In the year of the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, the director of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the Institute of International Studies of MGIMO (U), Doctor of Historical Sciences S.I. Chernyavsky opens little-known pages in the history of Russian diplomacy. In the first weeks and months of the war, the embassies and consulates of the Russian Empire in most European states faced the most difficult problem of ensuring conditions for the return of Russian citizens to their homeland. For all interested in the history of Russia.