Zur Genese der Mission Nikolaj Petrovič Rumjancevs in Frankfurt am Main. Ein Beitrag zur russischen Deutschlandpolitik in den 1780er Jahren
The Origins of Nikolai P. Rumyantsev’s Mission in Frankfurt am Main. A Contribution to the Question of German Policy of the St. Petersburg Court in the 1780s

Summary/Abstract: In the early 1780s, the St. Petersburg court decided to establish a new Russian dip- lomatic post in Frankfurt am Main; the mission in the German Reich was entrusted to a young diplomat, Nikolai P. Rumyantsev. Attempts to clarify the purpose of establish- ing a new legation have been made since mid-nineteenth century. Prussian historians wanted to see it as an instrument of support for the Berlin court, Austrian authors, on the other hand, the Viennese Burg. According to Russian historiography, on the other hand, the establishment of a diplomatic post in Frankfurt was to manifest the achievement of a significant position in the Reich by the St. Petersburg court. These judgements were pronounced without considering the primary source: the instruc- tions received by the minister. The article is based precisely on that Russian diplomatic correspondence stored at the Foreign Policy Archive of Imperial Russia in Moscow. An analysis of the instructions sent to Rumyantsev proves that Russian plans for ex- pansion in the Holy Roman Empire, to gain supremacy over the “Third Germany” i.e. the lesser and middle states of the Reich, were but political wishful thinking. The Russian domination in the empire, especially over the lesser states of the Reich, was completely unattainable for the empress. The expansion model tried in Courland, Po- land and Sweden did not work in Germany.

• Details
• Contents