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Information and confusion : Russian resident diplomacy and peter A. tolstoi’s arrival in the ottoman empire (1702-1703)
Title / Series / Name
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Pages
Authors
Editors
Keywords
Peter A. Tolstoi
Resident ambassador
Russian diplomacy
Russian-Ottoman relations
Cultural Studies
History
Sociology and Political Science
Resident ambassador
Russian diplomacy
Russian-Ottoman relations
Cultural Studies
History
Sociology and Political Science
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/27567
Abstract
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.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2019-09-03
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.1080/07075332.2018.1504225