The impact of economic factors on Russia's foreign policy on the eve of World War I: the discourse of Russian scholars

The article investigates the scientific discourse on the issue of the impact of economic factors on the foreign policy of the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I. It is shown that this issue is relevant in Russian historiography in recent decades. Historians paid particular attention to the study of the basic form, extent and direction of financial and investment cooperation between Russia and the West. It was noted that the existing complex of historical publications is characterized by a number of peculiarities due to a variety of methodological approaches. In the works written from the standpoint of liberal, materialistic, modernization, civilization and other concepts, scholars examined the economic aspects that led to Russia's accession to the military-political alliance with Britain and France. The paper analyzes the impact of foreign loans, financial capital and direct investment in the foreign policy of our country's first fifteen years of the twentieth century. It was established that historians had analyzed the development of foreign economic relations of Russia with the dynamics of the political, economic and military international relations of the beginning of the century, as well as the internal situation in the country. The article concludes that, firstly, the placement of state and railway loans was mainly in the military and strategic allies of Russia. Liberal scholars positively assess the role of these loans. Representatives of modernization and civilization approaches believe in a very negative impact of the external debt on the fate of Russia. In their view, the growth rate of the external debt outpaced the produced national product. Secondly, scholars proved that the Entente countries accounted for more than 70 % of imported financial and investment capital. Thirdly, it was demonstrated that an important issue was the protection of national businesses from foreign competition, taking into consideration the geopolitical role of the Balkans. Interests of Russian business elite were closely intertwined with foreign policy. An important outcome of the study is a conclusion about the impact of methodological approaches, the source base and other factors on the nature and assessment of the influence of the economic and strategic interests of Russia in the formation of its foreign policy in Russian research. According to local historians today, the imperial modernization, and then World War I, which began in 1914 as a result of a fatal combination of circumstances, were the natural result of the interaction of the entire spectrum of international relations.

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