“Yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” as a Source on the History of Russian Diplomacy

For political and informational purposes, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire intensified its publishing activities in the 1860s. One of the important projects was the publication from 1861 (to 1916), first in French and then in Russian and French, of the “Yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”/“Annuaire Diplomatique de l’Empire de la Russie”. The “Yearbooks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” contained various information about the activities of the Russian foreign policy department: the structure of the organization, the personnel of the ministry and its foreign institutions (indicating positions and ranks); some official documents that widely covered issues of current policy — government communications, especially important notes and circulars of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign embassies and notes of embassies sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, government communications. With additions and amendments, the texts of the Ministry Charter and the rules for applying for service in the department were included in the yearbooks, as well as a large number of appendices with samples of consular documents, tables of trade and customs tariffs. The section “Diplomatic documents” contained the text of multilateral and bilateral international treaties, conventions, protocols of conferences and congresses, agreements and declarations with the participation of Russia. In the “Yearbooks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” in 1884—1906, circulars (orders) were published for the department, informing about personnel changes in the central apparatus and the diplomatic staff of Russian embassies, missions and consulates. The regularly published “Yearbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” had been in print for 56 years and in its content, selection and presentation of information most fully met the daily needs of the department's apparatus and its foreign institutions. However, to this day the publication's materials remain practically beyond the scope of scientific works. The purpose of the article is to generate interest among researchers in this unique and insufficiently studied documentary source, from which one can receive a great deal of information about the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the personnel of the department, the history of Russian diplomacy and international relations in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries.