Triple Entente or Unholy Alliance? PDF
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TRIPLE ENTENTE OR UNHOLY ALLIANCE? TRIPLE ENTENTE OR UNHOLY ALLIANCE? OFFICIAL RUSSIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD BRITAIN AND FRANCE, 1906 TO 1914 By FIONA KATHERINE TOMASZEWSKI, M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © copyright by Fiona Katherine Tomaszewski, June 1992 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1992) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (History) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Triple Entente or Unholy Alliance? Official Russian Attitudes toward Britain and France, 1906 to 1914. AUTHOR: Fiona K. Tomaszewski, B.A. (McGill University) M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor R.H. Johnston NUMBER OF PAGES: viii, 314 ii .... " ABSTRACT Triple Entente or Unholy Alliance? Official Russian Attitudes Toward Britain and France, 1906 to 1914 Fiona Katherine Tomaszewski This dissertation is an examination of official Russian attitudes toward Britain and France from 1906 to 1914, from the inauguration of a constitutional regime in Russia to the outbreak of World War One. In order to illustrate the motivations behind Russian foreign policy making at a critical juncture in the history of Russian autocracy, several groups within the Russian government and bureaucracy are examined, including the Emperor and the Court, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministries of Finance and Trade and Commerce. A wide spectrum of opinions about Russia's Entente partners existed among Russia's rulers. Although ideological apprehensions about partnership with the two western bourgeois constitutional states did bother some officials, (Russian officialdom overwhelmingly accepted this unusual partnership as a matter of necessity. The policy of the Triple Entente -- to preserve the status quo in Europe and to contain Germany -- was accompanied by Stolypin's domestic reform programme, all in an attempt to save the 'ancien regime' in iii Russia. But, as with the domestic reforms, Nicholas II's foreign policy lacked the imagination necessary to halt the precipitous decline of autocratic power in Russia. The severe constraints on Russian power that had resulted from the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution shaped Russia's dependent relationship with Britain and France. As Russia recovered from the twin disasters of 1905, she began to place more demands on Britain and France and to reassert herself in the international arena. As the international situation became more tense, official Russia became more adamantly committed to the Triple Entente. The thesis illustrates and analyzes at close range how the alliance system in Europe immediately prior to World War One became increasingly rigid and how, as a result, it became one of the major factors in the outbreak of general war. ; iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this thesis were made possible by awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. The School of Graduate Studies and the History Department at McMaster University have also been generous in their provision of teaching assistantships and scholarships. Many thanks are due to the unfailingly helpful and courteous staff at Mills Memorial Library, especially the Department of Interlibrary Loans. External Affairs and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada made possible a productive research trip to important archives in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The Moscow Historical Archival Institute proved to be a most helpful host institution and their staff were extremely kind and useful in dealing with the bureaucracy of a decaying empire. Many individuals have contributed to this work. Thanks are due to my supervisor Professor R.H. Johnston, who was a patient reader and attentive critic over the years in which this work was born. Professor Alan Cassels' eagle eye and critical intelligence improved the thesis in countless ways. I would like to thank Dr. Wayne Thorpe for the important role he played in the early stage of my doctoral studies and for his worthwhile criticisms of this thesis. My parents started me on the academic path many years ago when as a small child I v watched my mother write her Master's thesis and my father told my sister and me Anglo-Saxon riddles in an attempt to teach us that elephant jokes really did not qualify as true humour. My small son Marcel Aidan's arrival in the world encouraged me to finish when I might have dawdled and his sunny presence since has kept my spirits up. Finally my greatest thanks go to my husband Mirek who has been a constant source of support, encouragement and good humour. Without him this thesis would never have been written. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 . Chapter One_ 8,1 The Diplomatic Background Chapter Two 28 Ritual and Policy: Seven Official Visits from 1908 to 1914 Chapter Three 68 A Marriage of Convenience: Nicholas II and the Triple Entente Chapter Four 110 The Vanguard of the Entente Policy: Foreign Ministry Attitudes toward Britain and France Chapter Five 181 Reluctant Partners: Russian Officialdom and the Triple Entente Chapter Six 240 The Tsarist Regime and its Image Abroad Conclusion 294 Bibliography 297 vii NOTES AND REFERENCES ABBREVIATIONS AVPR Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rossii (Moscow) BAR Bakmeteff Archive, Columbia University BD British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914 BD/CP British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print DDF Documents Diplomatiques Frangais KA Krasnyi Arkhiv LN Livre Noir OS Old Style Russian Calendar TsGAOR Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Oktiabr'skoi Revoliutsii (Moscow) TsGIA Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv (Saint Petersburg) NOTE: Where two dates are given, this refers to the thirteen-day difference between the Russian and European calendars. Normally only one date is used and this refers to the European calendar. viii INTRODUCTION In August 1914 Tsarist Russia, together with two liberal constitutional states, France and Great Britain, went to war against the German and Austro- Hungarian empires. The Triple Entente was one of the more unusual diplomatic partnerships history has seen. The sUbject of this dissertation is the attitudes of the Russian government and bureaucracy toward France and Great Britain from 1906 to the outbreak of war in 1914. The purpose is to contribute to an understanding of this, in some ways, improbable partnership. Many of the contradictions and tensions in late Imperial Russian society as it approached the abyss of World War One are brought into focus; so also is the complex interplay between foreign and domestic policy. The dissertation helps fill a gap in the study of Imperial Russia by focusing on Nicholas II's embattled government and its attempts to survive, as opposed to the more frequently discussed revolutionary movements and opposition parties.1 The following works are some of the relatively few which deal with Imperial 1 Russia's governing classes: D.C.B. Ueven, Russia's Rulers Under the Old Regime (New Haven, 1989); W.B. Lincoln, In the Vanguard of Reform. Russia's Enlightened Bureaucrats 1825-1861 (Dekalb, 1986); M. Raeff, Understanding Imperial Russia (New York, 1984); A.Sinel, The Classroom and the Chancellery: State Educational Reform in Russia under Count Dmitry Tolstoi (Cambridge Mass., 1973); and A.M. Verner, The Crisis of Russian Autocracy. Nicholas II and the 1905 Revolution (Princeton, 1990). 1
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