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39°
39° A VISIT TO PETROGRAD [chap. xxi.
intimate. Ferdinand simply avoided seeing Savinsky
and hid from him, just as he had hidden himself from all
the diplomats accredited to his person. My successor
had absolutely no opportunity of pouring his healing
balm on the wounds caused by my " bluntness," for
Ferdinand took them to be cured by the exalted
personages of Austria-Hungary and of Germany. Things
became worse after the outbreak of the World-War.
A prey to mad agitation, torn between ambition, fear,
a thirst for vengeance and his innate irresolution, the
King shut himself up more and more. Savinsky, whose
knowledge of Balkan affairs and psychology was very
superficial but who had never been lacking in
shrewdness and energy, ended by grasping the situation and,
abandoning all hope of acting on Bulgaria through the
person of the Sovereign, wished to outline a policy of
influence over the Bulgarians themselves, over their ruling
classes, even over those Stamboulovists who were the
most averse to Russophile sentiments. Unfortunately,
from the first months of his time in Sofia, my successor
came under the influence of the suspicious individual
that I mentioned in Chapter XIV. of these reminiscences.
This gentleman became the political inspirer of his chief,
and when it was necessary to influence the men in power
and Bulgarian public opinion, he thought out a great
speculation in connection with the purchase of wheat
for the Russian Government, a deal which was to change
the Bulgarian disposition by the bait of the great
benefits accruing to the country at large and to private
individuals. Two men of business, a certain M. Gruber
and a M. Polak (junior) were sent from St. Petersburg to
manage the transaction. The member of the Russian
Legation whom I mentioned above made himself their
intermediary and " political counsellor " ; millions were
involved, they talked of pocketing the whole of Bulgaria;
they ended by buying a few thousand tons of wheat
(which could not be taken away when war broke out),
and they compromised the names of a few politicians,
amongst others that—already thoroughly compromised
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