Russian Diplomat Research Articles

Home and Away: Why the Asian Periphery Matters in Russian History

Only when USSR crumbled from outside in did most scholars and observers, Russian and Western alike, understand implications of its hierarchical, multinational structure. At that time, Salman Rushdie noted a similar ignorance of bounds of British history, writing in The Satanic Verses, the trouble with English is that their history happened overseas, so they don't know what it means. (1) Replacing overseas with overland or mountain and desert, would give us, I argue, a statement that applied not only to Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his band of reformers but also to many scholars of contemporary Russia, even as millions of post-Soviet migrants from Caucasus and Central Asia to Russian Federation underscore consequences of an entwined system. Writing periphery into metropolitan history has become a critical task for historians across Western world seeking to understand continued power of imperial linkages. (2) Interactions and relations with Central Eurasia have had profound effects on Russia, Russians, and Russianness. This essay serves notice to historians of Russia's core that a too-common neglect of its southern peripheries--beyond occasional mentions of far-flung lands that produced Kerenskii, Stalin, or other interlopers--limits understandings not just of tsarist empire or Soviet Union but also of Russian history proper. Conceptual tools from other (post)-imperial situations provide starting points, but above all what we need is a thorough understanding of myriad events and processes that intertwined mainland Russia's history with that of Central Eurasia. The relationship between Russia and its southern peripheries has fascinated me since my first trip to Moscow in 1992. Expecting to be surrounded by fair-skinned Slavs resembling hockey players and ballerinas--Canadian stereotypes of Soviet citizens--I found myself in an international city, rubbing shoulders with Caucasus and Central peoples, among those from Asia and Africa. Georgian restaurants highlighted our culinary experiences and fruits from Ferghana Valley helped us through immediate post-Soviet chaos, with empty store shelves and European Union food aid sold on streets. At Tret'iakov Gallery we encountered art of Vasilii Vereshchagin, whose canvasses of exotic Central locales earned him global recognition. In St. Petersburg, Hermitage hosts spoils of conquest, from jewels of Central khans to tent of Bukhara's emir. A statue of Russia's most renowned explorer of Central Asia, Nikolai Przheval'skii, in nearby Alexander Garden may, with camel below it, seem incongruous in Venice of North. But neighboring busts display not only famed Russian author Mikhail Lermontov, whose classic novel, A Hero of Our Time, is set in Caucasus, but also Russian diplomat Aleksandr Gorchakov, who as Tsar Alexander II's foreign minister, stated in an 1864 circular to European capitals that the task of civilizing ... her neighbors, on Continent of Asia, has been assigned to Russia as her special mission. (3) Central Eurasia--discussed here as North and South Caucasus as well as Central lands conquered by tsarist forces in 18th-19th centuries and then reconquered by Red Army in Civil War--transformed Russia, both conceptually and materially. The consequences of control over these lands permeated daily life, influencing how Russians thought of themselves, clothes they wore, food they ate, and how they interacted and understood frequent encounters with their Asian neighbors. The USSR's relatively closed borders accentuated Central Eurasia's economic and even demographic importance to Russia. Cities such as Yerevan and Tashkent emerged as hubs for Cold War foreign policy strategies, highlighting multitude of ways that Central Eurasia became implicated in Russia's quest to be seen as a transnational, regional, and global actor. …

The trial of Damaskin of Chilandar on Mount Athos and inter-Orthodox relations in the mid-XVIIth century

The paper analyses the influence of the trial against a leading Serbian spiritual elder on Mount Athos, Damaskin of Chilandar, on the inter-Orthodox relations in the mid-17th century. Greek Athonite elders tried Damaskin for his practicing of the Russian pre-Nicone rite, whose main characteristic was making the sign of the Cross with two fingers. The details of this trial, in which Russian theological books were burnt and the Russian pre-Nicone rite was pronounced a heresy, was reported by a Russian diplomat Arseny Sukhanov in his writing Prenija s grekami o vere. The Athonite trial led to the serious dispute between Sukhanov and the members of the delegation of Paisios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, in Trgoviste, in 1650. The basis of the dispute were the differences between Greek and Russian rites. In the meantime, as the certain pro-Greek changes were introduced regarding the ritual issue in Moscow, at the time of the Patriarch Nicon, 'the case of Damaskin the Serb' became a part of the arguments of the Old Believers opposition. The second part of the paper deals with the position of the Serbian Church regarding the Athonite trial and 'the Russian ritual issue'. The author pays special attention to the attitudes of the leading Serbian hierarchs of the time - Patriarch Gavrilo I (Rajic) and Metropolitan of Kratovo Mihail. These hierarchs admitted the legitimacy of Nicon's ritual reforms, thus indirectly rejecting the standpoint of Damaskin of Chilandar. Damaskin's case announced the changes in the inter-Orthodox relations of the time, particularly in the relations between Muscovite Russia and the Greek East.

Activities of the First Russian Diplomat Karl I. Waeber in Korea During the Establishment of Russo-Korean Relations(1885-1888)

Activities of the First Russian Diplomat Karl I. Waeber in Korea During the Establishment of Russo-Korean Relations(1885-1888)

The life and works of N. Ia. Bichurin, a pioneer of Russian Sinology

Nikolai Iakovlevich Bichurin (archimandrite Iakinf)(Николай Яковлевич Бичурин, архимандритИакинф) was a famous Russian diplomat, traveller, orientalist and sinologist, who established in Russia the classical school of East Asian studies and the tradition of academic research on China. However, his personality has been subject to severe criticism among scholars. For many historians Bichurin was a great scholar of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, while his opponents believe that he was just a bad priest with several vices which cast a shadow on his achievements. Moreover, the available information about certain aspects of his life and activities is fragmentary. The aim of this article is to present the life of Bichurin and his role in founding East Asian studies in Russia, analyse several important episodes in his life and achievements, and reconsider the views held about him in scholarship.

Latein als Medium für das Russisch-französische Wörterbuch von Antioch Kantemir

Abstract The “century of the encyclopaedias and dictionaries” (Siècle de l’Encyclopédie) in France will have induced Antioch Kantemir (in 1738–1744 in Paris as Russian diplomat) to compile the first known “Russian-French dictionary”. As his main sources – Polikarpov (1704) and Weismann (1731) – provided Russian and Latin equivalents (as well as Greek or German vocabulary), but not the French words, a remarkable specific feature of the Kantemir-dictionary becomes apparent: for the French semantization process of Russian headwords often the Latin equivalent was used by means of consultation of Latin-French encyclopaedias or French dictionaries listing also the Latin words (even Lémery’s Latin-French specialised dictionary). Those dictionaries prove a Russian-Latin-French transfer, even though the step from Latin to French is not listed in Kantemir’s dictionary.

“The detail should not fall into dependence on the landscape!” or Brodsky's “On the Talks in Kabul,” Derzhavin, Genre, and Identity

Provoked by two exclamation points, a set of unadventurous rhymes, and a verse form based on relatively long lines and a free dol'nik, my colleague Gerald Smith took it upon himself to investigate the meaning and nature of Brodsky's On the Talks in Kabul. This may confirm the opinion of some in our field that those of us interested in verse structure have taken leave of our senses. However, these doubting Slavists are wrong. Professor Smith has led us to a rich and substantive problem that lies at the heart of Brodsky's poetics. More than this, the ramifications of the investigation reach beyond Brodsky to include the role of the genre as a force of literary reality, and even more broadly, the role of the poet as a moral presence in the world. They raise questions of identity, power, and politics. What is a poet? What is a state? What is a human being? And what is the relation among these entities? Smith concludes his comments with a question that sums up the issues and seems to imply its own answer. He suggests that the persona of the poem is not Brodsky at all, but a diplomatic functionary at some distance from the poet's self: Perhaps the text of the poem is best understood as a scathingly ironic representation of the unsayable thoughts that go through the mind or the unconscious of some dimwitted ex-Soviet Russian diplomat as he prepares to face the talks in Kabul? Perhaps. The meaning of the poem depends on a larger literary context that encompasses both the formal details that drew Professor Smith's attention in the first place, and the work's odd mixture of seriousness, projected Orientalism, and vulgarity. And while Harold Bloom might claim that Brodsky would disguise the context, I would adapt Michael Wachtel's statement about the Symbolists to Brodsky, and argue rather that the omnivorous cosmopolitan Brodsky evinced an anxious desire to be influenced.' In On the Talks in Kabul, Brodsky all but forces us to look back to the works of Gavrila Derzhavin, a poet profoundly concerned with issues of empire, power, and moral position, and a poet who also toyed with the identity of his poetic persona and the formal details of the genre of the ode. Brodsky had established his relation to Derzhavin some years earlier with an elegy entitled Na smert' Zhukova (On the Death of Zhukov), which recasts Derzhavin's Snigir'

Loose Ends in ‘On the Talks in Kabul’

As a latecomer to this Brodsky forum, I have benefit of reading On Talks in Kabul and considering colleagues' statements about poem after fact. This advantage, however, is a proverbial two-edged sword, leaving me occasion to say something but not necessarily confidence that I have something to say. This is especially true in light of events of 11 September 2001: how does one set about discussing topic of a poet's conscious deployment of so-called Orientalist stereotypes now? To begin with, I find myself agreeing in whole or in part with many of contributors' principal conclusions: Gerald Smith's that poem may be best understood as a scathingly ironic representation of unsayable thoughts that go through mind or unconscious of some dimwitted ex-Soviet Russian diplomat as he prepares to face talks in Kabul; Michael Wachtel's that the sole visionary moment [in poem] belongs to eagle from empyrean realm (a stand-in for 'real' Brodsky?), whose insight lies in an unambiguous rejection of everything he sees below; Sarah Pratt's that odd mixture of seriousness, projected Orientalism, and vulgarity in effect forces us to look back to works of Gavrila Derzhavin, a poet profoundly concerned with issues of empire, power, and moral position, and a poet who also toyed with identity of his poetic persona and formal details of genre of ode; Catherine Ciepiela's that the main interpretive challenge Brodsky's poem presents is how to read its ambiguous voicing and that notion of sworn enemy embedded in poem cannot be reduced to either party [East or West] and would seem to be existential in nature; Stephanie Sandler's that poem's bitter rejection of both East and is ... fearful gesture of a poet who worried that body's decline had inevitable consequences for spirit, and for creative psyche; and Katherine O'Connor's that despite its superiority, time appears to be losing out to space and that West emerges as potentially (and fatally) ineffectual in its continuing confrontations with East.

Sovershenno sekretno: Moskva-Berlin, 1920-1933: Voenno-politicheskie otnosheniia mezhdu SSSR i Germaniei, and: Sovershenno sekretno, Alians Moskva-Berlin 1920-1933 gg. (Voenno-politicheskie otnosheniia SSSR-Germaniia) (review)

The special relationship between the Soviet Union and Weimar Germany after the Rapallo Treaty of 1922 was an important feature of European interwar history. In the 1950s, memoirs, eyewitness reports, and German archives began to shed light on the origins of the Rapallo period in Russian-German relations. Recently, the opening of the Russian archives has further enriched our knowledge on the Soviet-German military cooperation. Thanks to Sergei Alekseevich Gorlov, a Russian diplomat 1 and specialist (kandidat istoricheskikh nauk) on Russian/Soviet-German relations, we now have a vivid presentation of the ties between the Red Army and Reichswehr. Gorlov's work also shows the importance of German investments in Russia for the emerging Soviet military-industrial complex, and he gives a detailed description of the political, diplomatic, and military links between the two international "outsiders" in the 1920s-early 1930s. Gorlov presents much new knowledge based on scrupulous research in Russian archives, including political, diplomatic, military, and foreign-trade repositories. He makes good use of published German and other documentaries on foreign policy, and proves familiar with the Western literature in the field.

The Higher Jazz

Edmund Wilson, preeminent American literary critic of first half of twentieth century, often fretted that he was not taken seriously as a creative writer. Though he completed in draft this short novel, now entitled The Higher Jazz, it was never published. In mid-career, in 1939, Wilson planned a novel in three parts that would carry a man through fifteen years as a stockbroker, a Russian diplomat, and a writer. When he started on first section of this book, set in 1920s, it carried him away from his original project. His hero was instead transformed into a German American businessman who, aspiring to become a composer, seeks spirit of America in music that combined contemporary popular and modern classical, in what Wilson called elsewhere the higher jazz. This portrayal of 1920s provides a sense of elusive glories of Boom Era. Neale Reintz has edited The Higher Jazz for general reader. His introduction sets novel in historical context of Wilson's life and writings, and his annotations explain topical references and, more important, illustrate Wilson's method of composition.

The First Russian Diplomat in America: Andrei Dashkov on the New Republic

(1997). The First Russian Diplomat in America: Andrei Dashkov on the New Republic. The Historian: Vol. 60, No. 1, pp. 39-58.

バルカンにおけるロシアの利害

On July 12, immediately after the presidential elections, Boris Yeltsin called for the creation of a“national idea”. He said that various stages in Russian history-monarchy, totalitarianism, perestroika - each had their own ideology, but that the current democratic path of government does not have one. He called for the new ideology to be defined within one year. One may therefore conclude, that by now it has been clear for everybody in Russia including the ruling circles, that, in writer and Nobel Prize Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's words, ' Booty-became the new (and how paltry) Ideology'. Historically, the development of the Russian state ideology in the 19th century was linked to the Eastern Question. The resolution of this question in terms of the partition of the declining Ottoman Empire between the then Great Powers was a matter of great concern to Russians, who believed Russia the legitimate heir of Constantinople and the natural protector of the Slavonic and Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire. Under the Soviet regime, the Balkans lost their former importance. Nor longer religious or ethnic community counted for a lot, while the previous strategic importance of the region had been greatly diminished. In the early 1990s, for many Russians the Balkan crisis became a dangerous scenario which might happen to the Russian Federation and the other former republics of the USSR. Others, however, viewed it as an opportunity for Russia to reassert her traditional influence in the Balkans and to re-establish her status and prestige on the world stage. Both these aspects should be taken into consideration when analysing the motivation of Russian initiatives seeking the resolution of the crisis such as the prevention of Yugoslavia's complete expulsion from the UN in 1992 or the deployment of Russian troops to Sarajevo in February 1994. The Russian policy towards the former Yugoslavia has produced unexpected results. Russia has not been treated by other countries as a scape-goat, as used to be during Balkan troubles in the past. However, the foreign policy has been criticized severely inside the country. It has been discussed by analysts, prominent political figures and writers. Traditionally, Russian writers were very active in public life to the extent, that many of them could be considered as ideologists too. The ideological heritage of the great Russian writers and thinkers of the past has been used intensively in recent polemics concerning a new Russian state ideology. There is no doubt this legacy will be used more actively in the years to come. Especially it applies to the views on the Eastern Question, and the Balkan Slavs in particular, which were expressed by Dostoevsky in his The Diary of a Writer, and Nikolai Danilevsky in his famous book Russia and Europe. There is another Russian thinker whose ideas are very much in vogue in Russia today. His name is Konstantin Leontiev. As Russian diplomat, he served in the Ottoman Empire from 1863 to 1874. Leontiev formulated his political, cultural and social ideas in his Byzantinism and Slavdom (1876) and The East, Russia, and Slavdom (1885-86) .The paper deals with a number of articles on Russia and the Balkans which have been published in Russian periodicals during recent two years. Having carried out a comparative study of Leontiev's views on the place Russia should assume in the Balkans and the opinions of some modern writers, the authors came to the conclusion that, first, for many Russians “the lessons of Leontiev” sill remain untaught and, second, a new state ideology is unlikely to be created in a relatively short time.

Discovery of the Northeast Passage: the voyage of the VEGA, 1878?1879

On the evening of September 2, 1879, a small, black vessel, flying the Swedish flag, anchored in the harbor of Yokohama, Japan. Two men were taken ashore by the small barkass of the vessel, they went straight to the telegraph station, anxious to send a telegram to Europe. clerk told them that, because of floods in Siberia, the telegram would have to be sent via India, and the two men did not have enough cash to pay the high cost of the message. A European standing in the telegraph office then introduced himself as the Russian consul in Yokohama, and the two men in turn introduced themselves: Adolf Erik Nordenskiold was the leader of the Swedish expedition aboard the vessel, Vega, Louis Palander, a Swedish naval officer, was the vessel's skipper. Russian diplomat, delighted to meet these two distinguished travellers, offered to advance the cost of the wire, and the message was sent to Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, in Stockholm: The Swedish expedition sends greetings to their high patron. Program fulfilled. Northeast Passage executed. An ocean opened to navigation without loss of a single man, without illness, and without damage to the vessel. One of the last great sea voyages of all time thus came to a successful conclusion. A small, steam-driven vessel, manned by thirty men, accomplished a feat that Europeans have attempted many times during the previous three centuries, a sea voyage from Europe past the shores of Siberia to Bering Strait and the Pacific. Few people outside Sweden paid much attention to the departure of for its epochal voyage, in July, 1878. Its return from Japan, sailing around much of the Old World through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic was reported by the world's press in detail. Vega's arrival in Stockholm, on April 24, 1880, is still celebrated by a formal lecture and dinner, and by the day called Vega Day in the Swedish calendar. practical results of the voyage at the time were few, occasional sailings from Europe to the Arctic harbors and river mouths of Siberia. But its long-range implications are very much evident to-day, when the Northern Seaway of the Soviet Union, from Europe via Siberia to the Pacific, isa going c ncern. Reading the report on the voyage one is struck by the lack of high adventure, by the comfort the men aboard enjoyed during a long Siberian winter when the ship was frozen in, by the perfectly routine occupations of scientists, officers, and crew pursued during extreme climatic conditions. expedition remains one of the most successful Arctic voyages of all time, and one of the first voyages when scientific concerns had a higher priority than the excitement of being first. credit for this must go to the organizer, Adolf Nordenskiold, who summed it up in this way, some years after his return: am not a hero. I was not interested in reaching the North Pole. I was merely concerned with finding the way to the Orient, getting my men and myself over there and back home. I am only a practical geographer. Adolf Nordenskiold, the man who organized and commanded the remarkable expedition to the Northeast Pa sage, was a native of Finland. When he was born, in 1832, Finland was part of the Russian Empire, though it retained many of the traditions of Swedish rule that ended in 1809. Nordenskiolds, like the majority of the intellectual, commercial and political leaders of Finland came originally from Sweden, and though they had lived in Finland for well over a century, they had retained ties with the country of their forebears. family was distinguished by members who made their name in the arts and sciences: Adolf Nordenskiold's father

Andrew D. Kalmykow. <italic>Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893–1917</italic>. Edited by Alexandra Kalmykow. (Yale Russian and East European Studies, 10.) New Haven: Yale University Press. 1971. Pp. xv, 290. $12.50

Andrew D. Kalmykow. <italic>Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893–1917</italic>. Edited by Alexandra Kalmykow. (Yale Russian and East European Studies, 10.) New Haven: Yale University Press. 1971. Pp. xv, 290. $12.50

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat. Outposts of Empire, 1893-1917, by Andrew D. Kalmykow

<i>Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat. Outposts of Empire</i>, 1893-1917, by Andrew D. Kalmykow

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917.

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917.

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire: 1893-1917. By Andrew D. Kalmykow [Kalmykov]. Edited by Alexandra Kalmykow. Yale Russian and East European Studies, 10. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1971. xv, 290 pp. $12.50.

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire: 1893-1917. By Andrew D. Kalmykow [Kalmykov]. Edited by Alexandra Kalmykow. Yale Russian and East European Studies, 10. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1971. xv, 290 pp. $12.50. - Volume 31 Issue 3

Book Reviews

AbstractBook review in this ArticleTrajan's Column and the Dacian Wars. Lino Rossi.The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy: Studies in Carolingian History. F. L. Ganshof.The Middle Ages: A History of International Relations. Francois L. Ganshof.The Iron Century: Social Change in Europe, 1550–1660. Henry Kamen.Designs in Diplomacy: Pages from European Diplomatic History in the Twentieth Century. Mario Toscano.Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings (1589–1605). W. E. B. Allen.Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893–1917. Andrew D. Kalmykow.The Mortal Napoleon III. Roger L. Williams.Napoleon III and Mexico: American Triumph over Monarchy. Alfred Jackson HannaThe Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society. Marshall Berman.German Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate, 1648–1871. Mack Walker.Imperial Berlin. Gerhard Masur.Tradition and Revolution: German Literature and society, 1830–1890. Eda SagarraSelected Political Writings. Rosa Luxemburg.German‐Polish Relations, 1918–1933. Harald von Riekhoff.Himmler als Ideologe. Josef Ackermann.Fascism and the Industrial Leadership in Italy, 1919–1940: A Study in the Expansion of Private Power under Fascism. Roland Sarti.The East India Company Journals of Captain William Keeling and Master Thomas Bonner, 1615–1617. Michael StrachanCharles II: The Man and the Statesman. Maurice Ashley.A Dissertation on the Poor Laws by a Well‐Wisher to Mankind. Joseph Townshend.The Double‐Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945. J. C. Masterman.Essays in Population History: Mexico and the Caribbean. Sherbourne F. CookCrisis in Costa Rica. The 1948 Revolution. John Patrick Bell.Warlord Politics: Conflict and Coalition in the Modernization of Republican China. Lucian W. Pye.Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States. Carl N. DeglerThe Kama Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673–1873. William E. Unrau.The Distant Magnet: European Emigration to the U.S.A. Philip Taylor.Half Bitter, Half Sweet: An Excursion into Italian‐American History. Alexander DeConde.James Blair of Virginia. Parke Rouse, Jr.The Life of Benjamin Banneker. Silvio A. Bedini.Henry Alline, 1748–1784. J. M. Bumsted.Merchant Prince of Boston: Colonel T. H. Perkins, 1764–1854. Carl SeaburgJames Madison: A Biography. Ralph Ketcham.Joseph Story and the American Constitution: A Study in Political and Legal Thought. James McClellan.North America Divided: The Mexican War, 1846–1849. Seymour V. ConnorStephen Douglas: The Last Years, 1851–1861. Damon Wells.The Image of Lincoln in the South. Michael Davis.Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln. Frederick C. Luebke.Colonel Morgan Jones: Grand Old Man of Texas Railroading. Vernon Gladden Spence.The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896. Richard Jensen.A Voice of Protest. Norwegians in American Politics, 1890–1917. Jon Wefald.The American Ideology of National Science, 1919–1930. Ronald C. Tobey.Einstein: The Life k Times. Ronald W. ClarkTheodore Francis Green: The Washington Years, 1937–1960. Erwin L. LevineVictors' Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial. Richard H. Minear.

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917

Memoirs of a Russian Diplomat: Outposts of the Empire, 1893-1917

Revelations of a Russian Diplomat: The Memoirs of Dimitrii I. Abrikossow

Journal Article Revelations of a Russian Diplomat: The Memoirs of Dimitrii I. Abrikossow Get access Revelations of a Russian Diplomat: The Memoirs of Dimitrii I. Abrikossow. Ed. by George Alexander Lensen. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1964. 329 pp. Index. $6.95. International Affairs, Volume 42, Issue 1, January 1966, Page 137, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/42.1.137 Published: 01 January 1966