Mikhail Bartholomei

Mikhail Bartholomei (1836–1895) graduated from the Alexander Lyceum in 1854, in the same class as Arthur Cassini. His early diplomatic work took him to Constantinople and Tehran, where he also acted as chargé d’affaires. He subsequently served in the Foreign Ministry’s chancery and handled frontier affairs for the Caucasus administration before becoming counselor at the Russian embassy in London in 1870. ¹

His London assignment included work for historians. Bartholomei helped secure access to diplomatic papers in the British Foreign Office archives and arrange their copying for publication by the Imperial Russian Historical Society. The society admitted him as a member in 1873. A brief appointment to Greece preceded his transfer to Washington in 1880. ¹

Bartholomei represented Russia through the assassination of Alexander II in March 1881. Alexander III’s letter announcing his accession renewed the minister’s authority to speak for the new emperor. Bartholomei then conveyed imperial thanks for the U.S. Senate’s condolences, adding his own appreciation of Secretary of State James G. Blaine’s expressions of sympathy. ^{2, 3}

He moved to Japan in 1882 but retired later that year. He returned to the Foreign Ministry’s service in 1889. He died in 1895. ¹