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.

lomatic service usually started their practi­ cal training in the central office (diplomatic chancellery or archive) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or in diplomatic archives. Krupenskii, for instance, was admitted to the Chancellery in 1874, at the age of 24; Gulkevich was employed in the Ministry’s St. Petersburg archive in 1886, at the age of 21. By contrast, Sergei Arsenev was directly enrolled to the Ministry’s Asian depart­ ment in 1880, and in the same year he was moved to the Russian Consulate General in Eastern Romania as a secretary. After three years of training in the minis­ terial office in St. Petersburg, Krupenskii held various secretarial positions in Russian embassies in the capitals of the European great powers: in Vienna, London and Rome (as a councillor). Thus he gained experi­ ence of the great power politics of Europe. Anatolii Krupenskii, 1912. Photographer: Gustav On the other hand, in the forty years of his Borgen. Copyright: Norsk Folkemuseum. diplomatic career he never once went back to St. Petersburg to serve at the ministerial office. Arsenev, for his part, mostly made his career in consulates and diplomatic missions in secondary and minor locations such as Sophia, Jerusalem, Stockholm, the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lubeck, and the Duchy of Oldenburg.8In 1909 he was assigned to the position of Russian envoy and plenipotentiary minister in Montenegro. Three years later he was moved to Kristiania in Norway, which was regarded as a quiet post, far from the political disturbances and disorder of the great powers. Arsenev’s professional career may be summed up as quite modest. In contrast to this, Konstantin Gulkevich’s career demonstrates more impressive achieve­ ments and shows off his undoubted diplomatic talents, enterprise and energy. Gulkevich, though the youngest among his colleagues, gained rich and manifold professional experi­ ence before he took up his post as envoy to Norway. It is worth noting that he combined his work in the ministerial office in St. Petersburg with work at institutions abroad, in Munich and Rome. One of the highlights of his career was the position of assistant sec- 8)AVPRI, f. 340, op. 854, d. 3. - 6 5 -