Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Intrigues at Sofia
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
i9I2] M. RIZOV ENTERS THE ARENA
8/
was circulated in the office, and lobbies of our Foreign
Office. Some of this gossip was merely ridiculous, but
some was of a fairly shameful nature. This gossip had
its origin in Sofia, came from one and the same source,
and aimed at one and the same object—that of getting
rid of a Russian representative who did not approve of
a policy of chance and who possessed some influence
over the greater part of the Bulgarian Government.
One of the vilest calumnies about me came from a most
unexpected source and chiefly through the medium of
the Bulgarian Minister in Rome, M. Rizov, who at the
moment enjoyed the closest friendship with our
Ambassador to the Quirinal, M. Kroupensky. This calumny
for one instant succeeded in upsetting M. Sazonoff. A
year later he begged me "to consign the incident to the
place for all noxious things"; but it had produced a
certain impression prejudicial to me all the same.
M. Rizov is too well known for it to be necessary
to say much about him. A schoolmaster in Macedonia
and a vehement Bulgarian agitator, he was one of the
first Macedonian Bulgarians who thought it useful to
the national cause to side with Stamboulov and to
declare himself openly an enemy of Russia. For about
ten years, between 1885 and x895, Rizov was the
bugbear of our consuls in Macedonia and of our
Embassy in Constantinople, for he incited his
fellow-countrymen to the most bitter and vehement strife
against the partisans of the Universal Patriarchate,
and not only against the Greeks but also against the
Serbians and the Kutzo-Wallachians (Rumanians). In
1896, when a complete change occurred in the relations
of Bulgaria with Russia, Rizov gave up his Catilinarian
existence in Macedonia and entered the Bulgarian
Diplomatic Service. After long years spent in Cetigne
as Bulgarian Diplomatic Agent, Rizov, who in the
meantime had married a young and beautiful Montenegrin,
had managed to insinuate himself into the good graces
of Prince Nicholas and his set, and to cause his former
hostility towards Russia to be forgotten ; he endeavoured
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
