I. I. Tolstoy and Petersburg society on the eve of the revolution

The book is devoted to creativity, public and state activities of the II Tolstoy, an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and the Academy of Sciences, Vice President of the Academy of Arts in 1913-1905, Minister of Folk Enlightenment in 1905-1906. and the urban head of St. Petersburg in 1913-1910. I.I. Tolstoy openly acted in pressing for the development of local self-government, for radical reforms and national policies and in the education system. He considered the doomed nationalist course of Stolypin. However, his attempts to defend their reform projects in the government of S.Yu.Vitte and at the post of urban head pushed to the stubborn resistance of the supreme power. The evolution of the views of I.I. Tolstically suggests that at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the contradictions between the authorities and society aggravated. The book is based on the materials of the family archive I.I. Tolstoy