Ignatieff

Ignatieff, General Nicholas Paulovitch, was born in 1832 and at the age of seventeen entered the Russian Imperial Guard. He served in the Baltic Provinces during the Crimean War, and was afterwards military attache in London. In 1859 he was sent as ambassador to Pekin, where he concluded a commercial treaty and obtained the cession to Russia of the province of Ussari. In 1864 he took over the embassy at Constantinople, and soon gained considerable ascendency over Abdul-Aziz. It was not until the conclusion of the Turco-Servian war in 1876 that his Panslavism openly declared itself. The Porte declined to submit to his conditions, and he left his post in order to preach a new crusade to the European Powers. In the end Russia had to undertake the task single-handed, and in 1878 he was entrusted with the negotiation of the Treaty of San Stefemo. Gortschakoff's consent to submit that document, to the Berlin Conference stirred his indignation so deeply that he retired for a time from public affairs. On the accession of Tsar Alexander III. he was recalled, and appointed Minister of the Interior in succession to Count Loris Melikoff. His vigorous policy against both Nihilists and Jews proved ineffectual, and he was dismissed after a few months, though still retained on the council of the empire.