Fedor Fedorovich Kokoshkin

Fyodor Fyodorovich Kokoshkin (, — ) was a Russian lawyer and politician, author of seminal works on jurisprudence, the First Russian State Duma deputy, and a founding member of the Russian Constitutional Democratic Party and the Controller general of the Russian Provisional Government. The playwright Fyodor Kokoshkin was his grandfather. Biography Born in Chełm, Lublin Governorate, Congress Poland, to the aristocratic family, Kokoshkin was educated first at the Vladimir Gymnasium which he graduated in 1889 with gold metal, then at the Moscow University where he stayed after the graduation later to become a privat-docent (1897) and professor (1907). In 1911 with a group of liberal-minded lecturers he left the university by way of a protest against the policies of Lev Kasso, the then Minister of Education. A respected scholar of law, Kokoshkin did a lot to establish the theoretical basis for the proposed development of liberal state ruled by the law, emphasizing the need to limit the possibilities for the state's interference with the personal life of an individual. Among other issues he concentrated on in his essays were the decentralization of power, autonomy and federalism, as well as theoretical and practical ways of organizing local governments for Russian provinces.