In 1894, the Third Republic and tsarist Russia finalized a military alliance. In both countries, politicians and substantial segments of the public participated in elaborate performances of friendship celebrating this diplomatic milestone, which became known as the Dual Alliance. Appearing at a naval base to welcome a visiting French squadron, Tsar Alexander III shocked onlookers by standing at attention as an orchestra struck up "La Marseillaise," that hymn of revolution hitherto banned in Russia. 1 Across France, republican politicians organized lavish feasts at which they toasted the health of the autocrat and his empire. 2 Hundreds of thousands turned out to witness official exchanges, consumers eagerly acquired books, posters, and food products commemorating the alliance, and people from all walks of life wrote songs and poems celebrating the newfound amity between the two countries. One enterprising author even penned a "Franco-Russian Marseillaise," which saluted the autocracy as a steadfast friend of the republic. 3 The diplomatic historians who have long enjoyed a monopoly on the story of the Franco-Russian Alliance do not dwell on these striking attempts to reconcile the political cultures of Europe's first republic and its last autocracy. Their accounts trace how the two powers came to recognize their common interest in preventing German domination of the continent, and they reconstruct the secret exchanges between high-ranking military and diplomatic officials that ultimately produced an agreement. Focusing exclusively on the raisons d'état that motivated the rapprochement and the small circle of men who directed it, these studies suggest that diplomacy was driven by its own logic, protected from
