THE ROLE OF CHINA IN THE FATE OF GIRS FAMILY

The article is devoted to the representatives of the Girs family, who were in China at the turn of the19th-20th centuries due to civil service, as well as for family reasons. In China they were involved in solving state issuesrelated to the Qing Empire in this period. Foreign Minister N. K. Girs, envoy to China M. N. Girs with his wife M. N.Girs (Zamiatnina) are mentioned in the article. The study was spurred by the active interest of the Ministry of ForeignAffairs of the Russian Federation in the diplomats of the Girs family, as well as to the history of their descendants.Modern Russian diplomacy emphasizes the continuity of state policy, which is also illustrated by this study. In addition,the strengthening of bilateral relations between Russia and China at the present stage makes historians return to variousplots in the history of Russian-Chinese relations. The study is to analyze those stories and Girs family sources that mostclearly illustrated Russian-Chinese relations at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. The source base are archivalmaterials and diaries of contemporaries. The hermeneutic method made it possible to interpret archival sources in moredetail and supplement some well-known pages of Russian-Chinese relations. The author comes to the conclusion thatthe representatives of the Girs family, for the most part finding themselves situationally in China, did not seek to extend their presence in the country. Nevertheless, they conscientiously performed their duties. M.N. Girs`s diary written during the Boxer Rebellion is a valuable source of an eyewitness to those tragic events.

China, diary of M N Girs, Girs family, Mikhail Nikolaevich Girs, Boxer Rebellion