The question of the origins of the pan-European conflict continues to be an actual topic in historical science. Generally, we can speak about the continuation of the tradition to find the causes of the First World War in the international situation on the eve of 1914. In this vein, war has become the logical result of the increasingly expanding contradictions between various alliances and military-political blocs. The article analyzes the attempt of M. A. Taube, Doctor of International Law, to understand the causes of the First World War. His point of view on this problem, which was represented in his memoirs, is compared with the reflection of this problem in the memoirs of other statesmen of this period. All the memoirs of the representatives of the former tsarist government were written in emigration, when the problem of finding an answer to the question about the origins of the European conflict, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the downfall of imperial Russia, was particularly arose. The me