Vladimir Nabokov was a nobleman, born in Tsarskoe Selo. He graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University (1890). He was Professor of Criminal Law, Chairman of the Russian Group of the International Union of Criminalists. He published academic papers on legal issues, edited liberal legal publications Pravo [Law] and Vestnik Prava [Bulletin of Law], collaborated with the Osvobozhdeniye [Liberation] magazine (editor Pyotr Struve). Nabokov was a founder of the Union of Liberation, a participant in Zemstvo [local public administration] conventions. He took part in the creation of the Constitutional Democratic Party, where he was a member and Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee. Nabokov was an MP of 1st State Duma (1906). He was arrested for three months over signing the Vyborg Appeal [calling for “passive resistance”, which included evading taxes and defying conscription orders]. During World War I, he went to the front with the rank of ensign. September 1915 saw him serve as a clerk at the General Staff.

After the February Revolution of 1917, he was the executive secretary of the first Provisional Government. Nabokov was involved in the drafting of acts on the abdication of Nicholas II and Mikhail Alexandrovich, developed the most important legislative documents, including the Regulation on the election to the Constituent Assembly. In May 1917, together with Pavel Milyukov and Aleksander Guchkov, he resigned but continued to work at the Legal Council. In August 1917, he was a supporter of the establishment of a military dictatorship (the Kornilov affair).

Nabokov did not accept the October coup of 1917, he entered the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution. He was a member of the All-Russian Commission on Election to the Constituent Assembly. November 1917 saw him arrested for several days, after which he left for Crimea with his family. On November 15, 1918, he was appointed Minister of Justice of the Crimean Regional Government.

In April 1919, Nabokov emigrated, he lived in London and Paris for some time. Together with Pavel Milyukov, he published The New Russia magazine. In 1920, he moved to Berlin, where he became the unofficial leader of the right-wing supporters among the Kadets. He criticized Pavel Milyukov’s “new tactics”. He was the author of the book Provisional Government (memoirs) (1922). On March 28, 1922, during the attempted assassination of Pavel Milyukov perpetrated by monarchists in the Berlin Philharmonic, Vladimir Nabokov tried to disarm the terrorist but was killed. He was buried at the Berlin-Tegel Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Berlin.