Mikhail Semevsky

{{Short description|Russian historian}}

File:Semevskiy Mikhail Ivanovich.jpg

Mikhail Ivanovich Semevsky (Russian: Михаил Иванович Семевский; 1837–92) was a Russian Imperial amateur historian who focused on the era of palace revolutions, and the history of the 18th century Russia.

Of noble birth, Semevsky received a military education in St. Petersburg and did not retire from civil service until 1882. He assembled the memoirs of no less than 850 individuals, many written on his own request.[http://slovari.yandex.ru/%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9/%D0%93%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9%20%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C/%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9%20%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85.%20%D0%98%D0%B2/ Biography] in the Russian Dictionary of Humanities Semevsky published them through Herzen's Free Russian Press in London, before establishing the Russkaya Starina monthly in 1870.

His younger brother, Vasily Semevsky (1849-1916), was a historian of Narodnik bend. The Russkaya Starina was published under Vasily's auspices until 1877, although the printing press was effectively run by Mikhail, until his death in 1892.