Anatoly Neratov

Foreign minister Sergey Sazonov behind his desk in his office. From that desk also Neratov led the ministry in 1911 during Sazonov's long absence Anatoly Anatolyevich Neratov (Russian: Анатолий Анатольевич Нератов) (2 October 1863 in Russia – 10 April 1938 in Villejuif, France) was a Russian diplomat and an official of the Russian foreign ministry. He was deputy to five foreign ministers of the Tsarist and the Provisional Government.

After finishing the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo Neratov joined the Foreign service around 1890. Between 1906 and 1910 he was vice-director of the 1st department of the Russian foreign ministry, from 1910 on until 1917 he then was Permanent Under Secretary of State resp. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Although Neratov has never been abroad during his long service in November/December 1916 (during World War I) after Boris Vladimirovich Stürmer was dismissed and before Nikolai Nikolayevich Pokrovsky was appointed (in December Neratov became a member of the State Council, too ) in February/March 1917 (after the February Revolution) when Pokrovsky resigned and before Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov was appointed in October/November 1917 (following the October Revolution) when Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko was arrested temporarily

Leon Trotsky, the new People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, asked Neratov to subordinate to the Council of People's Commissars and to hand over the secret documents from the diplomatic archives of the foreign ministry. Neratov refused and was eventually deposed and replaced by Ivan Zalkind in November 1917. The secret documents were confiscated and published, however, in January 1918 Neratov claimed that some of these published documents were nothing more than insignificant notices or even forgeries. During the Russian Civil War Nerotov advised the "White" movement then, from 1920, Denikin's successor Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel. Wrangel finally sent Neratov as his ambassador to Istanbul to get support from the Entente. At the end of the Turkish War of Independence, when the Entente gave Istanbul back to the Turks, Neratov fled to France.