France
Raymond Poincaré
1860–1934 President of France, 1913–1920
A lawyer from Lorraine, one of the provinces lost in 1871, Poincaré was a precise, stern man who made himself the guardian of the Russian alliance. As prime minister and then president he worked to strengthen the army and the ties to St. Petersburg. In July 1914 he was just leaving Russia, on his way home from his state visit, when the ultimatum was delivered; he learned of it at sea and reached Paris on the 29th. German propaganda later nicknamed him Poincaré-la-guerre, and some modern historians, notably Sean McMeekin, have again seen him as an encourager of Russian firmness; others, like Christopher Clark, stress his caution. After the war he served as prime minister, ordering the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. He died in 1934.