Engineer K.O. De-Skrokhovsky: conservative versus bureaucracy

Abstract

The history of discussions around economic issues and railway construction in post-reform Russia has not been deprived of the attention of modern researchers. At the same time, even in special publications on this topic, the name of one of its most prominent participants, engineer Konstantin Osipovich De-Skrokhovsky, is practically not found. This name is now almost completely forgotten; even the year of birth is missing from brief dictionary references about it. Meanwhile, the “intellectual biography” of this figure is extremely interesting in the context of studying the history of economics and railway business in the last quarter of the 19th century: it helps to better understand the socio-political context of the process of “nationalization” of railways that was then beginning. But it is not without significance (and in this context has never been considered by researchers) for a researcher of social thought in the second half of the 19th century, for understanding the history of both right-wing salons and the struggle of court groups of this period.