1881 appointed director of the police department in the Ministry of the Interior following the assassination of Alexander II; 1894 appointed head of the Imperial Chancellery; 1899 acting minister and State Secretary for the Grand Duchy of Finland; 1902 appointed Minister of the Interior after the assassination of Dmitrii Sipiagin; While Minister of the Interior, Plehve oppressed zemstvos (liberal local government) and adopted Russification policies, especially directed against Armenians and Finns; 1903 promoted an anti-Semitic movement that led to a violent pogrom in Kishinev; Attempted to split labor unions by supporting zubatovshchina, or police-controlled labor unions; Plehve was a recurring target for revolutionaries, having survived three attacks before his death in July 1904; July 28, 1904 Plehve was assassinated by a bomb thrown into his carriage by Socialist Revolutionary Egor Sozonov; Sviatopolk-Mirskii replaced Plehve as Minister of the Interior.