Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky

Prince Aleksey Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky ( in Voronezh Governorate – ) was a Russian statesman, probably best remembered for having concluded the Li-Lobanov Treaty with China, the Peace of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire, and for his publication of the Russian Genealogical Book (in two volumes). Life Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky was educated at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. At the age of twenty, he entered the diplomatic service and became minister at Constantinople in 1859. In 1863, a regrettable incident in his private life made him retire temporarily from the public service, but four years later he re-entered it and served for ten years as an assistant to the minister of the interior. At the close of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878, he was selected by Alexander II as ambassador to Constantinople, and for more than a year he carried out with great ability the policy of his government, which aimed at re-establishing tranquility in the Eastern Question after the disturbances produced by the reckless action of his predecessor, Count Ignatiev. In 1879 he was transferred to London, and in 1882 to Vienna. In March 1895, under Nicholas II, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in succession to Nicholas de Giers. In this position he displayed much of the caution of his predecessor, but adopted a more energetic policy in European affairs generally and especially in the Balkan Peninsula. At the time of his appointment the attitude of the Russian government towards the Slav nationalities had been for several years one of extreme reserve, and he had seemed as ambassador to sympathize with this attitude. But as soon as he became minister of foreign affairs, Russian influence in the Balkan Peninsula suddenly revived. Serbia received financial assistance; a large consignment of arms was sent openly from Saint Petersburg to the prince of Montenegro; Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria became ostensibly reconciled with the Russian emperor, and his son Boris was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church; the Russian embassy at Constantinople tried to bring about a reconciliation between the Bulgarian exarch and the Ecumenical Patriarch; Bulgarians and Serbians professed, at the bidding of Russia, to lay aside their mutual hostility.