Nikolai Kleigels

Professor N. Belelubsky, of the Institute of Engineers, had written a public protest against Kleigels, which was published and read: "The events which took place in the Kazan Square represent the saddest and bitterest event in the life of the metropolis and of Russian society..."[2] In 1902, Kleigels embezzled funds from the Fire Brigade of St. Petersburg, and avoided prosecution only because of the Tsar acting on his behavior against Lopoukine, the Public Prosecutor.

[3] The only thing he is credited with that reflects positively on him, is that he allegedly discovered a bomb-making plot by revolutionaries working on a barge in one of the canals of Kiev.

[4] Normally, someone with this checkered history would be overlooked, but he had caught the eye of the tsar, who recommended him to everyone, and in 1903, he was nominated to the post of Governor-General of Kiev.

Kleigels was dismissed from his post as chief of police of Saint Petersburg in 1905, because it was believed that he allowed pogroms against Jews to go on, after a Jewish riot.

When anti-Jewish pogroms sprung up, Kleigels simply had become "inactive" and had "abandoned his post," according to Sergei Witte, Prime Minister of Russia.