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GIERS, NICHOLAS KARLOVICH DE (182o-1895)
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See also:GIERS, See also:NICHOLAS KARLOVICH DE (182o-1895) , See also:Russian statesman, was See also:born on the 21St of May 182o. Like his predecessor, See also:Prince See also:Gorchakov, he was educated at the See also:lyceum of Tsarskoye Selo, near St See also:Petersburg, but his career was much less rapid, because he had no influential protectors, and was handicapped by being a See also:Protestant of See also:Teutonic origin. At the See also:age of eighteen he entered the service of the Eastern See also:department of the See also:ministry of See also:foreign affairs, and spent more than twenty years in subordinate posts, chiefly in See also:south-eastern See also:Europe, until he was promoted in 1863 to the See also:post of See also:minister plenipotentiary in See also:Persia. Here he remained for six years, and, after serving as a minister in See also:Switzerland and See also:Sweden, he, was appointed in 1875 director of the Eastern department and assistant minister for foreign affairs under Prince Gorchakov, whose niece he had married. No sooner had he entered on his new duties than his See also:great capacity for arduous See also:work was put to a severe test. Besides events in central See also:Asia, to which he had to devote much See also:attention, the Herzegovinian insurrection had broken out, and he could perceive from See also:secret See also:official papers that the incident .had far-reaching ramifications unknown to the See also:general public. Soon this became apparent to all the See also:world. While the See also:Austrian officials in See also:Dalmatia, with hardly a pretence of concealment, were assisting the insurgents, Russian See also:volunteers were flocking to See also:Servia with the connivance of the Russian and Austrian governments, and General See also:Ignatiev, as See also:ambassador in
' The names are vocalized to suggest the fanciful interpretations " victim " and " See also:protection withheld."
As the See also:account of this has been lost and the narrative is concerned not with the See also:plain of See also:Jezreel but rather with See also:Shechem, it has been inferred that the See also:episode implies the existence of a distinct See also:story wherein See also:Gideon's pursuit is such an See also:act of vengeance.
See also:Constantinople, was urging his See also:government to take See also:advantage of the palpable weakness of See also:Turkey for bringing about a See also:radical See also:solution of the Eastern question. Prince Gorchakov did not want a radical solution involving a great See also:European See also:war, but he was too fond of ephemeral popularity to See also:stem the current of popular excitement. See also: As an official and a See also:man of non-Russian extraction he had to be extremely reticent, but to his intimate See also:friends he condemned severely the See also:ignorance and See also:light-hearted recklessness of those around him. The event justified his sombre previsions, but did not cure the recklessness of the so-called patriots. They wished to defy Europe in See also:order to maintain intact the treaty of See also:San Stefatio, and again M. de Giers found himself in an unpopular minority. He had to remain in the back-ground, but all the See also:influence he possessed was thrown into the See also:scale of See also:peace. His views, energetically supported by See also:Count See also:Shuvalov, finally prevailed, and the European See also:congress assembled at See also:Berlin. He was not See also:present at the congress, and consequently escaped the popular odium for the concessions which See also:Russia had to make to Great See also:Britain and See also:Austria. From that See also:time he was practically minister of foreign affairs, for Prince Gorchakov was no longer capable of continued intellectual exertion, and lived mostly abroad. On the See also:death of Alexander II. in 1881 it was generally expected that M. de Giers would be dismissed as deficient in Russian nationalist feeling, for Alexander III. was credited with strong See also:anti-See also:German Slavophil tendencies. In reality the See also:young See also:tsar had no intention of embarking on See also:wild See also:political adventures, and was fully determined not to let his See also:hand be forced by men less cautious than himself. What he wanted was a minister of foreign affairs who would be at once vigilant and prudent, active and obedient, and who would relieve him from the trouble and worry of routine work while allowing him to See also:control the See also:main lines, and occasionally the details, of the See also:national policy. M. de Giers was exactly what he wanted, and accordingly the tsar not only appointed him minister of foreign affairs on the retirement of Prince Gorchakov in 1882, but retained him to the end of his reign in 1894. In accordance with the See also:desire of his See also:august See also:master, M. de Giers followed systematically a pacific policy. Accepting as a fait accompli the existence of the triple See also:alliance, created by See also:Bismarck for the purpose of resisting any aggressive See also:action on the See also:part of Russia and See also:France, he sought to establish more friendly relations with the cabinets of Berlin, See also:Vienna and See also:Rome. To the advances of the See also:French government he at first turned a See also:deaf See also:ear, but when the rapprochement between the two countries was effected with little or no co-operation on his part, he utilized it for restraining France and promoting Russian interests. He died on the 26th of See also:January 1895. soon after the See also:accession of Nicholas II. (D. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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