The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the Big Politics of Catherine II

Smilyanskaya, Elena

doi:10.18254/S207987840031743-6

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The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the “Big Politics” of Catherine II

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The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the “Big Politics” of Catherine II

Annotation

PII

S207987840031743-6-1

DOI

10.18254/S207987840031743-6

Publication type

Article

Status

Published

Authors

Elena Smilyanskaya Send message

Affiliation: Higher School of Economics
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

Edition

Volume 15 Issue 6 (140)

Abstract

The family archive of the Scottish aristocrats Cathcarts, which until recently did not attract serious attention from researchers, contains rich material for a discussion about the “diffusion” of public and private in history (as Yu. L. Bessmertny thought about). Charles 9th Lord Cathcart was British ambassador to the Russian court from 1768 to 1772. The Cathcart’s mission left not only extensive diplomatic correspondence, but private papers too, including diaries and notes of the ambassador’s wife, Lady Jane (1726—1771). The article is based on translations of Lady Jane’s handwritten diaries. Based on these family records, possible trajectories are presented for studying the roles of the ambassador’s family members in the implementation of the tasks of the diplomatic mission in the second half of the 18th century in Russia, including in the field of culture, personal contacts with the Russian Empress, and the transformation of forms of both etiquette and private communication.

Keywords

British Diplomacy, Catherine II, Russo-British relations in the eighteenth century, Anglophilia, the Cathcart family archives

Источник финансирования

The article was prepared based on the results of the project “Russia and Russians in the correspondence and diaries of British diplomats at the court of Catherine II” with the support of the Humanitarian Research Foundation of the Higher School of Economics in 2024.

Received

08.05.2024

Publication date

31.07.2024

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44544

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GOST	Smilyanskaya E. The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the “Big Politics” of Catherine II // ISTORIYA. – 2024. – V. 15. – Issue 6 (140). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840031743-6-1/. DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031743-6
MLA	Smilyanskaya, Elena "The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the “Big Politics” of Catherine II." ISTORIYA. 15.6 (140) (2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031743-6
APA	Smilyanskaya E. (2024). The Lovely Family of the British Ambassador in Saint Petersburg and the “Big Politics” of Catherine II. ISTORIYA. vol. 15, no. 6 (140) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031743-6

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