The monograph examines Russia's foreign policy at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. A large archival material, mainly first introduced into scientific circulation, shows how the foreign policy course of autocracy was formed under the influence of changes in international relations, interdepartmental and intra-departmental disagreements, views and influences of individuals in higher public administration. The methods by which Russian diplomacy sought to defend its own goals and objectives in the regions of the world where the geopolitical interests of the powers clashed (in Europe, the Balkans, the African continent, the Middle, Middle and Far East) were consistently traced. For historians, teachers, researchers, everyone interested in foreign policy issues.