Alexeï Borissovitch Lobanov-Rostovski

The prince Alexeï Borissovitch Lobanov-Rostovski is a statesman Russian, born the December 30th 1824 and deceased the August 30th 1896. It is also known to have published the Russian genealogical Livre in two volumes.

In.

Biography

Descending from the Russian legendary prince Rourik, prince Lobanov-Rostovski attended first of all the college of Tsarskoïe Selo. At the twenty years age, it entered the diplomatic services and became Russian minister with Constantinople, in 1859. In 1863, a regrettable incident in its private life led it to leave its functions temporarily. Four years later, it took again its service like adlatus of the Minister of Interior Department during ten years.

At the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the tsar chooses it to occupy the post of ambassador in Constantinople. During more than one year, it led with competence the policy of its government intended to restore peace on the Question of the East, after the disorders produced by the action of its predecessor, the count Ignatiev. In 1879, it was transferred to London then, in 1882 with Vienna. In March 1895, it was named Foreign Minister, succeeding Nicholas de Giers.

At this new station, it was proof of the same prudence that its predecessor, but adopted a more energetic policy in the European businesses, in particular in the Balkans. At the time of its nomination, the attitude of the Russian government towards the Slavic minorities had been very reserved and it had seemed, as ambassador, to approve this position. But at once after its nomination as Foreign Minister, the Russian influence in the peninsula of Balkans was abruptly reactivated. The Serbia accepted an financial aid; an important loading of weapons was openly sent of Saint-Pétersbourg to the prince of the Montenegro. Ferdinand of Bulgaria was reconciled openly with the tsar of Russia, and his/her son Boris was accommodated in the orthodoxe Church of the East. The Russian embassy in Constantinople endeavoured to reconcile the Bulgarian Exarchat and the oecumenical patriarch. At the request of Russia, Serbes and Bulgarian reflects side their hostility mutual. All this seemed to predict the formation of a hostile Balkan confederation in Turkey, and the Sultan had some reasons for concern.

Actually, prince Lobanov tried to establish a Russian solid hegemony among these nationalities, but it did not have the least intention to cause a new crisis around the Question of the East as long as the general situation in Europe would not provide to Russia the occasion to solve it with its advantage without intervention of the other powers. He thought moreover that the integrity and the independence of the Ottoman Empire were to be assured insofar as the other powers were concerned. In same time, he endeavoured to weaken the Triple Alliance by privileging the agreement with the France, that prince Lobanov tried to transform into a formal military alliance between the two powers.

He was not less active in Eastern Asia, and became the guard of the China, just as he had shown the guard of Turkey. The Japan was constrained to give up its conquests in China of the North-East, so that it does not interfere with the future actions of Saint-Pétersbourg in Mandchourie. It brought a vigorous support for financial arrangements and policies intended to reinforce the Russian influence in this part of the world. This activity, like its haughty tone towards the governments and diplomatic foreign, hardly caused concern, because it was generally thought that it wished to maintain peace and that its capacities and its strength of character would enable him to control the dangerous forces that it had boldly put moving. But before its provisions did not have time to mature, he died suddenly of an heart attack during a voyage in company of the tsar, the August 30th 1896.

Prince Lobanov-Rostovski was a large Russian, proud aristocrat to go down from the princes independent of Rostov, but also a pleasant man, of a field crop, very versed in the Russian history and the genealogy. He made authority at his time for all that relates to the reign of the tsar Paul I {{er}} of Russia (1754 - 1801)

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