‘The countrey is too colde, the people beastly be’: Elizabethan Representations of Russia

Abstract

England's ‘discovery’ of Russia in 1553 opened up a vast, new empire where the English could vent their wool exports, explore swifter routes to the luxuries of the East and forge their reputation as a seafaring and adventuring commonwealth. The English encounter with this ‘barbaric’ and unknown land on the peripheries of Europe resulted in a wide range of literary representations of Russia, found in diplomatic and mercantile documents, travel narratives, plays and poetry. This article surveys Elizabethan representations of Russia by presenting the historical context for Elizabethan Anglo-Russian relations and providing a review of recent scholarship on the subject. In the scholarship of early modern exploration, travel and trade, the English ‘discovery’ of Russia has often been sidelined by more ‘exotic’ Western European encounters with the new worlds of the Americas and the East, despite its important role in English adventuring activities.