15 Facts About Alexander Izvolsky

1.

Alexander Izvolsky graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in St Petersburg with honours, and shortly thereafter married Countess von Toll, whose family had far-reaching connections at court.

2.

Alexander Izvolsky served as Russia's ambassador to the Vatican, followed by posts in Belgrade, Munich, and Tokyo.

3.

In Tokyo, Alexander Izvolsky urged a peaceful accommodation with the rising power of Imperial Japan over Korea and Manchuria.

4.

Alexander Izvolsky assisted Japanese former Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi arrange a trip to St Petersburg in 1902 in an effort to defuse increasing tensions.

5.

The efforts incurred the wrath of Tsar Nicholas II, and Alexander Izvolsky found himself transferred to Copenhagen from 1903.

6.

Alexander Izvolsky served as Russia's Imperial Foreign Minister between April 1906 and November 1910.

7.

Alexander Izvolsky believed that it was Russia's interest to disengage from the conundrum of European politics and to concentrate on internal reforms.

8.

Alexander Izvolsky had to face vigorous opposition from several directions, notably from the public opinion and the hard-liners in the military, who demanded a revanchist war against Japan and a military advance into Afghanistan.

9.

Alexander Izvolsky concluded the Russo-Japanese Agreement of 1907 to improve relations with Japan.

10.

Alexander Izvolsky met with the Austrian Foreign Minister, Baron Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, at the Moravian castle of Buchlov on September 16,1908, and there agreed to support Austria's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in exchange for Austria's assent to the opening of the Straits to Russia; and to support such an opening, at any subsequent diplomatic conference.

11.

Alexander Izvolsky subsequently denied any foreknowledge of Aehrenthal's intentions and tried unsuccessfully to have a meeting called to deal with the status of Bosnia-Herzogovina.

12.

Alexander Izvolsky advocated for Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and wrote a book of memoirs before his last illness.

13.

Alexander Izvolsky's children arranged for a Panikhida to be offered for Isvolsky at the local Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

14.

Alexander Izvolsky married Countess Marguerite von Toll, a Baltic German noblewoman of great charm whose influence at court was impeded by her ignorance of the Russian language.

15.

Alexander Izvolsky was depicted in the 1974 BBC mini-series Fall of Eagles.