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 "absolutely exceptional example in the history of 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.