Alexander Izvolski

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Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky (Russian Александр Петрович Извольский) (1856 – 1919) was a Russian diplomat. Following stints as Russia's ambassador in Belgrade, Munich, Tokyo (from 1899), and Copenhagen (from 1903), he served as foreign minister of Russia between 1906 and 1910 and then as Russian ambassador to France. He was a major architect of Russia's alliance with Britain during the years leading to the outbreak of the First World War. Having been approached by King Edward VII during the Russo-Japanese War with a proposal of alliance, he made it a primary aim of his policy when he became Foreign Minister, feeling that Russia, weakened by the war with Japan, needed another ally besides France; this resulted in the Convention of 1907. Another primary objective was to realize Russia's long-standing goal of opening the Bosporus and the Dardanelles (known jointly as the "Straits") to Russian warships, giving Russia free passage to the Mediterranean and making it possible to use the Black Sea Fleet in major conflicts; to this end he met with the Austrian Foreign Minister, Baron (later Count) Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, at the Moravian castle of Buchlau on September 15, 1908, and agreed to Austria's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in exchange for Austria's assent to the opening of the Straits. Izvolsky's understanding was that these alterations of the terms of the Treaty of Berlin would have to be confirmed by a conference of the powers that had signed the treaty; he was shocked and felt personally betrayed when Austria announced its annexation of Bosnia on October 6. Rebuffed by France and England in his attempt to gain support for the opening of the Straits, he tried unsuccessfully to have a conference called to deal with Austria's fait accompli; forced by German mediation to acquiesce in the annexation and reviled by Russian pan-Slavists for "betraying" the Serbs (who felt Bosnia should be theirs), he was embittered, and upon becoming ambassador in Paris he devoted his energies to strengthening Russia's bonds with France and England and encouraging Russian rearmament. When World War I broke out, he is reputed to have said happily, "C'est ma guerre!" (This is my war!). After the February Revolution he resigned and remained in Paris, where he died on August 16, 1919.