Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov (also spelled Chilkoff, Chilkov, Khilkoff, Hilkof and other variants) () (18 December [O.S. 6 December], 1834 - 8 March 1909) was a Russian railroad executive. He was born on the family estate in Sinevo-Dubrovo in Bezhetsky District, Tver Province, Russia. He died in St. Petersburg, and was buried in the village of Gorka in the Sonkovsky District, Tver Province. He served as the Minister of Social Works, Trade and Agriculture of Bulgaria in 1882–1885 and as the Minister of Communications of the Russian Empire in 1895–1905. Khilkov supervised operation of hospital trains during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, construction of the Trans-Caspian Railway and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Career Khilkov hailed from an old princely family. His mother was a close associate of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. On graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1853, he served in the Semenovsky Regiment until 1857. In 1860 he undertook a 2-year long voyage to Europe and America. According to Witte, after the emancipation reform of 1861 he voluntarily distributed his lands to peasants, which left him "virtually penniless". On his return to Russia he served as a judicial arbitrator, and 2 years later he again went to America, taking a job as a simple workman with the Anglo-American Transatlantic Railroad Company (in North America). In four years Khilkov rose to the position of manager of rolling stock and traction; he then worked for about a year as a metalworker at a locomotive factory in Liverpool; while working there he was offered the position of traction manager on the Kursk-Kiev railway, and from here he went to the Moscow-Ryazan railway. His service there made him a favorite of Empress Maria Feodorovna. According to Sergei Witte, the Empress noted Khilkov for his management of hospital trains during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and later she "emphatically supported" Khilkov's appointment as the Minister of Railroads. In 1880 General Annenkov appointed Khilkov head of the construction of the Kyzyl-Arvat branch railway, but in early 1882 at the invitation of the Bulgarian Government, he became their Minister of Social Works, Trade and Agriculture, and contributed significantly to the country's economic progress. In 1885 Khilkov returned to Russia and again worked on the Transcaspian railway, in 1892 he was appointed by the Government as Director of the Privislyanskaya railway in Russian Poland, and was later in charge of the Samara-Zlatoust (ru), Orenburg, Oryol-Gryazi and Livenskaya