The memoirs of N.N. Pokrovskii “Last at Mariinsky palace: the memoirs of the Minister for Foreign Affairs” edited by S.V. Kulikov and D.N. Shilov have been published in the “Russia in memoirs” book series.
The reader is presented the memoirs compiled not by a statesman but by a “scientist at power” who impartially verified party doctrines by historic experience. N.N. Pokrovskii (1865-1930) was described by his contemporaries as a man of outstanding intellectual, professional and moral qualities. Being lawyer by education and economist by vocation he used to work at different higher (Committee of ministers, Council of ministers, State Council) and central (Ministry of Finance, State Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) government institutions, and the pinnacle of his career was a position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs obtained in 1916. Detailed chronicle of the last year of the monarchy, especially of three final days, is supplemented by sharp reference about Nicholas II and members of the Romanovs kin, about tsar dignitaries such as prime minister and members of the Council of ministers, and finally about opposition figures. Pokrovskii was one of the last men to leave the residence of the government (Mariinsky palace) and then he wrote in his memoirs: “I’ve done everything I could…”