Karelin, V. Russian envoys in Kristiania, 1905-1917. Three incomplete portraits // Caution & compliance : Norwegian-Russian diplomatic relations, 1814-2014 / Kari Aga Myklebost & Stian Bones (eds.). - Stamsund : Orkana akademisk, 2012. – Vol. 1. - S. 61-70.

Smolin (on the Civil War period) and Claus Wittich (on the emigre period).' The present paper is based mostly on Russian archival documents and memoirs. Other quite new and informative sources include the personal papers of Professor Olaf Broch, located at the National Library in Oslo (Gulkevich wrote more than a hundred letters to his Norwegian friend). I have pleasure in expressing my gratitude to Professor J. P. Nielsen, who kindly provided me with access to a number of informative Russian diplomatic documents taken from the Russian Mission files at the Hoover Institution. It is important to stress that the present contribution does not pretend to submit exhaustive answers to all possible ques­ tions. Some of them still need to be cleared up. P arentage All three persons mentioned above represented the upper stratum of old Russia’s ruling class. Each of them was a wealthy and cultured nobleman. Anatolii Krupenskii (1850-1923) was descended from one of the richest landlord families in Bessarabia? This territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1812 as a result of the war with Osman Turkey. Krupenskii’s family ancestors were kin to Princes of Moldavia and Walachia. In the early 1900s, Krupenskii’s numerous family members often held high-ranking positions in the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Gosudarstvennaia Duma (Parliament), the Zem­ stvo (local self-government) and the Dvoriaskoe sobranie (Bessarabian Gentry Association).1 2 3 They were absolutely loyal to the Romanov dynasty autocratic regime and they therefore played prominent roles in the Empire’s political life and kept in contact with a lot of influ­ ential bureaucrats and court circle members. Anatolii Krupenskii was a very wealthy man. His personal estate was equal to 5 000 hec­ tares of fertile soil. He married an Austrian countess, the widow of a Habsburg aristocrat, whose name before marrying him was Leopoldina Zhozefina Gabriela Edie von Gerz. Her first husband’s surname was Triangi von Latsch und Madernburg. Naturally these origins, the broad aristocratic surroundings and the personal wealth all gave Anatolii Krupenskii a strong sense of self-confidence and self-sufficiency. Sergei Vasilevich Arsenev (1854-1922) also represented the aristocratic layer of the Russian gentry.4But he was a rather middle-sized landowner. His family estate was in the pictur­ esque Novosilskii district in Tula Province. The estate’s name was Krasnoe (“Beautiful”). It was located in the central Russian territories, not far from Leo Tolstoi’s domain, lasnaia Poliana. The Arsenev family was descended from the Tatar nobleman Arslan Murza Chel- ebey, who came into the service of the Great Prince of Moscow during the late fourteenth 1) Batsis 1973; Kasian 2009; Smolin 2006; Wittich 2009. 2) The Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg (RGIA), f. 1409, op. 9, d. 104. 3) Urusov 1907, Chapter 6. 4) The Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), f. 159, op. 464, d. 129a. - 62 —