ABSTRACT
The First World War had made serious corrections in Sigma's plans and attitudes, turning into a champion of Russia's rapprochement with England and the United States to counterbalance the German Empire. 'Sigma' was the pen name of Sergei Nikolaievich Syromiatnikov 1864-1934, a Russian conservative political writer, an Orientalist scholar, a traveler, and an intelligence agent. He graduated from the St. Petersburg University in 1887 with a Master of Law degree and in 1888 began his journalistic career as a contributor to the Nedelia weekly journal. Syromiatnikov justified the need for a Russian-American approchement by referring to Russia's special geopolitical location between America's two enemies Germany and Japan In 1893, Syromiatnikov became a staff member of the Novoye vremia newspaper. Sigma strove to confront not only the American Russophobes but also the champions of the Liberal-Universalist discourse, dreamt of renovating the Russian Empire through a Western-style liberal revolution.
