Ignatieff married Princess Natalia Nikolayevna
Meshcherskaya (1877-1944) in
Nice, France, on April 16, 1903. They would have seven children, all boys, two of whom died as infants. He was a graduate of the
University of Kiev. Afterward, he entered the Imperial Ministry of Agriculture, eventually becoming a director of one of its departments in 1909. He was appointed in 1912 as Assistant Minister of Agriculture. In 1915, during the
First World War, he was appointed Minister of Education. He held that position until December 1916. During the
October Revolution, Ignatieff was arrested and was to be executed. However, he was spared by the Polish commissar overseeing his execution, who said that Ignatieff was a good man because he had implemented progressive policies such as Polish language rights while Education Minister. Ignatieff and his family then fled to England in 1919 and lived on a farm in
Sussex, before moving to Canada. In 1925, the family immigrated to
Canada and settled permanently three years later in
Upper Melbourne in
Quebec, where he died on August 12, 1945. One of Ignatieff's sons,
George, was a prominent
Canadian diplomat. One of his grandsons,
Michael Ignatieff, is an author,
Harvard professor, former Canadian
Member of Parliament and former leader of the
Liberal Party of Canada. ==References==