A confidant of the Empress Alexandra, under his administration the country suffered drastic inflation and a transportation breakdown, which led to severe food shortages.

His father Vladimir Vilgelmovich Stürmer was of German descent and a retired Captain of Cavalry in the Imperial Russian Army.

He did not have the formal service qualification necessary for such a high appointment to hold the post of minister or the rank of senator.

In the State Council, he supported Pyotr Stolypin and his closest collaborators on agrarian reform, land management and agriculture Chief Governor Alexander Krivoshein "in their endeavors in the field of devices peasants".

Stürmer, being a dualist, opposed, on one hand, the Black Hundreds, speaking for unlimited autocracy, and the other – the Octobrists and the Kadets, to practice the idea of parliamentarism.

Pending these proceedings, Stürmer was appointed prime minister on 20 January 1916, following the 76-year-old Ivan Goremykin, who was opposed to the convening of the Duma.

[7]A strongly prevailing opinion that Rasputin was the actual ruler of the country was of great psychological importance.

Because of the stresses of war on an inefficient government and at random politics, bureaucracy, zemstvos, in two months of office Stürmer succeeded in making the public want Goremykin back.

[17] The French ambassador was aghast, depicting Stürmer as "worse than a mediocrity – a third rate intellect, mean spirit, low character, doubtful honesty, no experience, and no idea of state business".

Under his administration, the country suffered drastic inflation and a transportation breakdown, which led to severe food shortages.

[23] In June the tsar had to decide on the question of Polish autonomy, already academic given that Poland had been occupied by the Germans the previous year.

[24] The Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Sazonov, who had pleaded for an independent and autonomous Congress Poland, was replaced on 23 July ("Sturmer is secretly carrying on a very active campaign against him"[18]).

His activities in this department resulted in the premature declaration of war by Romania, so disastrous for that country and for Russia.

"[25] In July Aleksandr Khvostov, not in good health, was appointed as Minister of Interior (after the Brusilov Offensive Romania joined the Allies in August and attacked Transylvania).

This time the public was outraged[27] and the opposition parties decided to attack Stürmer, his government, and the "Dark forces".

For the liberals in the parliament, Grigori Rasputin, who believed in autocracy and absolute monarchy, was one of the main obstacles.

On 1 November, Pavel Milyukov, concluding that Stürmer's policies placed in jeopardy the Triple Entente, delivered his famous "stupidity or treason" speech at the Imperial Duma, which had not been gathering since February.

Alexander Kerensky called the ministers "hired assassins" and "cowards" and said they were "guided by the contemptible Grishka Rasputin!".

He was arrested by the Russian Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917 and died of uremia in September at the hospital of the Peter and Paul Fortress (or the Kresty Prison).