Lobanov-Rostovskii, Aleksei

Lobanov-Rostovskii, Aleksei Borisovich 

Born Dec. 18 (30), 1824, in Voronezh Province; died Aug. 18 (30), 1896, at the Shepetovka station near Rovno; buried in Moscow. Prince; Russian diplomat.

Lobanov-Rostovskii served in the diplomatic corps from 1844. He was ambassador to Turkey from 1859 to 1863 and again in 1878, to Great Britain from 1879 to 1882, to Austria-Hungary from 1882 to 1895, and to Germany in 1895. He was assistant minister of internal affairs from 1867 to 1878 and minister of foreign affairs from 1895 to 1896. Together with S. Iu. Witte, he was an initiator of the Russo-German-French demarche that forced Japan to ease the terms of the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1895 that ended Japan’s war with China. He helped write a Russo-Chinese treaty of alliance and an accord on the building of the Chinese Eastern Railroad. He also signed an agreement with Japan in 1896. Lobanov-Rostovskii engaged in the collection and publication of Russian archival materials pertaining to the history of the 18th and 19th centuries. He also studied the genealogy of Russian families of the dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry). He was a collaborator on the journals Russkaia starina and Russkii arkhiv.