BENCKENDORFF, ALEXANDER, COUNT (1849 IQ17), Russian diplomat, began his career as an attache in Flor ence, proceeding thence to Rome. In 1897 he was appointed minister in Copenhagen, and remained there until 1903, when he was promoted to the Court of St. James. The atmosphere, at the time, was unfavourable to an Anglo-Russian rapprochement. But on the conclusion of the secret convention at B jorko (1905) between Wilhelm II. and Nicholas II., which was likely to disrupt the Franco-Russian Alliance and so involve Russia in a continental league against England, Count Benckendorff was in vited to Copenhagen and served as a confidential. intermediary between Russia and Great Britain. The Bjorko intrigue evapo rated without leaving any tangible result, and the historic rap prochement between Great Britain, France and Russia took its course. Benckendorff made his home in London where he died Jan. I I 1917.