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Updated: June 25, 2025
As has been noted above, Alexander III. and de Giers had tied their hands by the alliance contracted at Skiernewice in 1884; and the Czar had reason to expect that the Austro-German compact would hold good against him if he forced on his solution of the Balkan Question. Probably it was this consideration which led him to trust to underground means for assuring the dependence of Bulgaria.
The first halt is made at Givors, a little manufacturing town set round with vine-clad banks; here the little river Giers flows into the Rhone, one of the numerous tributaries gathered on the way. Just below the town is a graceful suspension-bridge.
M. de Giers; his love of peace; strong impression made by him on me. Weakness and worse of Russia in the Behring Sea matter. Finance Minister De Witte; his strength; his early history. Difference in view between De Witte and his predecessor Wischniegradsky. Pobedonostzeff. Dournovo. My experience with the latter.
The Prince, in fact, had been on a tour throughout Europe, and expressed the same opinion to the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, at Franzensbad. But by this time everything was ready at Philippopolis. A carriage was ready to conduct him towards Sofia. In it sat a gaily dressed peasant girl holding a drawn sword.
The "Russification" which has been going on there for some years is equally absurd, equally wicked, and sure to be equally disastrous. The first Russian statesman with whom I had to do was the minister of foreign affairs, M. de Giers; but he was dying. I saw him twice in retirement at Tzarskoye Selo, and came to respect him much.
Had he known that the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, on hearing of Austria's threat to Bulgaria, informed the Court of Vienna of the Czar's condign displeasure if that threat were carried into effect, perhaps he would have played a grand game, advancing on Belgrade, dethroning the already unpopular King Milan, and offering to the Czar the headship of a united Servo-Bulgarian State.
In May, Katkoff nearly succeeded in persuading the Czar to dismiss de Giers and adopt a warlike policy, in the belief that a strong Cabinet was about to be formed at Paris with Boulanger as the real motive power.
Another version, that of M. Élie de Cyon, is that he acted on instructions from the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who believed that the Czar would relent. On the contrary, he broke loose, and sent the answer given above . It is not surprising that, after receiving the Czar's retort, the Prince seemed gloomy and depressed where all around him were full of joy.
On February 10, 1891, the American Minister, writing to Secretary Blaine, gives a detailed account of the conversation he had had with the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, de Giers.
The accession of Alexander III., after the murder of his father on March 13, 1881, promised for a short time to usher in a more peaceful policy; but, in truth, the last important diplomatic assurance of the reign of Alexander II. was that given by the Minister M. de Giers, to Lord Dufferin, as to Russia's resolve not to occupy Merv.
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