Ignatieff,

Ignatieff, NICOLAUS PAULOVITCH, Russian diplomatist, was the son of General Paul Ignatieff, a favourite officer of Alexander II. He was born at St Petersburg on 29th January 1832, and educated in the corps of pages. In 1856 he exchanged from the military to the diplomatic service. In 1858 he induced China to give up to Russia the Amur province; and in 1860, having been appointed ambassador at Peking, he secured for his country from China the southern portion of the Maritime Province lying east of the Amur. Between the two treaties by which Russia thus gained footing on the Pacific, Ignatieff concluded with Khiva and Bokhara commercial treaties advantageous to his own country. In 1867 he was made ambassador at Constantinople, at which court he had represented Russia since 1864. He there acquired considerable influence over the Sultan and amongst the Turkish statesmen. An ardent Panslavist, he is suspected of having intrigued with the Slav states of the Balkans in the interests of Russia. In the diplomatic proceedings before and after the Russo-Turkish war of 1878 Ignatieff took a principal part as Russia's representative. The treaty of San Stefano was principally his work; and he was greatly incensed when it was decided to submit its conclusions for revision to a European conference at Berlin. After Alexander III. came to the throne Ignatieff was appointed minister of the Imperial Domains, and in 1881 succeeded Prince Loris Melikoff as minister of the Interior. In this capacity he endeavoured to stamp out Nihilism by forcible measures, but unsuccessfully. He was dismissed at the end of the year, apparently because of his Panslavist intrigues, and for having shut his eyes to the persecutions of the Jews.