Nesselrode, Karl Robert (1780–1862)

Russian foreign minister 1814–56, a firm anti-revolutionist. He took part in the congresses of Vienna, Aachen, Troppau, Laibach, and Verona, checking popular reform or independence. His policy of keeping Turkey weak worked until 1841, when the Straits Convention began a chain of events leading to the Crimean War. He signed the 1856 Treaty of Paris which ended the war and heralded a more expansionist era for Russia in Asia.