| Titre | La Russie d'Élisabeth vue par des diplomates prussiens (1) | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan | |
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Revue | Cahiers du monde russe |
| Numéro | volume 39, no 3, juillet-septembre 1998 | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Russie, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles |
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| Page | 253-282 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan, The court of Elisabeth as described by Prussian diplomats (1). In 1746, the Prussian diplomat, Axel von Mardefeld, returned to his country after having spent more than twenty years in Russia. Upon his return, Frederic II asked him to write a "Mémoire" on the key court personalities in Saint Petersburg who would be apt to help his successor and inform him of court procedures. Mardefeld was skillful at sketching portraits of Elisabeth, her favorites, and major ministers; he described with precision the behavior of the other foreign diplomats at a time when Russia had just sided with Maria-Theresa in the Austrian War of Succession whose original cause, the Habsburg inheritance, incited territorial disputes opposing French, English, Austrians, Saxons and Prussians. His keen analysis of the Russian national character was outstanding compared to most of the descriptions of the time. In that same year, when Russia joined Austria to fight France, Mardefeld's text proved to be of the greatest importance to European diplomacy and revealed what was the main task of a representative abroad: political, economic and military espionage; his successor, Finckenstein, understood this quite well and proved to be most zealous in carrying out this task. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_1252-6576_1998_num_39_3_2524 |
