The Alvensleben Convention was a treaty between the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 and the Kingdom of Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

, named after general Gustav von Alvensleben

Gustav von Alvensleben

Gustav von Alvensleben was a Prussian General der Infanterie.- Biography :Gustav von Alvensleben was born in Eichenbarleben, he joined the Prussian Army in 1821....

. It was signed in St. Petersburg on 8 February 1863 by Alvensleben and Alexander Gorchakov.

The Convention

In January 1863 an uprising against the Russian rule

January Uprising

The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

 in Congress Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

 occurred. Prussia immediately closed its border and mobilized the Prussian Army to secure its eastern provinces against a similar event. Initiated by Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...

, Alvensleben, the Prussian King’s

William I, German Emperor

William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...

 personal adjutant, was dispatched to Tsar Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

’s court to negotiate common measures on behalf of the insurgents.
The two powers agreed on the right of each of their military forces to cross the border in pursuit of Polish revolutionaries and to extradite them to Russian military courts.

The convention was never implemented as Russia dealt on its own with Polish uprising.

In Prussia

Bismarck, who had just been appointed Prime Minister in September 1862 and ruled without a parliamentary majority, was however criticized by the Prussian liberal politicians like Hans Victor von Unruh

Hans Victor von Unruh

Hans Victor von Unruh was a Prussian Public Official and Politician, President of the Prussian National Assembly of 1848 and Member of the Reichstag.- Biography :...

 and Heinrich von Sybel

Heinrich von Sybel

Heinrich Karl Ludolf von Sybel , German historian, came from a Protestant family which had long been established at Soest, in Westphalia....

, who sympathized with the Poles although far less than in 1848.

The treaty led to clashes in the Prussian Landtag and after the president of the parliament interrupted Bismarck during a dispute over his Polish policy, he stated that he answered only to the king and was “not subject to the disciplinary authority vested in the president of the parliament.”
The struggle between Bismarck and the diet continued and on 22 May 1863 the diet sent a sharp note to the king: "The House of Deputies has no further means of coming to terms with this ministry.... Every further negotiation only streng thens our conviction that a chasm separates the advisors to the crown and the country."
As a result the king finally dissolved the diet.

Meanwhile Bismarck backed down and on his instigation Gorchakov declared the convention has never been in force.

International affairs

The convention was criticized by western liberals and led to a serious diplomatic crisis. Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and the Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 protested and especially Napoleon III, Emperor of the Second French Empire

Second French Empire

The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

, showed his sympathies towards the uprising and suggested the dismissal of Bismarck as Prussian Prime Minister. Empress Eugenie

Eugénie de Montijo

Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marquise of Ardales; 5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo , was the last Empress consort of the French from 1853 to 1871 as the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of...

 already showed a map of Europe to the Austrian ambassador, which contained an independent Poland and a major realignment of European frontiers.

The convention improved Russo-Prussian relations, while Franco-Russian relations were strained by the open sympathy Napoleon III had shown towards the Poles. Bismarck himself later saw it as a precondition for the Russian neutrality in the Austro-Prussian

Austro-Prussian War

The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...

 and Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

.