August 10, 2014 <Back to Index>
PAGE SPONSOR |
Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov GCB (Russian: Сергей Дмитриевич Сазонов, 10 August 1860 – 25 December 1927) was a Russian statesman who served as Foreign Minister from September 1910 to June 1916. The degree of his involvement in the events leading up to the outbreak of World War I is a matter of keen debate, with some historians putting the blame for an early and provocative mobilization squarely on Sazonov's shoulders, and others maintaining that his chief preoccupation was "to reduce the temperature of international relations, especially in the Balkans". Of lesser noble background, Sazonov was the brother - in - law of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin who did his best to further Sazonov's career. Having graduated from the Alexander Lyceum, Sazonov served in the London embassy, and the diplomatic mission to the Vatican, of which he became the chief in March 1906. On 26 June 1909 Sazonov was recalled to St. Petersburg and appointed Assistant Foreign Minister. Before long he replaced Alexander Izvolsky as Foreign Minister and continued along the lines laid down by his predecessor. Just before he was officially appointed foreign minister, Sazonov attended a meeting between Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany in Potsdam on 4-6 November 1910. This move was intended to chastise the British for their perceived betrayal of Russia's interests during the Bosnian crisis. Indeed, Britain's Foreign Secretary was seriously alarmed by this token of a "German - Russian Détente". The two monarchs discussed the ambitious German project of the Baghdad Railway, widely expected to give Berlin considerable geopolitical clout in the Fertile Crescent. Against the background of the Persian Constitutional Revolution, Russia was anxious to control the prospective Khanaqin - Tehran branch of the railway. The two powers settled their differences in the Potsdam Agreement, signed on 19 August 1911 and giving Russia a free hand in Northern Iran. As Sazonov hoped, the first railway connecting Persia to Europe would provide Russia with a lever of influence over its southern neighbour. Notwithstanding
the promising beginning, the Russian - German relations disintegrated in
1913, when the Kaiser sent one of his generals to reorganize the Turkish
army and to supervise the garrison in Constantinople, remarking that "the German flag will soon fly over the fortifications of the Bosphorus", a vital trade artery which accounted for two fifths of Russia's exports. In the run-up to a major military conflict in Europe, another concern of the Russian minister was to isolate Austria - Hungary, mainly by playing the Balkan card against the dwindling power of the Habsburgs.
Since Sazonov was moderate in his Balkan politics, his ministry "came
under frequent nationalist fire for failing to conform to a rigid
pan-Slav line". While the extremist agents like Nicholas Hartwig aspired
to solidify the conflicting South Slavic states into a confederacy
under the aegis of the Tsar, there is no indication that Sazonov
personally shared or encouraged these views. Regardless, both Austria
and Germany were persuaded that Russia fomented Pan - Slavism in Belgrade and other Slavic capitals, a belligerent attitude in some measure responsible for the Assassination in Sarajevo and the outbreak of the Great War. As the World War unwound, Sazonov worked to prevent Romania from joining the Central Powers and
wrested in March 1915 an acquiescence from Russia's allies to the
post - war occupation of the Bosphorus, Constantinople, and the European side of the Dardanelles.
On 1 October 1914 Sazonov gave a written guarantee to Romania that, if
the country sided with the Entente, it would be enlarged at the expense
of the Austrian dominions in Transylvania, Bukovina, and the Banat. In general, "his calm and courteous manner did much to maintain fruitful Allied relations". Sazonov was viewed favourably in London, but the Germanophile faction of Tsarina Alexandra fiercely urged his dismissal, which did materialize only after the minister had aired a proposal to grant autonomy to Poland.
Early
in 1917, Sazonov was appointed ambassador in Great Britain, but found
it necessary to remain in Russia, where he witnessed the February Revolution. He was opposed to Bolshevism, advised Anton Denikin on international affairs, and was foreign minister in the anti - Bolshevik government of Admiral Kolchak. In 1919 he represented the White movement at the Paris Peace Conference. Sazonov spent his last years in France writing a book of memoirs. He died in Nice where he is buried. |