nationalities, and he had not the slightest intention of provoking a new crisis in the Eastern Question so long as the general European situation did not afford Russia a convenient opportunity for solving it in her own interest without serious intervention from other powers. Meanwhile, he considered that the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire must be maintained so far as these other powers were concerned. At the same time efforts were made to weaken the Triple Alliance, the principal instrument employed being the entente with France, which Prince Lobanov helped convert into a formal alliance between the two great powers. In East Asia he was not less active and became the protector of China in the same sense as he had shown himself the protector of Turkey. By the Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement, Japan was compelled to give up her conquests in Northeast China, so as not to interfere with the future actions of St. Petersburg in Manchuria and financial and political schemes for increasing czarist influence in that part of the world were vigorously supported. All this activity, though combined with a haughty tone towards foreign governments and diplomats, did not produce much general apprehension, probably because there was a widespread conviction that he desired to maintain peace, and that his great ability and strength of character would enable him to control the dangerous forces which he boldly set in motion. However this may be, before he had time to mature his schemes, and when he had been the director of Russian policy for only eighteen months, he died suddenly of heart disease when travelling with the emperor on August 30, 1896. Personally, Prince Lobanov-Rostovskiy was a grand aristocrat of the Russian type, proud of being descended from the independent princes of Rostov, and at the same time an amiable man of wide culture, deeply versed in Russian history and genealogy, and perhaps the first authority of his time in all that related to the reign of Tsar Paul I (1754–1801). His extensive collection of coins, particularly those minted by the Russians during their occupation of Königsberg in 1758–1761, was acquired by the Russian Museum. References 1824 births 1896 deaths People from Voronezh Governorate Russian princes Foreign ministers of the Russian Empire Rurikids Russian genealogists Russian numismatists Diplomats of the Russian Empire Ambassadors of the Russian Empire Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Aleksey Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni