Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire
Ministry overview
Formed	8 September 1802
Preceding Ministry	Collegium of Foreign Affairs
Dissolved	2 March 1917
Superseding Ministry	People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR
Jurisdiction	Emperor of All Russia
Headquarters	Saint Petersburg
Ministry executive	Alexander Vorontsov (first) Mikhail Tereshchenko (last), Minister of Foreign Affairs
Parent Ministry	Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (1905-1917)
Child Ministry	Collegium of Foreign Affairs (1802-1832)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire (Russian: Министе́рство иностранных дел Российской империи) 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.

Ministers

Name		Term of office		Head of State
1	Alexander Vorontsov	September 8, 1802	January 16, 1804	Alexander I
2	Adam Jerzy Czartoryski	January 16, 1804	Juny 17, 1806
3	Andreas Eberhard von Budberg	Juny 17, 1806	August 30, 1807
4	Nikolay Rumyantsev	February 12, 1808	August 1, 1814
5	Ioannis Kapodistrias (joint with Karl Nesselrode)	January 31, 1816	August 19, 1822
6
7	Karl Nesselrode	1814	April 15, 1856
				Nicholas I
8	Alexander Gorchakov	April 15, 1856	9 April 1882	Alexander II
9	Nicholas de Giers	April 9, 1882	January 26, 1895	Alexander III
10	Alexei Lobanov-Rostovsky	March 18, 1895	August 30, 1896	Nicholas II
11	Nikolay Shishkin	September 1, 1896	January 13, 1897
12	Mikhail Muravyov	January 13, 1897	June 21, 1900
13	Vladimir Lambsdorff	January 6, 1901	May 11, 1906
14	Alexander Izvolsky	May 11, 1906	October 11, 1910
15	Sergey Sazonov	October 11, 1910	July 20, 1916
16	Boris Stürmer	July 20, 1916	November 23, 1916
17	Nikolay Pokrovsky	November 23, 1916	March 2, 1917

Provisional Government/Russian Republic

Minister		Party	Term of Office		Prime Minister
18	Pavel Milyukov	Constitutional Democratic Party	March 2, 1917	May 1, 1917		George Lvov
19	Mikhail Tereshchenko	Independent	May 5, 1917	October 29, 1917
						Alexander Kerensky

See also

• Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia)#Russian Empire