#InMemoryOfDiplomats #InMemoriam

�� On March 18, 1856, an outstanding diplomat, Aleksander Izvolsky, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire in 1906-1910, was born in Moscow.

In 1875, he graduated from the famous Alexandrosvky Lyceum and entered service in the Chancellery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

�� In 1876, Izvolsky was appointed to the Russian mission in Rome. He subsequently worked at the Consulate General in Eastern Rumelia (an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, effectively under Bulgarian control), as well as at the Embassies in Romania and the United States. From 1894 to 1897, he served as Minister-Resident to the Holy See; from 1897 to 1906, he was envoy to Serbia, Bavaria, Japan, and Denmark.

In 1906, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Izvolsky regarded the main task of foreign policy as stabilizing the country’s international position, restoring its military and political potential, and concluding bilateral agreements with the great powers.

In a report to Emperor Nicholas II on negotiations with European statesmen dated November 6, 1907, the Minister noted:

“Russia’s temporary weakening in the international arena, as a result of the revolutionary movement and the diversion of our military forces to the Far Eastern war, has exposed the European balance to very serious dangers and has led to a regrouping of powers dangerous for the preservation of general peace.”

Izvolsky secured the signing of the Anglo-Russian and Russo-Japanese agreements, which delineated spheres of influence between Russia and Britain in Central Asia and with Japan in the Far East. He also sought to intensify Russia’s policy in the Balkans and to change the status of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

In 1910, he continued his diplomatic service as Ambassador to France. Recognizing the inevitability of a pan-European war, he contributed to the political and military consolidation of the Entente both on the eve of and during the First World War.

A year after his resignation, in July 1911, he wrote to Pyotr Stolypin:

“I can say in good conscience that I placed Russia in more advantageous conditions than those in which it stood before me, provided it with all the points of support that could be found, and safeguarded it from all contingencies in the Far and Middle East.”

#HistoryOfDiplomacy