- Project Runeberg -  Diplomatic Reminiscences before and during the World War, 1911-1917 /
440

(1920) [MARC] Author: Anatolij Nekljudov - Tema: Russia, War
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440 EVIL OMENS IN PETROGRAD [chap. xxii.

matter ; but he did not question me either. He
confined himself to a few patriotic commonplaces, and
expressed his submission to the will of the Emperor
who had imposed on him these functions—so new to
him. The shades of the famous Boyar Ordyn-Nastchokin,
Chancellor to the Tsar Alexis Mikhai’lovitch, were once
more evoked, and the interview terminated. This
Ordyn-Nastchokin was quoted to all comers with good reason.
All who wished to please Nicolas II. compared him as
frequently as possible to the "very calm," the "very
gentle " 1 Tsar, the father of the fiery and cruel Peter the
Great; hence naturally he, M. Sturmer, ought to figure
as the reproduction of the pious and enlightened Boyar,
the intimate friend of Alexis. I went out somewhat
disgusted. " It is not worth while to get upset about
it," I said to one of the exalted functionaries of the
Foreign Office whom I met on the stairs and who began
to "slate" his new chief. "That individual will not
remain here more than two months. Mark my words ;
it is now the ist September, by the ist November
he will have left." I was only wrong by a fortnight.
And I learnt meanwhile that my prophecy had been
faithfully repeated to the subject of it.

During my short stay in Petrograd, I had an
opportunity of getting to know the contents of the
minute that M. Sazonoff had presented to the Emperor
on the Polish question. It was a scheme for the new
autonomous Statute of Poland. Wielopolski and his
friends who had read it were not pleased with it.
According to this minute, at the head of the new Poland there
was to be a Governor-General appointed by the Emperor,
and not a "Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom" elected,
or at least recommended to the Imperial choice, by
Polish national representation. This was the principal
point on which the opinion of Poles of Russian persuasion
differed from that of M. Sazonoff; there were also
others. On the whole, the scheme in question gave to

1 " Tishaichi Tsar."

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