Sazonoff
SERGI DIMITRIE- VITCH, a Russian statesman, born in 1861. In 1890 he was appointed second secretary to the Russian Embassy in London, where he obtained his first diplomatic training. Here he remained for two years, then, then, after filling a number of posts in European cities, he returned to London in 1904 as Councillor of the Embassy. It was shortly after that he distinguished himself by his handling of the Dogger Bank incident, when the Russian fleet, bound for the Orient, fired on a number of fishing vessels on the Dogger Bank, in the belief that it had been attacked by a Japanese submarine.
As a result of this triumph, Sazonoff was sent as Minister to the Vatican, in 1906.
Three years later he was recalled to Russia to assist Minister of Foreign Affairs Isvolsky, whom he succeeded in 1910. He was still holding this post in 1914, at the outbreak of the World War, and had a powerful influence in drawing the British and Russian governments close together. In 1916 he was forced to resign, which was the first incident to arouse the suspicion of the Allied world that the Russian Government was not entirely sincere in its desire to defeat Germany in the war. Since the Revolution of 1917, and especially after the coming into power of the Bolsheviki, in November of that year, Sazonoff has been an exile abroad, where he has represented certain anti-Bolshevist elements among the Russians.