Durnovo was born into a noble family of the St Petersburg gubernia. He graduated from the Imperial Military Academy, and in 1853 began his military and civil service. From 16 December 1872 to 14 September 1878 he was governor of Moscow, and this enabled him to grasp fairly quickly the administrative problems of the city and gubernia.
The second Moscow period in the biography of Durnovo was linked to problems caused by the growing revolutionary and democratic movement. In September 1905 a meeting attended by a large crowd of people was held at the Konstantinovsky Survey Institute, work stopped at the Miussky rolling stock workshops, and on the city electric and horse-drawn railways. The month of October brought a nationwide political strike.
In this situation, Durnovo approached the Minister of Internal Affairs with a request to increase the city police force and co-ordinate its activities with the gubernia gendarmerie and the Secret Police Department by placing them under the governor-general. On 12 October 1905, Pyotr Pavlovich petitioned the government to grant him special powers "in view of the mass strikes and disorders taking place in Moscow". The government, however, considered such measures to be premature.
These anxious months also left a record of more agreeable events. On 30 August a sports festival was held to raise funds for the Committee for the Needs of Soldiers on Active Service and Their Families. From 7 to 20 September an All-Russia Apiculture Exhibition was held in the Zoological Gardens, and from 10 to 16 September there was a congress of bee-keepers. The 2nd Horticulture, Fruit-Growing, Market-Gardening and Wine-Production Competition and Bazaar was held from 21 September to 3 October, while 4 October saw the opening of the first private civil engineering college in Moscow, founded by the engineer M.K. Priorov.
The political situation in the capital made it necessary to take harsh and urgent measures. It would seem that the government's wish to provide Moscow with firm government enjoying the confidence of the population was the reason for the dismissal of Durnovo from the post of governor-general. However, he retained the title of member of the State Council and the rank of adjutant-general.
On leaving administrative service, Durnovo continued his public activities. He did much useful work for the Welfare Board for assistance to the families of veterans of the Russo-Japanese war, and on 22 July 1909, received an imperial recommendation for "services rendered".
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