“Two-Faced Janus”: Was Chancellor Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin in the Service of the British?

Abstract

Reviewing the policy pursued by a prominent Russian statesman, head of the foreign policy department during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, Chancellor Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the author assesses his relations with the British ambassadors in the period between 1746 and 1756 somewhat differently compared to other historians. Great Britain, which was actively participating at that time in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), and then, preparing for the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), negotiated the lease of the Russian auxiliary military corps in exchange for the payment of cash subsidies. Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin played an active role in the negotiation process. However, whose interests was he protecting and was his service in a high public office entirely selfless? From the analysis of diplomatic correspondence between British ambassadors and the Secretary of State, the author concludes that Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin supported the British more often than not, as he was in the secret service of the British government. This is confirmed by the actions of the Chancellor, aimed at accelerating negotiations on subsidies in the interests of Great Britain, seeking to reduce their size, supporting the privileges of English merchants to the detriment of Russian interests, as well as supplying ambassadors with secret information about the armed forces of the country. The biography of the Chancellor, containing a number of dubious facts, such as documents forged by his father to prove the English ancestry of his family, an unusual acquaintance with the future King George I of Great Britain and service under him, receiving a permanent pension and expensive gifts from the British, suggests that Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin was recruited by the British while in the service of King George I, and therefore frequently acted in the interests of Great Britain.