Yehuda Slutsky]