diff --git a/doc/bird.sgml b/doc/bird.sgml
index 72c386f..7c7614e 100644
--- a/doc/bird.sgml
+++ b/doc/bird.sgml
@@ -626,6 +626,12 @@ agreement").
 	command line interface without needing to touch the configuration.
 	Disabled protocols are not activated. Default: protocol is enabled.
 
+	<tag><label id="proto-disabled-keep">disabled keep <m/switch/</tag>
+	Keep the protocol state while loading new configuration. So manually
+	disabled ptotocols are not enabled during configure and vice vers.
+	The option's value is taken from the new configuration.
+	Default: disabled (protocol state is not kept).
+
 	<tag><label id="proto-debug">debug all|off|{ states|routes|filters|interfaces|events|packets [, <m/.../] }</tag>
 	Set protocol debugging options. If asked, each protocol is capable of
 	writing trace messages about its work to the log (with category
diff --git a/nest/config.Y b/nest/config.Y
index 88f74b9..60669e1 100644
--- a/nest/config.Y
+++ b/nest/config.Y
@@ -204,6 +204,7 @@ proto_name:
 
 proto_item:
    /* EMPTY */
+ | DISABLED KEEP bool { this_proto->disabled_keep = $3; }
  | DISABLED bool { this_proto->disabled = $2; }
  | DEBUG debug_mask { this_proto->debug = $2; }
  | MRTDUMP mrtdump_mask { this_proto->mrtdump = $2; }
diff --git a/nest/proto.c b/nest/proto.c
index 7905c9f..a321fce 100644
--- a/nest/proto.c
+++ b/nest/proto.c
@@ -913,6 +913,13 @@ protos_commit(struct config *new, struct config *old, int force_reconfig, int ty
 	nc = sym->def;
 	nc->proto = p;
 
+	/* Keep protocol state if configured */
+	if (nc->disabled_keep && (p->disabled != nc->disabled))
+	{
+	  log(L_INFO "Keeping state of protocol %s", p->name);
+	  nc->disabled = p->disabled;
+	}
+
 	/* We will try to reconfigure protocol p */
 	if (! force_reconfig && proto_reconfigure(p, oc, nc, type))
 	  continue;
diff --git a/nest/protocol.h b/nest/protocol.h
index 343ce52..2fd17ae 100644
--- a/nest/protocol.h
+++ b/nest/protocol.h
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ struct proto_config {
   int class;				/* SYM_PROTO or SYM_TEMPLATE */
   u8 net_type;				/* Protocol network type (NET_*), 0 for undefined */
   u8 disabled;				/* Protocol enabled/disabled by default */
+  u8 disabled_keep;			/* Keep state on configure */
   u32 debug, mrtdump;			/* Debugging bitfields, both use D_* constants */
   u32 router_id;			/* Protocol specific router ID */