Mikhail Khilkov

Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov (also spelled Chilkoff, Chilkov, Khilkoff, Hilkof and other variants) (Russian: Михаил Иванович Хилков) (18 December [O.S.

In four years Khilkov rose to the position of manager of rolling stock and traction; he then worked for about a year as a metalworker at a locomotive factory in Liverpool; while working there he was offered the position of traction manager on the Kursk-Kiev railway, and from here he went to the Moscow-Ryazan railway.

[5] In 1880 General Annenkov appointed Khilkov head of the construction of the Kyzyl-Arvat branch railway, but in early 1882 at the invitation of the Bulgarian Government, he became their Minister of Social Works, Trade and Agriculture, and contributed significantly to the country's economic progress.

[9] Khilkov passed these concerns to the tsar and proposed introduction of a very limited workers' representation through elected shop elders.

Half-hearted response fell on deaf ears, and the railroad system was paralyzed by a creeping general strike.

[11] In March Khilkov held another conference and again offered nothing more than abstract "fair approach" to workers' grievances.

[14] He had to return to Saint Petersburg by a horse carriage: his flagship railroad was paralyzed by a strike that he could neither subdue nor appease.