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SHUVALOV (sometimes written SCHOUVALOFF), See also: Russian diplomatist, was See also: born in 1827 of an old Russian See also: family which See also: rose to distinction and imperial favour about the See also: middle of the 18th century
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Several of its members attained high•rank in the army and the See also: civil administration, and one of them may be regarded as the founder of the Moscow University and the St See also: Petersburg See also: Academy of the See also: Fine Arts
.
As a youth Count See also: Peter Andreivich showed no See also: desire to emulate his distinguished ancestors
.
He studied just enough to qualify for the army, and for nearly twenty years he led the agreeable, See also: commonplace See also: life of a fashionable officer of the See also: Guards
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In 1864 See also: Court influence secured for him the See also: appointment of Governor-General of the Baltic Provinces, and in that position he gave evidence of so much natural ability and tact that in 1866, when the revolutionary See also: fermentation in the younger section of the educated classes made it advisable to place at the See also: head of the See also: political police a See also: man of exceptional intelligence and energy, he was selected by the emperor for the See also: post
.
In addition to his See also: regular functions, he was entrusted by his Majesty with much See also: work of a confidential, delicate nature, including a See also: mission to See also: London in 1873
.
The ostensible See also: object of this mission was to arrange amicably certain See also: diplomatic difficulties created by the advance of See also: Russia in Central See also: Asia, but he was instructed at the same See also: time to prepare the way for the See also: marriage of the See also: grand duchess See also: Marie Alexandrovna with the duke of See also: Edinburgh, which took place in See also: January of the following See also: year
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At that time the emperor See also: Alexander II. was anxious to establish cordial relations with
See also: Great Britain, and he thought this object might best be attained by appointing as his diplomatic representative at the See also: British Court the man who had See also: con-ducted successfully the See also: recent matrimonial negotiations
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Count Shuvalov was accordingly appointed ambassador to London; and he justified his selection by the extraordinary diplomatic ability he displayed during the Russo-See also: Turkish War of 1877–78 and the subsequent negotiations, when the relations between Russia and Great Britain were strained almost to the point of rupture
.
After the publication of the treaty of See also: San Stefano, which astonished See also: Europe and seemed to render a conflict inevitable, he concluded with See also: Lord See also: Salisbury a secret See also: convention which enabled the two See also: powers to meet in congress and find a pacific solution for all the questions at issue
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In the deliberations and discussions of the congress he played a leading See also: part, and defended the interests of his country with a dexterity which excited the admiration of his colleagues; but when it became known that the San Stefano arrangements were profoundly modified by the treaty of Berlin, public opinion in Russia con-
See also: xxv
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Idemned him as too conciliatory, and reproached him with having needlessly given up many of the advantages secured by the war
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For a time Alexander II. resisted the popular clamour, but in the autumn of 1879, when See also: Prince Bismarck assumed an attitude of hostility towards Russia, Count Shuvalov, who had been long regarded as too amenable to Bismarckian influence, was recalled from his post as ambassador in London; and after living for nearly ten years in retirement, he died at St Petersburg in 1889
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