Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev | |
|---|---|
 Ignatyev in Beijing,c. 1900 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 January 1832 St Petersburg, Russia |
| Died | 3 July 1908(1908-07-03) (aged 76) |
| Children | Eight, includingPavel |
| Occupation |
|
CountNikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev[a] (Russian:Никола́й Па́влович Игна́тьев; 29 January [O.S. 17 January] 1832 – 3 July [O.S. 20 June] 1908) was a Russian statesman and diplomat who is best known for his policy of aggressiveexpansionism as theRussian ambassador to China andthe Ottoman Empire. He was also the minister of the interior from 1881 to 1882, where he promoted ultraconservative and Slavic-nationalist policies.[1]
In dealing withChina, he secured a large slice of Chinese territory by the multi-lateralTreaty of Peking in 1860.[2] As the Russian ambassador to theOttoman Empire from 1864 to 1877, he worked to stir uppan-Slavic feeling and nationalism against the Ottomans, and had some responsibility for the Bulgarian rebellion of April 1876. He encouraged his government to declarewar on Turkey in 1877, and after the decisive Russian victory, he negotiated theTreaty of San Stefano in 1878. It heralded greatly strengthened Russian influence in theBalkans. However,Britain andAustria-Hungary intervened and forced the retraction of the treaty.
Nikolay Ignatyev was born inSt Petersburg, to Maria Ivanovna Maltsova and Captain Pavel Nikolayevich Ignatyev. His father had been taken into favour byTsarNicholas I, owing to his fidelity on the occasion of theDecembrist revolt in 1825, andGrand Duke Alexander (later TsarAlexander II) stood sponsor at the boy'sbaptism. After graduating from theCorps of Pages, at the age of seventeen he became an officer of theRussian Imperial Guard, serving with theHussar Life Guards Regiment. Ignatyev was then appointed to the General Staff and become adjutant to the general commanding in the Estonian military district. He was promoted to major in 1856. During Ignatyev's subsequent career he was at odds with CountPyotr Shuvalov: another Corps of Pages alumnus.
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Ignatyev's diplomatic career began at theCongress of Paris in 1856, after theCrimean War, where he participated in the negotiations regarding the demarcation of the Russo-Ottoman frontier on the lowerDanube. He was then appointed asmilitary attaché at the Russian Embassy in London. This assignment was a short one. According to the memoirs "Fifty Years of Service" written by his nephew Alexei Alexeyevich Count Ignatiev, Nikolay Ignatyev "inadvertently" pocketed a newly developed cartridge while inspecting the ordnance works of theBritish Army. In order to avoid diplomatic embarrassment he returned to Russia.
Two years later he was sent with a small escort on a dangerous mission to theCentral Asianstates ofKhiva andBukhara. Thekhan of Khiva laid a plan for detaining him as a hostage, but he eluded the danger and returned safely, after concluding a treaty of friendship with theemir of Bukhara.
Ignatyev's next diplomatic exploit was in theFar East, asplenipotentiary to thecourt ofPeking. When theChinese government was terrified by the advance of theAnglo-Frenchexpedition of 1860 and the burning of theOld Summer Palace in theSecond Opium War, he worked on their fears so dexterously that, in theConvention of Peking, he obtained for RussiaOuter Manchuria – not only the left bank of theAmur river, the original object of the mission, but also a large extent of territory and seacoast south of that river that would become the Russian "Maritime Province," the region ofPrimorsky Krai.
Ignatyev's success was supposed to prove his capacity for dealing with "Orientals" and paved his way to the post of ambassador atConstantinople, which he occupied from 1864 to 1877. Here his chief aim was to liberate the Christian nationalities in general and theBulgarians in particular from Ottoman domination and bring them under the influence of Russia (See alsoBulgarian Exarchate andConstantinople Conference). His restless activity in this field, mostly of a semiofficial and secret character, culminated in theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, at the close of which he negotiated with the Ottomanplenipotentiaries theTreaty of San Stefano. The terms of this treaty were aimed at creating an enlarged "Big Bulgaria", foreseen by Austria-Hungary and Britain as being under Russian domination. Ignatyev's "brilliant but reckless" initiatives proved to be a major diplomatic miscalculation for Russia.[3]
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 withAlexander II in part due to efforts of CountPyotr Shuvalov, and retired from active service. Soon thereafter the Treaty of San Stefano was revised through theTreaty of Berlin, 1878, signed on Russia's behalf by Count Pyotr Shuvalov.
Although Count Ignatyev remained widely popular inBulgaria and was even considered by some for theBulgarian throne, the throne was eventually granted to PrinceFerdinand of Saxe-Coburg, his personal enemy.
In the meantime Count Ignatyev served asGovernor of Nizhny Novgorod, where he was credited with the expansion of theMakaryev Fair. Shortly after the accession ofAlexander III in 1881, he was appointedMinister of the Interior on the understanding that he would carry out anationalist, reactionary policy. In regards to the constitutional movement, he had personally told Alexander III that "the revolutionary movement could easily be crushed."[4] After a period of intense, violent, destructiveantisemitic rioting, known aspogroms, which some accused Ignatyev of fomenting, he issued the infamous "May Laws" in May 1882. Other sources suggest he in fact followed a government policy (not always enforced by local authorities) of strict suppression of rioters and protection of the Jewish population:
Nikolai Ignatiev, installed as Minister of the Interior in May 1881,decided on a policy of firm repression, although it was made difficultby the unforeseeable character of the outbreaks and his limited forces.Nevertheless, he ordered his men to fire upon rioters. In the towns ofBorisov andNezhin this resulted in fatalities. InKiev, 1400 arrestswere made. Many in the government felt this was still inadequate. Thepolice chief of Kiev wrote apologetically to the Tsar that the local military tribunals had been too lenient with the rioters; Alexander IIIwrote in the margin: “This is inexcusable!”[5][full citation needed]
He retired from office in June 1882. Explanations include that he was suspected of dishonesty orextortion, or that the Tsar feared he intended to introduceconstitutional government by reviving theZemsky Sobor (parliament). He had been referred to as "Lord Liar", andSimon Sebag Montefiore has suggested he may have suffered fromMunchausen Syndrome.[6] WhenLord Salisbury, asSecretary of State for India, met Ignatyev he recalled that "he [Ignatyev] had the reputation, in a heavily contested field, of being the most accomplished liar in theBosphorus."[7] After that time he exercised no important influence in public affairs. He died in 1908.
Count Nikolay Ignatiev was married to Yekaterina Leonidovna Galitzina (1842–1917), daughter of Prince Leonid Mikhailovich Galitzine and Anna Matveyevna Tolstaïa.
Their eight children included Ignatiev's son,CountPavel Ignatiev, who served as the lastMinister of Education under TsarNicholas II and later moved toCanada. His grandson,George Ignatieff, was born in Russia and became aCanadian diplomat, and his great-grandson,Michael Ignatieff, is an academic and was the leader of theLiberal Party of Canada from 2008 to 2011.
Other sons of Count Ignatiev included:- General Nikolai Nikolaevich Ignatiev (1872–1962), commander of thePreobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard;- Alexey Nikolaevich Ignatiev (1874–1948), last governor ofKiev under Tsarist rule.
In the novelFlashman at the Charge (1973) byGeorge MacDonald Fraser, Ignatyev appears as a Russian military staff officer, who in 1854 presents a proposal to the Tsar of a Russian invasion of British-held India. He reappears in the 1975 novelFlashman in the Great Game as a fomenter of theIndian Rebellion of 1857.[8] In both novels he is a villain: Fraser portrays him as intelligent and refined, but also ruthless, cruel, savage and dangerous.[9]
Ellenborough cleared his throat and fixed his boozy spaniel eyes on me. 'Count Ignatieff',' says he, 'has made two clandestine visits to India in the past year. Our politicals first had word of him last autumn at Ghuznee; he came over the Khyber disguised as an Afridi horse-coper, to Peshawar. There we lost him — as you might expect, one disguised man among so many natives —'
He looked tough, and immensely self-assured; it was in his glance, in the abrupt way he moved...He was the kind who knew exactly what was what, where everything was, and precisely who was who - especially himself.....But I'd just seen him at work, and knew the kind of soulless, animal cruelty behind the suave mask. I know my villains, and this Captain Count Ignatieff was a bad one; you could feel the savage strength of the man like an electric wave.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ignatiev, Nicholas Pavlovich, Count".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 292.
Media related toNikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Committee of Ministers 9 March 1872 – 1 January 1880 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Interior 1881 – June 1882 | Succeeded by |
