New Materials about the Russian Admiral Matija Zmajević in the State Archives in Zadar

Abstract

During the reign of Peter I, the Republic of Venice and the Russian Empire cooperated in various fields. Primarily, however, they fortified their maritime relations, with subjects of Serenissima playing a major role in the creation of the modern Russian navy, passing on their knowledge and experience. Of these Venetian subjects, those from the eastern Adriatic coast were the most prominent, among whom was Matija Zmajevic (1680–1735), a representative of an influential seafaring family from Perast in the Bay of Kotor. Matija served in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great and his successors, reaching the rank of admiral and laying the foundation for the subsequent establishment of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The article introduces new archival information about his interesting and controversial personality, based on documents from the Karaman family's collection in the State Archives in Zadar. Members of the Karaman family were related to Zmajević, with especially close relations between Matija and his brother Vicko Zmajević with Matej Karaman, who himself lived in Russia for some time and left valuable written testimony about that period. The review of the works on this topic and analysis of materials from the aforementioned collection aims at encouraging historians to conduct further research into the life and works of Admiral Matija Zmajević.