Russia in the Mirror of Christian Bomhower’s “Schonnen Hysthorie”

Abstract

The article examines the image of Russia and Russians created by a Livonian publicist of the early 16th century. Christian Bomhover in his propaganda pamphlet published in Cologne in 1508. The study is based on the original text in the Middle Low German dialect of German, in which the 1st edition of the work is written; data from other sources, both European and Russian, is also used. It is shown that Bomhover's work contains both stereotypical features of the West's perception of its Eastern neighbour, as well as some new observations due to the geopolitical features of the country's position and the specifics of the historical situation. The Russians, their faith, morals, way of waging war, and political system were depicted only in dark colours, in the most dark, frightening form. It is not possible to speak of any "balanced" presentation of material in Bomhower’s work. What else could one expect from a writer who looks at the enemy like a warrior prepared for war? Bomhower’s work had circulation in the lower Rhine, Westphalia, and the cities of the Hanseatic League. It was used and relied on primarily by preachers who urged the population of these lands to provide assistance to Livonia in its confrontation with Russia. Later it had a noticeable influence on the later Livonian Chronicles and on the work on Muscovy by the Imperial Ambassador Daniel Printz von Buchau, in which one can find both verbatim excerpts from it and a generally negative perception of the Russians. Some of the information about Russia and the Russian people, which is unreliable and clearly biased, was borrowed from Bomhover by Olaus Magnus, who inherited from his predecessor a complete rejection of the Russian world.