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.

in constructing warships and later transformed into a big industrial company. The Russian War Ministry negotiated a contract with Sam Eyde’s Company to help the Russian Shlis­ selburg Gunpowder Factory to develop the manufacturing of explosive materials, based on new technology, later successfully used at the Norwegian Norsk Hydro plant. In 1916, the Norwegian government took the initiative of a joint Russian-Norwegian exploitation of hydropower on the frontier River Paz (Pasvik). One key person who proposed Russian political and economic initiatives with regard to Norway, also aimed at the post-war period, was Konstantin Gulkevich. He worked actively to draw Russia and Norway together politically and economically, and also to win the sym­ pathy of the Norwegian public for the Russian people. Gulkevich upheld friendly contact with the owners of the Norwegian newspaper Tidens Tegn, and with prominent individ­ uals such as Professor Olaf Broch and Fridtjof Nansen. Gulkevich worked on a range of topics: the Spitsbergen problem, the transfer of Russian POWs from Germany to Norway, public relations and Norwegian business investments in the Russian North and Siberia, to mention just a few. His diplomatic activity is perhaps best characterized as realistic and pragmatic. At the same time, Gulkevich’s motives were patriotic and idealistic. He sin­ cerely believed in the evolving new democratic Russia from February 1917 onwards, and its ability to establish close economic and political alliances with Norway, to the benefit of both countries. E pilogue The fates of our three diplomats after leaving Norway were different, but their lives all ended more or less dramatically. Anatolii Krupenskii was moved from Kristiania to the post of Ambassador at the Russian Embassy in Rome in the spring of 1912. This must be considered the peak of his diplomatic career and the true realization of his dreams. After the outbreak of the First World War, Krupenskii met his new position with strong misgivings. He did not manage to hide his sceptical feelings and was moved to a position as member of the High Chamber of the Russian Parliament, the Gosudarstvennyi Sovet. This change did not, however, imply that his diplomatic activity came to an end. Krupen­ skii upheld his connection with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his rank as a diplo­ mat. After the February Revolution in 1917, Krupenskii made an attempt to go back into active service, writing a letter to Minister Pavel Miliukov claiming his full loyalty to the new regime. However, there was no answer, probably because Miliukov himself was soon to hand in his resignation. Krupenskii spent his last years before his death in 1923 in Rome in comfortable conditions.’ Sergei Arsenev retired in the spring of 1916, for health reasons, and returned home. 9) Karelin 2009: 95-98. —68 —