The Franco-Russian Alliance

JAN 04 1894 · 12:00

France and Russia ratified a secret military convention on 4 January 1894, binding each to mobilise if the other were attacked by Germany or its allies. The rapprochement had been signalled publicly in July 1891, when a French squadron was received at Kronstadt and the Tsar stood bareheaded for the Marseillaise, an anthem his own censors banned at home. For the sovereignty order the alliance mattered because it closed the ring Bismarck had spent nineteen years keeping open: Europe now had two blocs rather than a managed balance, and a bilateral promise made in secret could commit a continent. The print shows Marianne and the Russian bear as allies.