Curzon, George Nathaniel

Born Jan. 11, 1859, in Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire; died Mar. 20, 1925, in London. British statesman and diplomat. Conservative.

Curzon was one of the most prominent spokesmen for the interests of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy. While serving as viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, he brutally suppressed the national liberation movement. As foreign secretary of Great Britain from 1919 to 1924, Curzon was among the organizers of the intervention against Soviet Russia. In July 1920 he sent a note to the Soviet government, demanding that the Red Army stop its advance at a line recommended by the Supreme Council of the Entente in December 1919 as the eastern boundary of Poland (Curzon Line). At the Lausanne conference of 1922–23, Curzon pushed through a solution of the Black-Sea straits question that was directed against Soviet Russia and that placed these straits virtually under the control of the imperialist powers. In May 1923 he sent the Soviet government a memorandum from the government of Great Britain that was in fact an ultimatum and a provocation and contained the threat of renewed intervention against the USSR. This provocation was vigorously repulsed by the Soviet government.