appointed Minister of the Interior on the understanding that he would carry out a nationalist, reactionary policy. In regards to the constitutional movement, he had personally told Alexander III that "the revolutionary movement could easily be crushed." After a period of intense, violent, destructive antisemitic rioting, known as pogroms, which some accused Ignatyev of fomenting, he issued the infamous "May Laws" in May 1882. Other sources suggest he in fact followed a government policy (not always enforced by local authorities) of strict suppression of rioters and protection of the Jewish population: Nikolai Ignatiev, installed as Minister of the Interior in May 1881, decided on a policy of firm repression, although it was made difficult by the unforeseeable character of the outbreaks and his limited forces. Nevertheless, he ordered his men to fire upon rioters. In the towns of Borisov and Nezhin this resulted in fatalities. In Kiev, 1400 arrests were made. Many in the government felt this was still inadequate. The police chief of Kiev wrote apologetically to the Tsar that the local military tribunals had been too lenient with the rioters; Alexander III wrote in the margin: “This is inexcusable!” He retired from office in June 1882. Explanations include that he was suspected of dishonesty or extortion, or that the Tsar feared he intended to introduce constitutional government by reviving the Zemsky Sobor (parliament). He had been referred to as "Lord Liar", and Simon Sebag Montefiore has suggested he may have suffered from Munchausen Syndrome. When Lord Salisbury, as Secretary of State for India, met Ignatyev he recalled that "he [Ignatyev] had the reputation, in a heavily contested field, of being the most accomplished liar in the Bosphorus." After that time he exercised no important influence in public affairs. He died in 1908. Honours A frequented trade pedestrian street in central Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is named Graf Ignatiev Street after Count Ignatyev. It is popularly known simply as Grafa, "The Count". The Bulgarian villages of Graf Ignatievo in Plovdiv Province and Ignatievo in Varna Province were also named in his honour. Mount Ignatiev on Graham Land in Antarctica is named after Nikolay Ignatiev. Personal life Count Nikolay Ignatiev was married to Yekaterina Leonidovna Galitzina (1842-1917), daughter of Prince Leonid Mikhailovich Galitzine and Anna Matveyevna Tolstaïa. Their eight children included Ignatiev's son, Count Pavel Ignatiev, who served as the last Minister of Education under Tsar Nicholas II and