The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire () was a ministry of the Russian Empire responsible for its relations with foreign states from 1802 to 1917.
The Ministry was established by a decree of the Emperor Alexander I of Russia on 8 September 1802 by Manifesto "On the establishment of ministries." With the formation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the preceding Collegium of Foreign Affairs was not disbanded and continued to exist until April 1832 as a child agency of the Ministry. According to the decree "On the formation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" from 1832, the Ministry included; the council, the Asian Department, the Department of External Relations, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Department of Economic and Accounting Affairs, as well as three main archives: two in Saint Petersburg and one in Moscow.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs became one of the ministries of the Council of Ministers from 1905 until its dissolution on 2 March 1917 after the February Revolution. However, remnants served as the foreign ministry of the short-lived Russian Provisional Government until October. Its role was eventually replaced by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union in 1923.
The Ministry was known by the metonym "the Chorister's Bridge," based on its location next to that bridge in Saint Petersburg.
Ministers
NameTerm of officeHead of State1Alexander VorontsovSeptember 8, 1802January 16, 1804Alexander I2Adam Jerzy CzartoryskiJanuary 16, 1804Juny 17, 18063Andreas Eberhard von BudbergJuny 17, 1806August 30, 18074Nikolay RumyantsevFebruary 12, 1808August 1, 18145Ioannis Kapodistrias(joint with Karl Nesselrode)January 31, 1816August 19, 182267Karl Nesselrode1814April 15, 1856Nicholas I8Alexander GorchakovApril 15, 18569 April 1882Alexander II9Nicholas de GiersApril 9, 1882January 26, 1895Alexander III10Alexei Lobanov-RostovskyMarch 18, 1895August 30, 1896Nicholas II11Nikolay ShishkinSeptember 1, 1896January 13, 189712Mikhail MuravyovJanuary 13, 1897June 21, 190013Vladimir LambsdorffJanuary 6, 1901May 11, 190614Alexander IzvolskyMay 11, 1906October 11, 191015Sergey SazonovOctober 11, 1910July 20, 191616Boris StürmerJuly 20, 1916November 23, 191617Nikolay PokrovskyNovember 23, 1916March 2, 1917
Provisional Government/Russian Republic MinisterPartyTerm of OfficePrime Minister18Pavel MilyukovConstitutional Democratic PartyMarch 2, 1917May 1, 1917George Lvov19Mikhail TereshchenkoIndependentMay 5, 1917October 29, 1917Alexander Kerensky
See also Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia)#Russian Empire
References