HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 117

working with the labor movement in Great
Britain, France, and Germany. World War I
found him in London, where he engaged in
relief work while speaking out against the war.
The British government confined him to Brixton
Prison as an enemy agent soon after the Bolshe-
vik revolution of October 1917. In January 1918
he was freed in exchange for the British ambas-
sador to Russia, Sir George Buchanan, who had
been jailed by the BOLSHEVIKS . Chicherin
returned to Russia for the first time in 14 years
and joined the Bolshevik Party. He returned to
diplomatic work for the Bolshevik government
and participated in the final stages of the Treaty
of BREST - LITOVSK , signed in March 1918. In May
1918 he was appointed commissar for foreign
affairs, a position he held until 1930. As foreign
minister, Chicherin's greatest achievement was
to end the post-revolutionary isolation of the
Soviet Union with regard to other European
nations. Most impressively, he conducted the
secret negotiations with Germany that led to the
Treaty of Rapallo of April 1922 that reestablished
commercial and diplomatic relations between
the two nations. Never a member of the Bolshe-
vik inner circles, Chicherin did not shape Soviet
foreign policy, but he executed the policies with
skill until his rapidly deteriorating health pre-
vented him from doing so. He resigned in 1930
and lived the final years of his life in Moscow.

Chigorin became an internationally recognized
chess player. In 1886-87 he defeated Wilhelm
Steinitz, recently crowned as the first world chess
champion, in a postal match held in London and
St. Petersburg. This victory earned him the right
to play Steinitz for the world championship in a
match that was held in Havana in 1889. Chigorin
was soundly defeated by Steinitz by a score of 10
to 6, with one draw. Other victories followed for
Chigorin, including a cochampionship in New
York a few months after his loss to Steinitz. Chig-
orin's questioning of the theoretical soundness of
some of Steinitz's opening led to two games
played by telegraph between the two masters,
both of which Chigorin won. Steinitz accepted
another challenge for the world title, and the
rematch was held again in Havana in 1892. This
time Chigorin played Steinitz more closely, but a
colossal blunder in the 24th game allowed
Steinitz to retain his title. Chigorin never chal-
lenged again for the world title, but he remained
one of the leading players of his time, winning
tournaments in Budapest (1896), Moscow (1899
and 1901), Kiev (1903), Vienna (1903), and St.
Petersburg (1905). His influence on the develop-
ment of 20th-century Russian chess was undis-
putable, as he was not only instrumental in
organizing the first All-Russian tournament, but
also in organizing the first correspondence chess
tournaments, as well as the first interscholastic
tournaments. Chigorin died in the Polish town of
Lublin on January 25, 1908, at the age of 58, an
early death hastened by alcoholism. Just a few
months earlier, as if sensing his impending death,
he burned his chess board.

Chigorin (Tchigorin), Mikhail
Ivanovich (1850-1908)
chess master
Widely considered to be the founder of the Rus-
sian school of chess, Chigorin is also recognized
as one of the great pioneers in the theoretical
study of chess openings. He was born in the town
of Gatchina, home to one of the royal palaces
near St. Petersburg, and grew up in an orphan-
age. A relative latecomer to the world of chess,
Chigorin entered his first tournament at the age
of 20, but by 1879 he had established himself as
the leading Russian player, after winning the St.
Petersburg championship. During the 1880s,

Chinese Eastern Railway
A railroad built by Russia between 1896-1903
that connected the Pacific Ocean port of Vladi-
vostok to the TRANS - SIBERIAN RAILROAD by cut-
ting through Chinese territory in MANCHURIA .
Arrangements for the construction of the Chi-
nese Eastern Railway were made by Russia and
China in a secret agreement of 1896 that fol-
lowed the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. The