Tři moskevské mise Mikuláše Varkoče 1589–1594 ve světle diplomatického rituálu Ruska
Vladimir Panov Three Missions of Niclas Warkotsch to Moscow in 1589–1594 in the Light of Russian Diplomatic Ritual

Summary/Abstract: Niclas Warkotsch was one of the most important characters in diplomatic relations of the Holy Roman Empire and Russia in the end of 16th century. While the factual side of his three missions to Moscow has been more or less covered by Czech, Austrian and especially Russian historians and primary sources, the aspects of symbolic communications between the two powers still remain unexplored. Warkotsch’s missions are especially helpful in shed light on Russo-Habsburg relationships and on Russian diplomatic ritual and practices that served them. His journeys, first of all, clearly show that by Russian government considered the Rudolph II’s court as one of its key international partners, using those ties as a tool of its international and domestic self-representation. The Russian ambassadorial ceremonial demonstrates precisely that, so that Moscow sometimes even retreated from its strict diplomatic rites. Secondly, it is evident that by the end of the 16th century the Empire mastered Russian diplomatic rituals (especially the elaborate culture of gifts and receptions) for practical use, but nevertheless saw the Russian tsar a somewhat politically and ceremonially inferior figure. And thirdly, Warkotsch’s missions show a hint of changes in an influential Herbersteinian discourse of barbaric and tyrannical Russia. As powerful as it was, this discourse nevertheless failed to prevent the two states of coming closer together on the grounds of common political interests and Christian values.

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