Roman Rosen

Roman Romanovich Rosen
Born	February 24, 1847(1847-02-24)
Died	December 31, 1921(1921-12-31) (aged 74)
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Baron Rosen
Occupation	Diplomat

Baron Roman Romanovich Rosen (Russian: Роман Романович Розен) (February 24, 1847 — December 31, 1921) was a diplomat in the service of the Russian Empire.

Biography

Rosen was from a long line of russified Baltic German nobility (with a Swedish title, obtained when Livonia and Pomerania were Swedish territories) that included musicians and military leaders. One of his ancestors, another Baron Rosen, won distinction in command of the Astrakhanskii Cuirassier Regiment at the Battle of Borodino on September 7, 1812 for which he was noted in the official battlefield report to General Barclay de Tolly. A Washington Post article dated July 5, 1905 claimed that, "Baron Rosen is of Swedish ancestry, his forebears having followed Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus in his invasion of Russia and settled there. He was chargé d'affaires at Tokyo and later at Washington, and was acting in a judicial capacity as the mouthpiece of an international tribunal that was regarded as discourteous to Japan. ... As judicial minister, he reformed the judicial system of Siberia." Actually, the family was originally from Bohemia (Habsburg territory) and included one Marshal of France and one Austrian Field-Marshal. Rosen’s mother was a Georgian, Elizabeth Sulkhanishvili.

Rosen was a diplomatic expert for the Balkans, Japan and America. He served as Consul-General in New York since 1884 and as ambassador to Mexico from 1889 to 1893. He then returned to Europe, and was appointed ambassador Serbia, staying in Belgrade until 1897.

During a short term as Russian minister to Tokyo in 1897-98 he concluded the Nishi-Rosen Agreement between Russia and Japan, which attempted to defuse diplomatic tensions over Korea and recognized Russian hegemony over Manchuria. He was then suddenly transferred to the rather symbolic post as Ambassador of Russia to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1898. In 1900 his diplomatic career revived when he changed Munich for Greece, and in 1903 his most important period commenced when he was reinstalled as Minister in Tokyo.

Rosen was in Tokyo at the start of the Russo-Japanese War, which he had made every effort to prevent. When United States President Theodore Roosevelt attempted to mediate the hostilities, Rosen was chosen as new Russian ambassador to the United States and as Sergei Witte's deputy within the Russian peace delegation. Rosen traveled to New Hampshire for negotiations in a cessation of hostilities and a peace treaty. The resulting Treaty of Portsmouth was a diplomatic triumph, which ended the war on very favorable terms for Russia.

Negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) -- from left to right: the Russians at far side of table are Korostovetz, Nabokov, Witte, Rosen, Plancon; and the Japanese at near side of table are Adachi, Ochiai, Komura, Takahira, Sato. The large conference table is today preserved at the Museum Meiji Mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Rosen stayed in the United States until autumn 1911, when he was recalled to St. Petersburg to leave the diplomatic service. He was subsequently appointed by Tsar Nicholas II to the State Council of Imperial Russia. He held this membership in the Russian parliamentary Upper House under the Constitution of 1905 until the overthrow of the monarchy by the February Revolution in 1917.

After the Bolshevik takeover in November 1917 October Revolution and the subsequent persecution of the old political and social elites, Rosen and his family managed to escape from Russia with the help of Western diplomatic friends in the end of the year 1918. From his first exile in Sweden he changed to the United States, where he wrote a series of articles about European diplomacy and politics for The Saturday Evening Post, including "Forty Years of a Diplomat's Life" published in 41 parts in 1919-1921.

References

• Davis, Richard Harding, and Alfred Thayer Mahan. (1905). The Russo-Japanese war; a photographic and descriptive review of the great conflict in the Far East, gathered from the reports, records, cable despatches, photographs, etc., etc., of Collier's war correspondents New York: P. F. Collier & Son. OCLC: 21581015
• Korostovetz, J.J. (1920). Pre-War Diplomacy The Russo-Japanese Problem. London: British Periodicals Limited.

External links

• The Museum Meiji Mura