Sergey Dmitriyevich Sazonov

Sergey Dmitriyevich Sazonov (born July 29 [August 10, New Style], 1860, Ryazan province, Russia—died December 25, 1927, Nice, France) was a statesman and diplomat, Russia’s minister of foreign affairs (1910–16) during the period immediately preceding and following the outbreak of World War I.

Having entered the foreign ministry in 1883, Sazonov, whose brother-in-law Pyotr Stolypin was Russia’s prime minister from 1906 to 1911, obtained posts in the Russian embassies in London, Washington, D.C., and the Vatican (1904–09) before becoming deputy foreign minister in May 1909 and minister of foreign affairs on September 28 (October 11), 1910. Directing his policy primarily toward maintaining close relations with France and Great Britain, Sazonov also eased Russia’s relations with Germany (November 1910) and worked to uphold the status quo in the Balkans. His associates and particularly his agents in the Balkans, however, promoted the formation of the Balkan League, an alliance among Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro; although it was intended by the Russians to be directed against Austria, the Balkan states transformed it into a coalition against the Ottoman Empire; and Sazonov was compelled to abandon his attempts to maintain relatively friendly relations with the Turks and to give diplomatic support to the Balkan League.

When the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated (June 28, 1914) and Austria issued an ultimatum to Serbia (July 23), Sazonov made it clear that Russia would not allow Austria to annihilate Serbia. Urged on by Russia’s military leaders and the assurance of French aid, he also insisted that Emperor Nicholas II order the complete mobilization of the Russian army (July 30). On August 1, 1914, four days after Austria had declared war on Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia.

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During the early years of World War I, Sazonov concentrated on defining Russia’s war aims; after Turkey entered the war against Russia (November 1914), he obtained the consent of Russia’s allies, Great Britain and France, to claim the annexation of Constantinople and the straits area as one of his country’s primary objectives. But, when he urged Nicholas to promise to grant Poland autonomy and allow it to enter into a free union with Russia after the war, he was dismissed (July 23 [August 5], 1916).

Shortly before the February Revolution (1917) overthrew the imperial government, Sazonov was appointed ambassador to London but was dismissed by Russia’s Provisional Government in May 1917. He then went to Paris, where, after the October Revolution, he acted as foreign minister for the anti-Bolshevik government of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak.