Britain, Russia and the Road to the First World War The Fateful Embassy of Count Aleksandr Benckendorff 1903–16

Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket. 2011. First Edition. Hardcover. 1409422461 . DJ and boards show very light shelf wear.; A bright, solid book. Dust jacket in Mylar jacket protector. ; (Routledge Studies in First World War History); 9.7 X 6.2 X 1.2 inches; 312 pages; "For much of the later nineteenth-century Britain regarded Russia as its main international rival, particularly as regarded the security of its colonial possessions in India. Yet, by 1907 Russia's political revolution, financial collapse and military defeat by Japan, transformed the situation, resulting in an Anglo-Russian rapprochement. As this book makes clear, whilst international affairs lay at the root of this new relationship, personal factors also played an important role in reversing many years of mutual animosity and suspicion. In particular the study explores the influence of the liberal anglophile Count Aleksandr Benckendorff, the Russian ambassador in London between 1903 and 1916. By 1905, Russia's multiple weaknesses required a prolonged period of external peace by eliminating frictions with the principal rival powers, Britain and Germany, while France and Britain realised that a British rapprochement with Russia would be necessary to counter Germany's power. Benckendorff, as one of the most important figures in the Russian diplomatic service, persuaded Nicholas II and his Foreign Minister, V.N. Lamsdorff, to drop their objections to various long-standing British demands in order to pave the way for a Triple Entente." .