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434 EVIL OMENS IN PETROGRAD [chap. xxii.
refused to believe it, but I soon had to yield to evidence.
I was sincerely and deeply affected by the news.
In the course of these reminiscences I have often
mentioned my former colleague and chief. The policy
adopted by us in 1913 on the Bulgarian question could
not meet with my approval and I said as much openly;
I also could not refrain from criticising the lack of
foresight with regard to what was shaping itself in Germany
and Austria, and I was astonished at the imperturbable
calm of M. Sazonoff; but this criticism did not prevent
me seeing him as he really was, that is to say, an
essentially honest man, and a judicious and sometimes
even perspicacious diplomat, when he formed his own
judgments and did not allow himself to be influenced
by his surroundings and his intimate friends, of whom
only one or two at the outside were his equals in
intelligence and character. And to the minds of those who
considered that the World War was inevitable, and
that Russia might come out of it victorious and with
valuable acquisitions—I ivas not among the number—
M. Sazonoff’s policy must have appeared absolutely
impeccable, at least in its broad outlines. He had
counted on the absolute fidelity of our Allies and his
hopes were completely realised ; as soon as he was in
office he had sketched out an agreement in spe with
Italy in the sphere of Eastern questions, and particularly
that of the Adriatic, and Italy ended by abandoning her
former alliances and siding with us; he had openly
demanded Constantinople and the Straits for Russia as
the price of our sacrifice in the World War, and the
Allies had ended by recognising our rights to this
supreme recompense ;1 but first and foremost he enjoyed
the complete and unlimited confidence of our Allies, a
confidence he fully deserved, for from the outbreak of
war he had considered their cause and their interests
just as sacred as those of Russia herself. To sum up :
one might criticise, one might disapprove of, Sazonoff’s
pre-war policy ; but once war had broken out he became
1 And on this question the whole of Russia was then with Sazonoff.
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