Михаил Николаевич Гирс – посланник Российской Империи в Румынии (1902–1912 гг.) [Articol]

Abstract

The article focuses on the most important stage in the diplomatic career of Mikhail Nikolayevich von Giers (1856-1932), one of the highly professional Russian diplomats of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. We are concentrating on his 10-year service at the head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Romania, since 1902 till 1912. The son of the long-time Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire Nikolay Karlovich von Giers (1820-1895), Mikhail N. von Giers from a young age associated himself with the diplomatic department, his career developed in the countries of Latin America and the Far East, the outbreak of the First World War found him as ambassador to Turkey, and the collapse of Empire as ambassador to Italy. However, it was von Giers’ activities in Romania that left really noticeable mark in the history of Russian diplomacy. Based on von Giers’ diplomatic reports from Bucharest, the article examines his view on a wide range of problems of international relations in the Balkans in a broader pan-European context, including ways to resolve the Bosnian crisis of 1908-1909, unraveling the tangle of contradictions in Macedonia, and the intensification of Austro-Hungarian diplomacy in the Balkans (and above all in Bulgaria) in the context of an increasingly weakening Turkish influence in the region and the anticipated complete ousting of Turkey from South-Eastern Europe, the intensification of the Austro-Serbian confrontation and of the geopolitical rivalry between Vienna and St. Petersburg on the eve of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913. An attempt has been made to show in all their diversity von Giers’ contacts with representatives of the Romanian royal house and the political elite. The article analyzes von Giers’ reaction to the revival of Romanian nationalism in its inextricable connection with the situation and the status of Romanians in Austro-Hungarian Thansylvania and also the emergence of the Bessarabian Romanians movement in the Russian Empire. The years of von Giers’ stay in Bucharest coincided with Romania’s slow drift from orientation towards the Central Powers to rapprochement with the Entente, and his undeniable merit was the gradual overcoming by the Romanian elite of distrust of Russia as a partner. The apotheosis of this trend was the meeting of the monarchs of the two countries in Constanţa shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, which was prepared largely due to previous activities of Mikhail N. von Giers.