Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (or Tchitcherin; ; 24 November 1872 – 7 July 1936) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician who served as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from March 1918 to July 1930. Childhood and early career A distant relative of Aleksandr Pushkin, Georgy Chicherin was born into an old noble family. He was born on the estate of his uncle, Boris Chicherin, in Karaul, Tambov. His father, Vasily N. Chicherin, was a diplomat employed by the Foreign Office of the Russian Empire. His uncle was an influential legal philosopher and historian. As a young man, Chicherin became fascinated with history; classical music, especially Richard Wagner; and Friedrich Nietzsche, passions that he would pursue throughout his life. He wrote a book about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and spoke all major European languages and a number of Asian ones. After graduating from St. Petersburg University with a degree in history and languages, Chicherin worked in the archival section of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1897 to 1903. In 1904, Chicherin inherited the estate of his famous uncle in Tambov Governorate and became very wealthy. He immediately used his new fortune to support revolutionary activities in the runup to the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was forced to flee abroad to avoid arrest late in that year. He spent the next 13 years in London, Paris and Berlin, where he joined the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and was active in emigre politics. In Imperial Germany, he underwent medical treatment in attempts to cure his homosexuality. Antiwar activity in Britain With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Chicherin adopted an antiwar position, which brought him closer to Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks. In 1915 he moved to Britain, where he soon developed a friendship with Mary Bridges-Adams, an activist with the Plebs League and founding member of the Central Labour College. Both founded the Russian Political Prisoners and Exiles Relief Committee, an organisation continued a long tradition in British society to support the victims of tsarist repression, but it realigned its focus to build support from organised labour, rather than searching for wealthy patrons. The aim of the committee was to collect money to send to revolutionaries incarcerated in tsarist prisons, but under Chicherin's skilful watch, the aim was extended to cover the broader political aim of