Born in Moscow into the family of a civil servant. Studied at the faculty of history and philology at Moscow University. The author of studies on Russian history professor. In 1905 he became a Bolshevik. From 1908-1917 in emigration.
At the beginning of September 1917 he arrives in Moscow, where he is elected to the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies and a member of the editorial board of the newspaper hvestia of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies. During the October-November fights he is a supporter of decisive action and an opponent of any negotiations with the Committee of Public Security. He is also a member of the Moscow Military and Revolutionary Committee.
On 14 November 1917 at ajoint plenary session of the two Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies a single Executive Committee was chosen as well as a Presidium of the Moscow Soviet, which became the governing organ of executive power in the city. M.N. Pokrovsky became the chairman of the Presidium. On the very same day the Presidium adopted a resolution On the Matter of Uniting the Soviets. It was decided to have separate sections for workers and soldiers in the united Soviet. RG. Smidovich was elected as the chairman of the Presidium of the workers' section, while S.Ya. Budzynsky became chairman of the Presidium of the soldiers' section.
Pokrovsky was in charge of the nationalisation of those large enterprises which had been placed in the competence of the Moscow Soviet, as well as the fight against sabotage and speculation, the creation of a new apparatus of authority and the provision of food to the population. He participated in the negotiations with the German delegation in Brest-Litovsk but was firmly opposed to the position taken by L.D. Trotsky, who proclaimed that the Soviet government was not withdrawing from the war, but was demobilising the army, yet it would not sign a peace treaty on the German conditions. On 5 March 1918 he delivered a paper at a Moscow party conference in which he declared that the signed peace treaty with Germany should not be observed. He displayed great energy in the formation of Red Army units in Moscow.
When the Council of People's Commissars of Moscow and the Moscow Region was formed on 11 March 1918 M.N. Pokrovsky became its chairman. From May 1918 he was Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the Russian Federation. He was repeatedly elected as member of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and Central Executive Committee of the USSR. In 1929 he was elected Academician.
Buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square.
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