The Italian Diplomacy between Russia and the Central Empires during the World Conflict Outbreak
The Italian Diplomacy between Russia and the Central Empires during the World Conflict Outbreak

Summary/Abstract: The paper is devoted to the Italian-Russian diplomacy before the beginning of the First World War. The historiography debate on the entry of Italy in the conflict is more than ever open. The truth, according to historian Giorgio Petracchi, is that in all the range of time from the Agreement of Racconigi (1909) till the explosion of the First World conflict, the balance of the relations between Saint Petersburg and Rome wasn’t in the whole positive. One of the reasons of this is that Italy and Russia still continued to remain “unknown to themselves“ also due to the poor Italian diplomatic presence in the vast Russian territory, just one embassy (rather isolated) in Saint Petersburg and three consular representatives. In addition Italy remained alone in its attempt to sustain that the only way out of impasse was in Russian hands, only one capable to find an agreement between Romanians and Serbs. Thus certain mechanisms were being consolidated which would have their weight in the course of the war. England displayed no interest for the Balkan region if not strictly tied to the favorable evolution of the war; Russia showed itself very careful in “handling” the Adriatic policies of Serbia going inevitably in contrast with the Italian hegemony demands even in the Mediterranean area of interest. Paris also aligned itself to this policy reprimanding Rome for not respecting fully the Treaty of London. All this brought on a progressive political-diplomatic isolation of the Italian government. In syntheses we can sustain that in the diplomatic relations between Italy and Russia, at the eve and in the first years of the war, the Balkan world was in the midst of it with its complexities and its unsolved problems, which will return and explode again seventy years later with the fall of the Berlin wall.

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