Organization of the Russian Diplomatic Representation in the United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway at the turn of the 19th — 20th Centuries

Abstract

The Scandinavian vector in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire was far from a priority, but at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries, the calm and non-conflicting European North, which it remained for many years, became involved in the political and strategic interests of the great powers, primarily Russia, Germany and Great Britain, and therefore attracted the attention of Russian diplomacy. The aggravation of the Swedish-Norwegian political crisis in the 1890s — 1900s, which ended with the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union and Norway's independence in 1905, caused a lot of concern to the Russian Foreign Ministry, forced it to pay attention to many issues of bilateral relations with Sweden and Norway, which had previously remained in the shadows, to closely monitor not only the development of the conflict between two Scandinavian states, but also the position of other interested great powers. The reports of the Russian envoys in the United Kingdom, who closely watched the course of events, were one of the main sources for the Foreign Ministry. The main objective of this article is to identify the peculiarities of the work of the Russian diplomatic corps in Sweden and Norway at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries. An attempt was also made to determine the range of sources of information of Russian diplomats, the degree of influence of foreign policy tasks on the selection and presentation of information by envoys to the central office, as well as the presence of their personal attitude to the events on the Scandinavian Peninsula in diplomatic correspondence. It was concluded that the specifics of the activities of the Russian imperial mission in the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway was due to the peripheral position of small countries in the region in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire. The work of the mission was influenced by current foreign policy tasks, legal features of the Swedish-Norwegian union, personal preferences and the existing experience of the diplomatic representative of Russia.