Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky

[1] At the close of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878, he was selected by Alexander II as ambassador to Constantinople, and for more than a year he carried out with great ability the policy of his government, which aimed at re-establishing tranquility in the Eastern Question after the disturbances produced by the reckless action of his predecessor, Count Ignatiev.

Serbia received financial assistance; a large consignment of arms was sent openly from Saint Petersburg to the prince of Montenegro; Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria became ostensibly reconciled with the Russian emperor, and his son Boris was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church; the Russian embassy at Constantinople tried to bring about a reconciliation between the Bulgarian exarch and the Ecumenical Patriarch; Bulgarians and Serbians professed, at the bidding of Russia, to lay aside their mutual hostility.

In reality Prince Lobanov was merely trying to establish a strong Russian hegemony among these nationalities, and he had not the slightest intention of provoking a new crisis in the Eastern Question so long as the general European situation did not afford Russia a convenient opportunity for solving it in her own interest without serious intervention from other powers.

By the Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement, Japan was compelled to give up her conquests in Northeast China, so as not to interfere with the future actions of St. Petersburg in Manchuria and financial and political schemes for increasing czarist influence in that part of the world were vigorously supported.

All this activity, though combined with a haughty tone towards foreign governments and diplomats, did not produce much general apprehension, probably because there was a widespread conviction that he desired to maintain peace, and that his great ability and strength of character would enable him to control the dangerous forces which he boldly set in motion.