The history of Nicolas II government’s famous initiative to establish control over armaments which led to the first Hague peace conference (May-July, 1899) is elucidated with drawing in new archive materials. The author’s attention is focused at the unprecedented alliance between the Russian diplomacy and the international peace movement that acquired a great scale. A thesis of the fundamental barring of an imminent world war due to its inevitably disastrous character for all participants was elaborated and set forth in the course of campaign in support of the proposals moved by Russia, even though this thesis contradicted positions held by general staffs of various states. Having received the political and propaganda gains but, at the same time having confronted with resistance of the partners in negotiations the Russian government at the conference repudiated its own disarmament project and took orientation to understandings that covered exclusively the humanitarian issues of the «right of war». After the war of Russia against Japan the Russian government and the Czar personally opposed in principle any attempts to limit armaments. The position of the Russian diplomats at the second Hague conference (1907) is the evidence of this change. The author concludes that the lessons of the Hague is important for the present day. The contemporary experience demonstrates that in conditions of globalization policies of excessive armament combined with methods of resolution of conflicts from position of power leads to the impasse of new wars fraught with threats to the humankind as a whole.