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appeared as another Stratford Canning. Public opinionin Russia, by now very widely conscious of the clashbetween German and Slav (cf. pp. 343, 247-248), wasstill further stirred by the new fear of a virtual Germandomination at Constantinople and the Straits, perhapsto become the equivalent of the British position in Cairo.When in 1913 the Turks called in a German militarymission to remodel their army and placed General Limanvon Sanders at the head of an army corps in Constantinopleitself, well-grounded Russian suspicions led to asharp struggle with Berlin. But the Russians receivedno material satisfaction and gloomily forecast that " alasting disturbance in the relations between Germany andRussia had arisen" (cf. p. 286).The influence of moderate counsels was weakened, andSazonov inclined more and more to the general view ofthe high command that Germany and Austria-Hungarywere bent on taking every advantage of Russia and wouldnot stop at war to gain their ends. In the eyes of Russiathe two countries were one. Her mobilization plans werebased on the eventuality of simultaneous war against both.When in June 1914 the archduke Francis Ferdinand wasmurdered and Austria-Hungary four weeks later declaredwar on Serbia, Russia did not doubt (and she was right)that Germany was standing behind her ally. Sheresponded accordingly with general mobilization. Bythe 6th August she was at war with both the centralpowers, and at her side in arms stood France and theBritish Empire.Russia had France as her ally because of mutual fearof Germany, because of the hope of Alsace-Lorraine,because there was no other such ally. England had agreat navy, but a very small army. France required anally with a great army. For Russia alliance with republicanFrance was rendered less difficult owing to thesubsidence of three issues which had separated the twocountries almost continuously for a hundred and fiftyyears before 1870. The French support of Swedenagainst Russia was in the main an eighteenth-centurymemory, though it had been revived in the Crimean War(see p. 271). French thwarting of Russia in Turkey and427