MURAVIEV, MICHAEL NIKOLAIEVICH, COUNT (1845-1900), Russian statesman, was born on April 19, 1845. He was the son of General Count Nicholas Muraviev (governor of Grodno), and grandson of the Count Michael Muraviev, who be came notorious for his drastic measures in stamping out the Polish insurrection of 1863 in the Lithuanian provinces. He was educated at a secondary school at Poltava, and was for a short time at Heidelberg university. In 1864 he entered the chancellery of the minister for foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, and was soon after wards attached to the Russian legation at Stuttgart. He served in various European capitals, and finally became minister at Copen hagen. In Denmark he was brought much into contact with the imperial family, and on the death of Prince Lobanov in 1897 he was appointed by the Tsar Nicholas II. to be his minister of foreign affairs. As regards Crete, Count Muraviev's policy was
vacillating ; in China his hands were forced by Germany's action at Kiaochow. But he acted with singular legerete with regard at all events to his assurances to Great Britain respecting the leases of Port Arthur and Talienwan from China; he told the British ambassador that these would be "open ports," and afterwards essentially modified this pledge. When the Tsar Nicholas in augurated the Peace Conference at the Hague, Count Muraviev extricated his country from a situation of some embarrassment. When Russian agents in Manchuria and at Peking connived at the agitation which culminated in the Boxer rising of 1900, the rela tions of the responsible foreign minister with the tsar became strained. Muraviev died suddenly on June 21, 1900.