The diary of the grand prince Sergey Alexandrovich, 1905

First full publication of the diary of Grand Prince Sergey Alexandrovich of 1905 is presented. The original of the diary is stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Moscow). Sergey Alexandrovich was the Russian Emperor Nicolay II' uncle and the Commander-in-Chief of the troops of Moscow military district in early 1905. His diary is one of the main sources on political and social history of Moscow in early 1905. The diary's notes character­ize everyday life of the Grand Prince and his activity in the initial period of revolutionary upheavals and fixe his as­sessment of political events during his life's last few weeks. The riots broke in Moscow after St. Petersburg in early 1905, but then the situation was quickly normalized and the order was restored in Moscow due to the actions of local authorities and personally of the Grand Prince Sergey Alexandrovich. The Grand Prince who was Moscow Gover­nor-General from 1891 to January 1, 1905 had a lot of political experience, knew Moscow and was distinguished by hardness and endurance. The Grand Prince's diary also clarifies the situation with the appointments of two Sergey Alexandrovich' companions to important posts in St. Petersburg: Nicolay II appointed Dmitry Trepov (former Mos­cow chief of the police) as the Petersburg Governor-General and Alexander Boulygin (former assistant of Moscow Governor-General) as the Minister of internal affairs in January 1905. Sergey Alexandrovich' diary shows that he was not involved in their appointment which is contrary to the opinion of many contemporaries and some historians.