In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878 he commanded a separate corps d'armée on the Turkish frontier in Asia Minor. After taking the fortress of Ardahan[?], he was repulsed by Mukhtar Pasha[?] at Zevin[?], but subsequently defeated his opponent at Aladja Dagh[?], took Kars[?] by storm, and laid siege to Erzerum[?]. For these services he received the title of Count.
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 led to his appointment as chief of the Supreme Executive Commission which had been created in St Petersburg to deal with the revolutionary agitation in general. Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extra-legal measures, and an attempt on his own life soon after he assumed office did not shake his convictions. In his opinion the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent, and for this purpose he 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; and when the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers.
The proposed scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand, but it was never carried out. On the very day (13 March 1881) that the emperor signed a ukaz[?] creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, who should prepare reforms[?] in various branches of the administration, he was assassinated by Nihilist conspirators; and his successor, Alexander III, at once adopted a strongly reactionary policy. Count Loris-Melikov immediately resigned, and lived in retirement until his death, which took place at Nice on 22 December 1888.
Original text from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica
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