Graf (Count) Ignatiev Street in downtown Sofia is one of the major transport and trade arteries in the city. The narrow but long street runs from Garibaldi Square through Slaveikov Square (Sofia's most popular open-air bookstore) and Popa or the Patriarch Evtimii Monument (one of the city's hang-out spots), to Evlogi Georgiev Boulevard.

Graf Ignatiev Street was named after Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev, a Russian diplomat, who was instrumental in expanding Russian interests into the Far East and the Balkans.

Ignatiev was born in Saint Petersburg in 1832. He entered the diplomatic service in 1856 and one of his first tasks was to lead a mission to Central Asia in 1858. In 1860, when the British and French occupied Peking in order to put down a Chinese Independence Movement, Russia managed to extend her hold in Central Asia. Count Ignatiev negotiated the Treaty of Peking, which Russia signed with China in 1860. As a result of the treaty, Russia acquired both sides of the Amur estuary and founded the town of Vladivostok on the former Chinese territory.

In 1864, Ignatiev was appointed Russia's ambassador to Constantinople. He occupied the post until 1877, and, during his mandate, promoted nationalist ideas in the Balkans. He also zealously supported the ideas of Pan-Slavism, the theory and movement intended to promote the political and cultural unity of all Slavs. Advocated by various individuals from the 17th century, the movement developed as an intellectual and cultural movement in the 19th century and spread out with the awakening of Slavs within the Austrian and Ottoman empires.

As an ambassador to Constantinople, Ignatiev encouraged both the Serbs and the Bulgarians to rebel against Ottoman Rule. In 1879, Ignatiev helped the Bulgarians in the movement for an independent Bulgarian church which was actually the first step towards political liberation. He was also one of the foreign diplomats who helped instigate the 1876 April Uprising in Bulgaria, which was ferociously suppressed by the Ottoman army but provoked international attention towards the living conditions of Bulgarians and the other nationalities within the Ottoman Empire.

After the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Ignatiev was in charge of negotiating the Treaty of San Stefano which ended the conflict after the Russians defeated the Ottoman army. On March 3, 1878, in the town of San Stefano, known today as Yesilkoy (close to the Turkish capital), Ignatiev, his colleague Alexander Nelidov and representatives of the Turkish Sultan - Safvet pasha and Sadullah bey - put their signatures to a preliminary peace treaty.

The document recognized the independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. The Treaty of San Stefano settled the future of Bulgaria as an autonomous vassal kingdom with a Christian government, its own administration and army. According to the treaty, Bulgaria's borders encompassed a territory of 160,000 square kilometres.

Northern Dobrudza was given to Romania as compensation for the participation of its troops in the liberation of Bulgaria, and because Besarabia was given to Russia. Part of the western Bulgarian territories became Serbian.

Shortly after the signing of the treaty, which greatly expanded Russian influence in the Balkans, the influence of Ignatiev waned and he soon retired. Towards the end of his diplomatic career, he served briefly as Russian minister of the interior. He was appointed under the rule of Emperor Alexander III in 1881, but was dismissed in June 1882.