Gorchakov - Alexander Gorchakov

Alexander Gorchakov

Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov (1798–1883) served as Chancellor of the Russian Empire during the entire reign of Alexander II. He was educated at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he had the poet Alexander Pushkin as a school-fellow. In 1820-22 he accompanied Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode to the Holy Alliance congresses at Troppau, Laibach, and Vienna.

Gorchakov was appointed Foreign Minister when the Crimean War was drawing to a close and represented the Tsar at the Paris Congress of 1856. His main objective was to restore Russia's international prestige after the bitter defeat. At first he steered the country towards an alliance with Napoleon III, but, rebuffed by the latter's support of the January Uprising, joined his archrival Otto von Bismarck in setting up the League of the Three Emperors. Following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Gorchakov succeeded in his long-term goal or revising the key clauses of the Paris Treaty, especially those containing Russia's interests in the Black Sea.

The aged chancellor was so disgusted by the modification of the Treaty of San Stefano at the Berlin Congress of 1878 that he laid down all his offices and settled into retirement. He died several years later.