He has been described as “a sincere liberal” and “severe critic of autocracy” who believed in “the inviolability of human rights and freedoms” and “the rule of law.”[2] Born into a long line of aristocratic politicians and diplomats, he was the son of Dmitry Urusov (1830-1903), a retired colonel and chairman of the Yaroslavl provincial district council who was a famous chess player, and Barbara Silovna Batashova (died 1905), the daughter of a rich breeder.

[2] After graduating from university and marrying, he moved with his wife to her native village of Rasva, Przemysl district, Kaluga province.

In July 1885, by order of the Ministry of Finance, Urusov was appointed tax inspector of Kaluga and Peremyshl counties.

Nonetheless, after a short briefing with the Tsar in St. Petersburg, he set off by train, three weeks after his appointment, from Moscow to the Bessarabian capital of Kishinev.

Despite writing to his Vice-Governor requesting that he keep the reception party mall, Urusov was met at Bendery, the first major Bessarabian town, in the traditional manner of the region: there was a crowd of people, an orchestra, a group of policemen cordoning off the Vice-Governor (who wore a complete dress uniform), and the city mayor (who carried a platter of bread and salt.

The provincial society was alien to him and he was taken aback by the “godlike esteem” in which he was held, as well as by the local aristocratic etiquette, which did not even allow him to walk or go shopping.

Urusov was offered the important post of Minister of the Interior, but in the end he was rejected on the grounds that while he was “decent” and “fairly intelligent” he was “not a commanding personality”.

The post went to Pyotr Durnovo, a lawyer and statesman with a somewhat scandalous past and poor record, who apparently had been promised the position.

He became famous after giving a speech in the Duma on June 8, 1906, in which he sharply criticized Russia’s domestic policies and in particular the involvement of the police in pogroms against the Jews.

[2] In 1908, because he had signed the Vyborg Manifesto, calling for civil disobedience in the wake of the dissolution of the Duma, he was sentenced to incarceration in Taganskaya prison in Moscow, where he remained behind bars from May 13 to August 11, 1908.

“Full of hope for the future,” he accepted this post, but “soon realized that the Provisional Government had no chance” and resigned two months later, returning to his estate.

When the October Revolution occurred, he pronounced it "the greatest experiment in the world.”[2] In November 1917, his estate was confiscated, and he, as a former governor, was deprived of civil rights.

There was a major campaign to win his release, and representatives of the Russian Jews spoke up for him as a champion of the Jewish people and a critic of the Czarist pogroms.

[7] In 1920, Urusov was imprisoned for being a member of the counter-revolutionary "Tactical Center," but he was released as part of an amnesty on May 19 of that year after signing an agreement not to participate in any political organizations.

Still eager to be of use to his country, he worked from November 1, 1921, to March 1, 1925, as a business manager (serving from October 1, 1924, as the head of the General Department) for the Special Commission at the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council for the Study of Kursk Magnetic Anomaly.

From July 1, 1921 to May 1, 1923, he was a research assistant at the Moscow branch of the commission on the study of the natural productive forces of Russia at the Academy of Sciences, and on June 25, 1925, he was hired as a senior inspector in the inspection department at the board of the State Bank of the RSFSR.