Alexey Alekseevich Ignatiev was born on March 2 (14), 1877 into a family that belonged to one of the noble families of the Russian Empire. Mother, Ignatieva Sofya Sergeevna - nee Princess Meshcherskaya. Father - a prominent statesman, member of the State Council, governor-general of Kiev, Volyn and Podolsk provinces Ignatiev Alexey Pavlovich. Killed at a meeting of the council in Tver in December 1906. Alexei Ignatiev later believed that the tsarist secret police was involved in the murder. Alexei's younger brother, Pavel Alekseevich Ignatiev, served as a military agent in France, wrote a book about this, "My Mission in Paris." His uncle, Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev, served as Minister of Internal Affairs in 1881-1882, and was also a well-known diplomat, whose merits include the signing of the Beijing Treaty in 1860, the preparation and signing of the San Stefano Peace Treaty, which completed the Russian Turkish War of 1877-1878.
In 1894, at the age of 14, Alexei Ignatiev joined His Majesty's Corps of Pages, the most privileged military educational institution in Russia at that time. His father sent him there, as he put it, "to eliminate the effeminacy and tearfulness." The curriculum hardly differed from the courses of the cadet corps, but more attention was paid to foreign languages - French and German. For enrollment in the Corps of Pages, a preliminary high order was required, and, as a rule, only the sons or grandchildren of generals were honored with this honor. But sometimes exceptions were made for representatives of old princely families. Both the father and uncle of Alexei Alekseevich, Alexei and Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev, studied in the Corps of Pages. A year later, in 1895, Alexei was introduced to Emperor Nicholas II and served the Empress. After graduating from the corps, he was promoted to officer and served as a cavalry guard.
In 1905, the Russo-Japanese War began, and Ignatiev, along with other officers, was sent to the eastern front. He ended up at the headquarters of Linevich, the commander of the Manchu army, where he was assigned to the intelligence department. So began the military-diplomatic service of Alexei Ignatiev, which determined his future fate. Links with military agents gave him the opportunity to study the customs of representatives of foreign armies. Under his leadership were the British, Germans and Americans, and the duties included checking the correspondence. The end of the Russo-Japanese War, the count met with the rank of lieutenant colonel with the orders of St. Vladimir, 4th degree and St. Stanislav, 2nd degree, and later promoted to the rank of major general.
After the war, Ignatiev continued his diplomatic career. In January 1908 he served as military attaché in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and in 1912 he was sent to France. As the count himself points out in his memoirs, no one taught him the activities of a military agent, and he had to work "on a whim." The agent's direct duties were to keep his general staff informed about the state of forces of the host country, including reports on observed maneuvers, exercises and visits to military units, as well as to deliver all new military and technical books. The count preferred to communicate with the French, and not with representatives of the Russian secular society.
In France, Count Ignatiev was responsible for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for the Russian army, and only he could manage the account of the Russian Empire in a French bank. He also ran a wide network of agents. When the First World War broke out, Russia was in dire need of ammunition. Ignatiev received a large order for heavy shells, but none of the French dared to fulfill it. Only Citroen came to the aid of the Count, with whom he was on good terms. On this occasion, there were also many rumors - as if Alexei Ignatiev was profiting from military supplies, using his connections, but no direct evidence was provided.
The Russian emigration condemned Count Ignatiev for his connection with the beauty of Paris, the famous dancer Natalia Trukhanova, the daughter of a French woman and a gypsy. The dancer performed half-naked, performing Salome's dance to music by Strauss. For her sake, the count divorced his wife, Elena Vladimirovna Okhotnikova. Since 1914, they lived with Trukhanova, renting a luxurious apartment on the Bourbon embankment. Ignatiev spent huge sums on the maintenance of his mistress, which did not correspond much to his official income.
When the October Revolution broke out, in the Russian account in the Bank de France there was an amount of 225 million rubles in gold, transferred to Count Ignatiev for the next purchase of military equipment. The diplomat was faced with a choice: what to do with the money left without an owner. Representatives of various émigré organizations reached out to him from all sides, wishing to seize Russian millions as "legal representatives" of the Russian Empire, and his actions were followed by French intelligence.
But the count made a different decision, having committed an act that came as a complete surprise to many. In 1924, when France finally recognized the Soviet state and the Soviet diplomatic mission reopened in Paris, Ignatiev transferred the entire amount to trade representative L. Krasin. In exchange for this, he asked for a Soviet passport and permission to return to Russia, now Soviet.
The Russian emigration instantly rejected Alexei Ignatiev, declaring him a traitor. His brother Pavel made an attempt on his life, trying to shoot him, but the bullet only touched the Count's hat. He kept it in memory of the assassination attempt. His own mother disowned Ignatiev and forbade him to appear in her house, "so as not to disgrace the family." His most loyal friends turned away from him, including Karl Mannerheim, with whom they studied together at the Academy of the General Staff. Only Natalia Trukhanova remained, with whom the count was married in 1918.
But Ignatiev was not allowed to come to Russia immediately. The count's income decreased significantly, Trukhanova also performed very rarely. There was not enough money, and Ignatiev began to grow mushrooms for sale. Until 1937, he was listed in the Soviet trade mission, in fact, doing agent work, now for Soviet intelligence. In his hands were dozens of illegal scouts, specialists for undercover work in official organizations - a serious network of agents. Perhaps this very circumstance served as a guarantee of Ignatiev's life. Returning to his homeland in the difficult year of 1937, he not only escaped Stalin's repression, but was re-awarded the rank of Major General, now the Red Army.
In Moscow, Ignatiev officially supervised language courses for the commanding staff of the Red Army, headed the department of foreign languages at the Military Medical Academy, and since October 1942 he was the editor of the military-historical literature of the Military Publishing House of the NKO. Compared to his past hectic activities, this was a minor job for him. However, according to unofficial data, the count continued to engage in foreign intelligence, and was in good standing with Stalin. As they say, there are no former intelligence officers. The Tsarist officer, the "class enemy" of Soviet power, not only worked quietly, but also engaged in creative activities. On the eve of World War II, his book of memoirs "50 years in the ranks" was published, the count was also fond of cooking and for more than 20 years worked on the manuscript "A Conversation of a Chef with a Minion", which he did not manage to publish. This recipe book was published in the 90s under the title "The Culinary Secrets of the Cavalry Guard of General Count AA Ignatiev, or Conversations between a Chef and a Minion."
During the Patriotic War, the count provided invaluable assistance to the Soviet army. In 1943, on the personal instructions of Stalin, Alexei Ignatiev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. There is also an opinion that it was on the advice of Alexei Alekseevich that the shoulder straps were returned to the army. In 1947, the command approved the resignation report, and the count retired at the age of 70. He died on November 20, 1954 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
It is difficult to judge the true motives of the act that made the count famous. However, it is not worth belittling its importance either, because Ignatiev could well have kept the money for himself, borrowed at least a part, or given it to help the Russian emigration. He preferred to return everything to the leadership of the new Russia. It would be more understandable if the count was in Russia during the revolution - but he lived in France, and he was not threatened with arrests of the Bolsheviks. In addition, before returning to Soviet Russia, Ignatiev had to live for 20 years among a hostile environment. The Count was not touched by repression, which also testifies to the importance of his person, and here his activities in foreign intelligence certainly played a significant role. But no matter what opinion may be formed about Count Alexei Ignatiev - negative or positive - his act will not leave anyone indifferent.
