Mikhaïl Nikolaïevitch Mouraviev

The count Mikhaïl Nikolaïevitch Mouraviev or Mouraviov is a statesman and a diplomat Russian, born the April 19th 1845 with Grodno and deceased the June 21st 1900 with Saint-Pétersbourg.

In.

Formation and diplomatic career

Mikhaïl Nikolaïevitch Mouraviev was the son of the general count Nikolaï Nikolaïevitch Mouraviev-Amourski, governor of Grodno, then of Eastern Siberia. After secondary studies with Poltava and a rather short stay with the University of Heidelberg, it entered to the chancellery of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to Saint-Pétersbourg.

A little later it was attached to Russian legation with Stuttgart, where it drew the attention of the queen Olga of Wurtemberg, which was itself a large Russian duchess. It was then transferred to Berlin, then with Stockholm, then again with Berlin. In 1877, he was second secretary with $the Hague.

At the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the count Mouraviev was delegated Société of the Red Cross charged with a hospital train provided by the Olga queen of Wurtemberg. After the war, he was successively first secretary with Paris, chancellor of the Russian embassy in Berlin, then minister with Copenhagen. To the Denmark, it was brought to frequently come into contact with the imperial family and, with died of the prince Lobanov, in 1897, it was named by the Tsar Nicolas II Foreign Minister.

Foreign Minister

The three years during which it was with the head of the Russian diplomacy were one critical period for the European diplomacy, in particular in connection with the China and of the Crete. On the crétoise question, the policy of the count Mouraviev évolua ; in China, it had the hand forced by the German military action with Jiaozhou (Kiaochow) in 1899.

But it acts with a singular lightness, as for the insurances which it gave to the the United Kingdom in connection with the concessions of Port-Arthur and of Talienwan granted by China to Russia. He says to the British ambassador that those would be “opened ports”, but modified his promise then basically. When the tsar Nicolas II inaugurated the Conference of peace of $the Hague, the count Mouraviev succeeds in extirpating his country of a situation rather embarrassing. But when thereafter Russian agents acted in complicity, in Mandchourie and with Beijing, with the agitation which culminated in the Révolte of the Boxers, in 1900, the relations between the tsar and his Foreign Minister became tended.

The count Mouraviev died brutally, in the night of the June 21st 1900, of an attack of apoplexy, which has occurred after a stormy interview with the tsar.

Source

Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition. Public domain.

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