Foreigners in Muscovy: Western Immigrants in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Russia

Description

Between the late fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the State of Muscovy emerged from being a rather homogenous Russian-speaking and Orthodox medieval principality to becoming a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. Not only the conquest of the neighbouring Tatar Khanates and the colonisation of Siberia demanded the integration of non-Christian populations into the Russian state. The ethnic composition of the capital and other towns also changed due to Muscovite policies of recruiting soldiers, officers, and specialists from various European countries, as well as the accommodation of merchants and the resettlement of war prisoners and civilians from annexed territories. The presence of foreign immigrants was accompanied by controversy and conflicts, which demanded adaptations not only in the Muscovite legal, fiscal, and economic systems but also in the everyday life of both native citizens and immigrants. This book combines two major research fields on international relations in the State of Muscovy: the migration, settlement, and integration of Western Europeans, and Russian and European perceptions of the respective "other". Foreigners in Muscovy will appeal to researchers and students interested in the history and social makeup of Muscovy and in European–Russian relations during the early modern era. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents European Immigration to Muscovy in the Early Modern Era: An Introduction Section 1 Immigration, settlement, and integration 1 From Individual Destinies to an Emergent Community: Latins in Sixteenth-Century Moscow 2 Back in Moscow: Repatriation of Muscovite Emigrants in the Political and Legal Culture of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Russia 3 Foreigners on Moscow’s Housing Market: Legislation, Practices, and Administrative Handling of Foreign Residence Ownership in the Decades before Its Prohibition in 1652 4 Muscovite Ideology and the “Other” in the Town: Articles of the 1649 Law Code and the Impact of Local Initiative Section 2 Interaction, conflict, and cooperation 5 Foreign Mercenaries and the Russian Population, 1631–1634: Conflict and Coexistence 6 The Jesuit Mission and the Local Catholic Community in Smolensk: The First Years after the Treaty of Eternal Peace 1686 7 Perlustration: The Opening of Foreigners’ Mail in Muscovy 8 Foreign Engineers, the Conquest of Azov, and the Building of Taganrog Section 3 Communication and perception 9 A Foreigner in Early Sixteenth-Century Muscovy: Duke Mikhail Glinskii at the Muscovite Court 10 Playing Chess with Boris Godunov and Living in a Guesthouse: Attitudes to Armenian Merchants in Early Modern Muscovy 11 Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Family Networks in Dutch Trade with Russia, 1590–1750 12 Halfway between the Kremlin and the Sloboda: The Catholic Physician Carbonarius and the Social Networks of Foreign Specialists in Muscovy Appendix 1: Maps Appendix 2: Glossary Appendix 3: Acronyms and Abbreviations Notes on the Authors and Editors Index