GORCHAKOV, PRINCE ALEXANDER MIKHAIL OVICH (1 i98-1883), Russian statesman, cousin of Princes Petr and Mikhail Gorchakov, was born on July 16, 1798, and was edu cated at the lyceum of Tsarskoye Selo. On leaving the lyceum Gorchakov entered the foreign office under Count Nesselrode. When the German confederation was re-established in 185o in place of the parliament of Frankfort, Gorchakov was appointed Russian minister to the diet, and formed with Bismarck a friend ship which was afterwards renewed at St. Petersburg. Gorchakov was then transferred to Vienna, where he remained through the critical period of the Crimean War. Although he attended the Paris conference of 1856, he abstained from signing the treaty of peace. Alexander II. then appointed him minister of foreign affairs in place of Count Nesselrode. Gorchakov was appointed chancellor, and was, for a time, the most powerful minister in Europe.
When the conflict arose between Austria and Prussia in 1866, Russia remained neutral, and when the Franco-German war of 1870-71 broke out Russia answered for the neutrality of Austria. In 1875 Bismarck was suspected of a design of again attacking France, and Gorchakov let it be known that Russia would oppose any such scheme. Slavophil agitation produced the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1877-78. At the congress of Berlin (June 13 to July 13, 1878) the aged chancellor held nominally the post of first plenipotentiary, but left to Count Shuvalov the odium for the concessions which Russia had to make to Great Britain and Austria. He died at Baden-Baden on March II, 1883.
See Alexandre II., Gorchakov et Napoleon III.