Yegor Krehmer

Yegor Ivanovich Krehmer (1805–1859) entered Russian government service in 1824 and worked in the Foreign Ministry’s special chancery before joining the Washington mission in 1827. He advanced from junior to senior secretary and subsequently served as chargé d’affaires. In French correspondence he used the name Georges Krehmer. ^{1, 2}

His Washington dispatches covered the politics of slavery, federal finances, and relations with Mexico and Texas. The archival guide compiled by Frank Golder also identifies reports on the Canadian rebellion, the Seminole conflict, and an Antarctic expedition in late 1837. ³

Krehmer became consul general in Egypt in 1841 and moved to the London consulate in 1845. During the Crimean War, when Britain and Russia broke diplomatic relations, he sought to preserve commercial connections. After the war, London merchants approached him about extending Russia’s consular representation to southern Africa and Australia. ^{1, 2}

In December 1856 he proposed James Damyon for Melbourne, Edmund Monson Paul for Sydney, and James Duncan Thomson for Cape Town, drawing on recommendations from firms engaged in Russian trade. His April 1857 dispatch transmitted the approved vice-consular appointments for presentation to the British Foreign Office. Krehmer died at his London home on 24 September 1859. ¹