Baron Boris Vladimirovich Shturmer () (27 July 1848 – 9 September 1917) was a Russian lawyer, a Master of Ceremonies at the Russian Court, and a district governor. He became a member of the Russian Assembly and served as Prime Minister in 1916. A confidante of the Empress Alexandra, under his administration the country suffered drastic inflation and a transportation breakdown, which led to severe food shortages. Stürmer simply let matters drift until he was able to be relieved of this post. He was during the course of his career Minister of Internal Affairs and Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire. Biography Stürmer was born into a landowning family in Baykovo, Kesovogorsky District, Tver Governorate. His father Vladimir Vilgelmovich Stürmer was of German descent and a retired Captain of Cavalry in the Imperial Russian Army. His mother was Ermoniya Panina. A graduate of the Faculty of Law, Saint Petersburg State University in 1872, Stürmer entered the Ministry of Justice, the Governing Senate and the Interior Ministry. He was appointed in 1879 as Master of the Bedchamer at the Russian Imperial Court. Governor In 1891 he became chairman of the district council in Tver. An appointment as Governor of Novgorod in 1894 and Yaroslavl in 1896 followed. Stürmer avoided any clash with the Zemstvo, remaining patient. In a very delicate situation he declared himself a "conservative not out of fear but out of conscience." In 1902 Vyacheslav von Plehve, the Minister of Interior appointed him as Director of the Department of General Affairs at the Ministry of Interior. After Plehve was killed, Stürmer was willing to succeed. The Tsar even signed a ukase to that effect, yet the post eventually went to Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky. Stürmer was then admitted into the State Council of Imperial Russia in 1904. This appointment was an "absolutely exceptional example in the history of the Russian bureaucracy." After Bloody Sunday (1905) again Stürmer was mentioned to become Minister of Interior. Stürmer became close friends with Bobrinsky. He dreamed of "autocracy, located in combination with the constitutional regime." Stürmer was one of those representatives of the bureaucratic elite, who preferred to distance themselves from the extreme right. Few members of the Council of State could boast of such a relationship with the monarch. In the State Council, he supported Pyotr Stolypin and his closest collaborators on agrarian reform, land management and agriculture Chief Governor Alexander Krivoshein "in their