IGNATIEV, NICHOLAS PAVLOVICH, COUNT (1832-1908)

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 292 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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IGNATIEV, NICHOLAS PAVLOVICH, COUNT (1832-1908) , Russian diplomatist, was born at St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

on the 29th of January 1832. His father, Captain Paul Ignatiev, had been taken into favour by the tsar Nicholas I., owing to his fidelity on the occasion of the military conspiracy in 1825; and the grand duke Alexander (afterwards tsar) stood sponsor at the boy's baptism. At the age of seventeen he became an officer of the Guards. His diplomatic career began at the congress of Paris, after the Crimean War, where he took an active part as military attache in the negotiations regarding the rectification of the Russian frontier on the Lower Danube. Two years later (18.58) he was sent with a small escort on a dangerous mission to Khiva and Bokhara. The khan of Khiva laid a plan for detaining him as a

hostage

HOSTAGE (through Fr. ostage, modern otage, from
Late
- LATE
Lat. obsidaticum, the state of being an obses or hostage; Med. Lat. ostaticum, ostagium)

, but he eluded the danger and returned safely, after concluding with the khan of Bokhara a treaty of friendship. His next diplomatic exploit was in the Far

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

, as plenipotentiary to the court of Peking. When the Chinesg government was terrified by the advance of the Anglo-French expedition of 186o and the burning of the Summer Palace, he worked on their fears so dexterously that he obtained for Russia not only the left bank of the Amur, the

original

ORIGINAL

object of the mission, but also a large extent of territory and sea-

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of that river. This success was supposed to prove his capacity for dealing with Orientals, and paved his way to the post of

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

at Constantinople, which he occupied from 1864 till 1877. Here his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

aim was to liberate from Turkish domination and bring under the influence of Russia the Christian nationalities in general and the Bulgarians in particular. His restless activity in this field, mostly of a semi-official and

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

character, culminated in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, at the close of which he negotiated with the Turkish plenipotentiaries the treaty of San Stefano. As the war which he had done so much to bring about did not eventually secure for Russia advantages commensurate with the sacrifices involved, he fell into disfavour, and retired from active service. Shortly after the accession of Alexander III. in 1881, he was appointed minister of the interior on the understanding that he would carry out a nationalist, reactionary policy, but his shifty ways and his administrative incapacity so displeased his imperialmaster that he was dismissed in the following year. After that time he exercised no important influence in public affairs. He died on the 3rd of July 1908.

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