“THE MOSCOW CONFUSION CONTINUES TO THIS DAY” (REVIEW)

Abstract

This article provides a review of Gleb Kazakov’s book “Die Moskauer Strelitzen-Revolte 1682. Diplomatische Spionage, Nachrichtenverkehr und Narrativentransfer zwischen Russland und Europa” [The Streltsy Uprising of 1682: Diplomatic Espionage, Intelligence and Narrative Transfer between Russia and Europe]. In this book, the author employs the example of foreign reaction to the uprising of the Tsarist infantry troops to demonstrate that prePetrine Russia was not the “hermit nation” it is assumed to be in traditional historiography. By the last quarter of the 17th century, the Moscow state had become significant enough in foreign policy terms to tilt the scales. Its domestic crises mattered: the bloody struggle for power in the Kremlin that followed the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich in April 1682 attracted a great amount of attention in early modern Europe’s communication networks and subsequently produced a flood of narratives. Having analysed the letters of foreign representatives at the Moscow court and numerous early modern print media, Kazakov illustrates the ways in which the turmoil of 1682 was interpreted and instrumentalised in both Russian and European diplomacy and journalism. In addition, the book opens up new perspectives on the functioning of the early modern news market, as well as on the interaction between networks of diplomatic correspondence and the seventeenth-century print media. These perspectives should be considered one of its main merits. © 2023 Zoological Institute RAS and the Author(s)