ABSTRACT
The significance of Benckendorff's role had nothing to do with the quality of his mind but mostly with the number of his initiatives. Like Nicholas II, his private correspondence highlights the disproportionate input of an average intellect into the foreign policy of an empire. Benckendorff wanted the Russian state to sacrifice all other interests for the sake of an Anglo-Russian alliance. The timing of Benckendorff's death tempts one to slide into clichs and speak of the passing of an epoch in diplomacy or of the demise of the Russian Empire, but it was one among the millions caused by the Spanish influenza. As a result, from 1902 to 1914 Russia did not have an ambassador in Britain so much as a cultural attach while Britain had two ambassadors to Russia, one at St Petersburg and one in London. Benckendorff dreamed of a European Union structure with a different membership: parliamentary constitutional Britain, France and Russia would be the founding members.
