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Sergei Dmitryevich Sazonov GCB (Russian: Сергей Дмитриевич Сазонов; 10 August 1860 in Ryazan Governorate 11 December 1927) was a Russian Empire statesman and diplomat who served as Foreign Minister from November 1910 to July 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".
Having graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Sazonov served in the London embassy and the diplomatic mission to the Holy See, 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 followed a policy along the lines laid down by his brother-in-law Stolypin.
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 railway branch from Tehran to Khanaqin, on the Turco-Persian frontier, financed by Russian and German capital; and for Germany to link this branch to the Baghdad Railway. The two powers settled their differences in the Potsdam Agreement, signed on 19 August 1911, Germany giving Russia a free hand in Northern Iran and Russia in turn recognizing Germany's rights on the Baghdad Railway. Sazonov was sick during that time, his office was led by Anatoly Neratov during his absence. However, 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 on request of the Ottomans, 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.
While 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-Hungary 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.
Serbia was largely viewed as being within Russia's sphere of influence and there was significant support from the Russian political classes and the broader population for the Serbian cause. That caused Russia to defend Serbia against Austria-Hungary after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Sazonov warned Austria-Hungary in 1914 that Russia, "would respond militarily to any action against the client state."
As World War I began, 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 Austro-Hungarian dominions in Transylvania, Bukovina, and the Banat. In general, "his calm and courteous manner did much to maintain fruitful Allied relations".
He accepted a request from the professor Tomáš MasarykPRECLÍK, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 pages, vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karviná) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím, (Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague) 2019, , pages 8 – 18 for Russian army soldiers to refrain from firing on Czech refugees in October 1914.
Sazonov was viewed favourably in London, but the Germanophile faction of Tsarina Alexandra fiercely urged his dismissal, which did materialize on 10 July 1916 after the minister had aired a proposal to grant autonomy to Poland.
He was opposed to Bolshevism, advised Anton Denikin on international affairs, (2025). 9780974493442, New Academia Publishing. ISBN 9780974493442 and was foreign minister in the anti-Bolshevik government of Admiral Kolchak. In 1919 he represented the Provisional All-Russian Government, the Allied recognized government of Russia, at the Paris Peace Conference. Sazonov spent his last years in France writing a book of memoirs. He died in Nice in 1927.
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