France
René Viviani
1863–1925 Prime Minister of France, 1914–1915
Born in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, Viviani became a lawyer and socialist orator and was elected deputy for Paris in 1893. In 1906 he became the first minister of labor, in the Clemenceau cabinet. President Poincaré appointed him prime minister on 13 June 1914, and also held the foreign ministry until 3 August. He was on a trip to Russia with Poincaré when Austria-Hungary issued its ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July. Back in France he ordered troops to pull back 10 kilometers from the frontier, decided on general mobilization on 1 August and on 4 August announced the war to the Chamber of Deputies. His government resigned in October 1915. In 1917 he went with Marshal Joffre on a mission to the United States. He died in 1925.