“The Reference Book for Officials of Central and Foreign Institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and Its Author-Compiler Mikhail Nikolayevich Nikonov

Abstract

This article is intended to boost researchers’ interest towards a unique and understudied documentary source “The Reference Book for Officials of Central and Foreign Institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” published in 1869. The article characterizes this collection of laws, statutes and circulars, covering almost all aspects of the Ministry’s activities with considerable attention paid to the personality of the author-compiler of “The Reference Book” — an official of the Department of Household and Accounting Mikhail Nikolayevich Nikonov (1832—1902). The article benefited from the information provided by his form list (service record) kept in the funds of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, “Yearbooks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (“Annuaires diplomatiques de L’Empire de Russie”), diaries of V. N. Lamsdorf, who was a senior Foreign Ministry counsellor in 1886—1896, as well as various reference books of the late 19th century. On their basis the author of the article has significantly enriched the existing biographical information about M. N. Nikonov, provided new data on his closest relatives, traced the stages of Nikonov’s promotion from a 1st category clerical officer in 1855 to his assignment as the Head of the Department of Personnel and Household in 1884.