Russia and the West in the Information exchange of the late XVII century

Abstract

A considerable amount of foreign books in the libraries, the study of Western languages by the Russians, and close contacts with foreigners in Russia and abroad in the 1680s – 1720s had insignificant impact on the Russian authors, who preferred to describe the events using traditional literary forms. Even the first historical monographs, although contained Western scientific forms, retained the Russian literary style. The attempts to influence public opinion made by V. V. Golitsyn using the inspired by him, which were distributed in foreign countries and translated as foreign In Russia, had a tactical success, as they did not correspond to the Western ideas on the barbarian Muscovy. Western publications about Russia were affected by the fantastic version of organization of the Moscow Uprising of 1682 by the boyars and Tsarina Sofia, initiated by the regency government and supporters of Chancellor A. S. Matveev, who propagated it abroad with particular success. In the XVIII century, this version was explicated in the essays of the Count A. A. Matveev and his mentor L. I. Poborsky. The comparison of Russian origins and reflections of the version with its Western interpretations, including those translated in Moscow, allowed assessing the uniqueness of foreign outlook on Russia. The synthesis of Russian and foreign interpretations of the fantastic version of conspiracies underlies the representations of many historians on the Streltsy uprising of 1682.