Count Alexander Konstantinovich Benkendorf ( ger. Alexander Philipp Konstantin Ludwig Graf von Benckendorff ; July 20 (August 1) 1849, Berlin - December 29, 1916 (January 11, 1917), London ) - a Russian diplomat from the Baltic family of Benkendorf . In the years 1902-16. headed the Russian mission in the UK .
| Alexander Konstantinovich Benkendorf | |||||||||
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| him Alexander von Benckendorff | |||||||||
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| Predecessor | Mikhail Nikolaevich Muravyov | ||||||||
| Successor | Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky | ||||||||
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| Predecessor | Egor Egorovich Staal | ||||||||
| Successor | Konstantin Dmitrievich Nabokov | ||||||||
| Birth | July 20 ( August 1 ) 1849 Berlin | ||||||||
| Death | December 29, 1916 ( January 11, 1917 ) (67 years old) London | ||||||||
| Burial place | Westminster Cathedral | ||||||||
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| Father | Konstantin Konstantinovich Benkendorf | ||||||||
| Mother | Louise de Croix | ||||||||
| Spouse | Sofya Petrovna Shuvalova | ||||||||
| Children | Konstantin, Peter, Natalia | ||||||||
| Religion | Catholic | ||||||||
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Content
Biography
The son of General Konstantin Konstantinovich Benkendorf and Princess Louise de Croix (1825–1890). Brother P.K. Benkendorf .
Since 1868, serving in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the beginning of his career he was at the mission of Russia in Florence and Rome. In March 1871, he received the rank of a chamber junker . Since 1872 - the provincial secretary, in 1883 he became the master of ceremonies of the court, leaving the department of foreign affairs.
In 1886, he was appointed First Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Rome and Vienna; in 1895, he served as Counselor in Charge in Vienna as Counselor. From 1897 to 1902, he was an extraordinary envoy and plenipotentiary minister of Russia in Denmark in the rank of a full state councilor , combining this position with the court ruling of the master of ceremonies, and from 1899 with the court title "in the position of chief master".
In the years 1902-1916 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the United Kingdom in the rank of chamberlain of the court. He took part in the Anglo-Russian negotiations of 1903, 1907 regarding the policy in the Middle East and in the London Conference of the Ambassadors of the Great Powers in December 1912. For participation in the conference, he received the highest gratitude of Nicholas II "for his zealous and successful works."
During the First World War, he repeatedly concluded from the Russian side multilateral agreements and declarations with the warring countries, including the Agreement between Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy on the conditions for the entry of Italy into the war (1915) and the Declaration between Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan on the non-conclusion of a separate peace (1915), as well as bilateral acts with Great Britain on the adoption of an agreement on the necessary measures to ensure military supplies and on American supplies (1916).
Count Benkendorf, like most of his ancestors, knew Russian very poorly (according to K. D. Nabokov , he did not know how to write in Russian [1] ); and therefore, the only one of all ambassadors, with the special permission of the emperor, submitted his reports in French. He died on December 29, 1916 (January 11, 1917). He was buried in the crypt of the Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London.
Family
From 1879 he was married to Countess Sofya Petrovna Shuvalova (1857-1928), the daughter of chamberlain P. P. Shuvalov and granddaughter of General L. A. Naryshkin . The first years of marriage lived with her husband in his Tambov estate Sosnovka , then followed him in all his diplomatic appointments. According to the recollections of her son, she was an energetic and enterprising woman, and was also a talented amateur photographer. After the death of her husband lived in England. Married born:
- Konstantin Aleksandrovich ( Konstantin ; 1880-1959), a lieutenant of the fleet, participated in the Russian-Japanese war , was wounded, was awarded orders, served in the First World War in the Baltic as a senior artillery battleship "Poltava". After the revolution, he served in the main naval headquarters of the Red Fleet, and was twice in prison in Butyrka. In 1922 he married the harpist Maria Korchinskaya . In 1924, they left Russia and settled in England, where Benkendorf as a professional flutist often performed in concerts with his wife.
- Pyotr Aleksandrovich ( him. Peter ; 1882-1915), a participant in the Russian-Japanese war , the captain of the Life Guards regiment of the Horse, was killed during the First World War in Lithuania, where his detachment covered the evacuation of the station in the direction of Petrograd.
- Natalia Alexandrovna ( him. Natalie Luise ; English. Nathalie Louise ; 1886-1968), since 1911 married to Sir Jasper Nicholas Ridley (1887-1951), son of the Minister of the Interior Viscount Ridley . Their grandson, Adam Ridley (born 1942), is a big banker, cousin to Helena Bonham-Carter , married to the daughter of Lord Asquith .
Notes
- ↑ Nina Berberova . Iron woman. M., Book Chamber, 1991. Pp. 21.