Background
Girs was born on May 21, 1820 in Radyvyliv, Russian Empire.
Girs was born on May 21, 1820 in Radyvyliv, Russian Empire.
Girs was educated at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, near St Petersburg.
At the age of eighteen, he entered the service of the Eastern department of the ministry of foreign affairs, and spent more than twenty years in subordinate posts, chiefly in south-eastern Europe, until he was promoted in 1863 to the post of minister plenipotentiary in Persia. Here he remained for six years, and, after serving as a minister in Switzerland and Sweden, he was appointed in 1875 director of the Eastern department and assistant minister for foreign affairs under Prince Gorchakov, whose niece he had married. On the death of Alexander II in 1881, Alexander III appointed Girs minister of foreign affairs on the retirement of Prince Gorchakov in 1882, but retained him to the end of his reign in 1894. In accordance with the desire of the tsar Girs followed systematically a pacific policy. Accepting as a fait accompli the existence of the Triple Alliance, created by Bismarck for the purpose of resisting any aggressive action on the part of Russia and France, he sought to establish more friendly relations with the cabinets of Berlin, Vienna and Rome. To the advances of the French government, he at first turned a deaf ear, but when the rapprochement between the two countries was effected with little or no co-operation on his part, he utilized it for restraining France and promoting Russian interests. Rivalry between Britain and Russia grew steadily over Central Asia in the Great Game of the late 19th century. Russia desired warm-water ports on the Indian Ocean while Britain wanted to prevent Russian troops from gaining a potential invasion route to India. In 1885 Russia annexed part of Afghanistan in the Pandjeh Incident, which caused a war scare. However Girs and the Russian ambassador to London Baron de Staal set up an agreement in 1887 which established a buffer zone in Central Asia. Russian diplomacy won grudging British acceptance of its expansionism. Persia was also an arena of tension, but without warfare. He died on 26 January 1895, soon after the accession of Nicholas II.
Member of the State Council of the Russian Empire