Петр I

This article examines one version of national self-identification against the background of the “Other”. In 1758, Horace Walpole published the notes of the English ambassador Charles Whitworth on his stay in Russia from 1704 to 1710 at his publishing house, Strawberry Hill. The publisher included his comments in the “Introduction,” placed immediately before the text. The “Introduction” contains an extensive panegyric on Whitworth as a model representative of English diplomacy. At the same time, very little is said about the content of the text written by Whitworth.

The article examines a collection of anecdotes about Russia during the time of Peter the Great, erroneously attributed to N. P. Villebois, as a source of plots for French literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. The information contained in the so-called “Mémoires de Villebois” was borrowed, adapted or quoted in the works of prominent paricipants in the literary process in France, such as A. Dumas, E. Scribe, F. Soulié, A. Troyat and others. Special attention is paid to the reception among French literary circles in the second half of the 19th century (P. Mérimée, A.

This article deals with the history of Dutch Reformation church in the German suburb near Moscow, where in March 1699, farewell with Lefort took place. This church was rebuilt in stone, with the money of the burgomaster of Amsterdam, Nicholas Witsen. In the honor of the donor, a memorial cas tiron board was hung on the church. The church burnt in 1812, and the community itself moved to the center of Moscow. The author could discover that the board was preserved and it was transferred into the new praying building.

In the article the attempt to trace link between formation and development of the cities of fortresses and management of the southeast suburb of Russia during of the XVIII century is undertaken. Peter the Great reforms touched the field of a state policy and the administrative-territorial structure of Bashkiria. The distribution attempt of the general, unified control system on the territory of Bashkiria was undertaken for the first time during provincial reform in 1708 which is based on the developed urbanistic system.

This article is devoted to one of the most mysterious and notorious sources on history of Peter I’s times. It is so called «Villebois’s memoirs». The author compares «autobiographic» story of the «memoir» with the real biography of the French at the Russian service Nikita Petrovich Villebois (1674–1760) and comes to the conclusion, that Villebois couldn’t write the memoir himself. The «autobiographic» part of «Villebois memoirs» is to be published in Russian for the first time. 

The article deals with the real diplomatic aims of the Great embassy (Velikoe posol’stvo, VP) which were not fully disclosed in the official documents and remained a mystery. We could identify the goals that the «core of the VP» sought to achieve, on the one hand, and the objectives of the pantlers who travelled to the south and the lord steward, B. P. Sheremetev, on the other. It has become evident that the presence of the VP as an observer on the Rijswik Congress was not a random event. We show what was the result of this action for Russia.

The article is devoted to the reflection in historical memory of the introduction of shaving and wearing «German» dresses by Peter I. This measure was aimed at overcoming religious prejudices and instilling a European way of life. It is fixed in the cultural memory of the post-Petrine era as a metaphor for the rebirth of Russia and the image of «Europeanization». Historians, publicists, and writers in their writings combined it with the metaphor «window to Europe» and constructed the image of Peter I, who cuts beards with an axe.

The manuscript “Description of the city of Moscow” from the Voltaire Library has been subjected to special study for the first time. In this essay, the ancient Russian capital is presented as a vast and crowded city, the distinctive feature of which is the abundance of churches and monasteries. The description of the city is conducted according to the historically formed parts: the Kremlin, Kitay-gorod, White City, Earthen City. The description is based on the “Plan of the Imperial city of Moscow” by I. Michurin (1739).

The report is devoted to the plans of Peter I to subdue the Khanate of Khiva, the preparation of the campaign of Captain Alexander Cherkassky to Khiva in 1717, and the clarification of the circumstances of the failure that befell this large-scale enterprise. New documents from the RGADA and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire of the Russian Foreign Ministry are used.