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.

century? By the early twentieth century, the Arsenevs had a brilliant mansion in the old city centre of Moscow, where they used to live during the winter-time enjoying entertain­ ments such as aristocratic dancing parties, theatre performances and concerts.6 Arsenev’s family was well-to-do, cultured and harmonious. Its basic capital was its broad, kinship-based contacts with many aristocratic clans, such as the Dolgoruky, Orloff, Davy­ dov, Shenshin, Khomiakov, Naryshkin and Raevskii. Thanks to them, each of the Arsenev family members had guaranteed access to high-ranking positions at court, as well as in the diplomatic, civil and military services. One specific feature of the family community was their strong religious belief. Both the men and women of the Arsenev family were inspired by the mystical beliefs current in the Orthodox Church. Sergei Arsenev was mar­ ried to Ekaterina Vasilevna Shenshin. Due to the publications of their son Nikolai (later an American professor and philologist, and well-known in academic and emigre circles), Ekaterina Vasilevna Shenshin might be compared with Tatiana Larina, Aleksander Push­ kin’s ideal woman. She was highly educated and guided in her relations to her husband and children by feelings of faithfulness and tender love. Konstantin Nikolaevich Gulkevich (1865 -1935) inherited a huge estate from his parents.7 His father, Nikolai Vasilevich, left him 4 300 hectares of fertile land in the Kubanskaia Oblast (Kuban Region) in the Caucasus. The estate was named “Gulkevichi” after the family name. In the early 1900s, the Kubanskaia Oblast held first place in Russia when it came to producing grain for sale. Moreover, from 1898 until 1910 Gulkevich owned 7 800 hectares of purchased estate in the Dvinskoi district in the Vitebsk Province. It is clear from all this that Gulkevich was a wealthy landlord. Unlike his colleagues, however, Gulkevich was not of purely aristocratic origin. His grandfather was an ordinary soldier (not even from the gentry) who worked hard to deserve his first officer rank. Gulkevich’s father started his civilian career at the age of sixteen as an office assistant in the district court of law. Yet by the end of his life, in the early 1880s, Gulkevich’s father could look back upon an amazing career, having attained a rank in the civil service equal to that of an army lieutenant-gen­ eral. By that time, the Gulkevich family had achieved permanent status in St. Petersburg high society. Little is known about Konstantin Gulkevich’s mother. We do know, however, that Konstantin Gulkevich himself never married, probably because he was not a healthy man. For most of his life Gulkevich suffered from tuberculosis. E ducation The social positions of the families of Krupenskii, Arsenev and Gulkevich guaranteed a high educational standard for each of them. Both Krupenskii and Arsenev graduated from the 5) Arsenev 1903. 6) Arsenev 1974: 31-41. 7) AVPRI, f. 159, op. 464, d. 1054. - 6 3 -