TY - JOUR
T1 - Information and confusion
T2 - Russian resident diplomacy and peter A. tolstoi’s arrival in the ottoman empire (1702-1703)
AU - Hennings, Jan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/9/3
Y1 - 2019/9/3
N2 - This article explores the arrival of the first Russian resident ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in a period when Russian diplomacy underwent major transformations. It focuses on Peter A. Tolstoi’s network and the management of information gathered during the first year of his appointment in Adrianople (1702-03). The article revisits the notion of resident ambassador, not as a hallmark of ‘modern European diplomacy’ with an overemphasis on the diplomat as a state-representative and office-holder, on the states system, or on institutional reform, but to suggest that a resident embassy in the early modern period was more than a formal, self-contained, and sovereign institution located in a particular place. The transformation from ad-hoc to resident diplomacy in Russian-Ottoman relations did not originate from the adoption of European diplomatic norms alone: It created new or relied on the existing trans-imperial networks of the ambassador rather than on bilateral inter-state relations. The example of Russian-Ottoman relations demonstrates that while the new diplomacy introduced by Peter I was driven by Europeanization and reform, the transformations emerged from the adaptation to circumstances in different locations and depended on the development of contacts embedded in the geo-cultural and religious entanglements of the region.
AB - This article explores the arrival of the first Russian resident ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in a period when Russian diplomacy underwent major transformations. It focuses on Peter A. Tolstoi’s network and the management of information gathered during the first year of his appointment in Adrianople (1702-03). The article revisits the notion of resident ambassador, not as a hallmark of ‘modern European diplomacy’ with an overemphasis on the diplomat as a state-representative and office-holder, on the states system, or on institutional reform, but to suggest that a resident embassy in the early modern period was more than a formal, self-contained, and sovereign institution located in a particular place. The transformation from ad-hoc to resident diplomacy in Russian-Ottoman relations did not originate from the adoption of European diplomatic norms alone: It created new or relied on the existing trans-imperial networks of the ambassador rather than on bilateral inter-state relations. The example of Russian-Ottoman relations demonstrates that while the new diplomacy introduced by Peter I was driven by Europeanization and reform, the transformations emerged from the adaptation to circumstances in different locations and depended on the development of contacts embedded in the geo-cultural and religious entanglements of the region.
KW - Peter A. Tolstoi
KW - Resident ambassador
KW - Russian diplomacy
KW - Russian-Ottoman relations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060126172&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07075332.2018.1504225
DO - 10.1080/07075332.2018.1504225
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060126172
SN - 0707-5332
VL - 41
SP - 1003
EP - 1019
JO - International History Review
JF - International History Review
IS - 5
ER -