XI International Conference of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia
10th-14th July 2023
Sophie Holm (German Historical Institute in Moscow), Vladislav Rjéoutski (German Historical Institute in Paris), "Language Choice in Internal Diplomatic Correspondence: Russia versus Sweden (1730s-1740s)"
A DFG funded research project carried out at the German Historical Institute in Moscow focus on the evolution of the language use in Russian eighteenth-century diplomacy in a European context. For Russia, the reign of Peter the Great was of utmost importance in many fields and in the field of diplomacy as well. During these years Russian diplomats started learning foreign languages and using them in their work. In the years after Peter’s death a new phenomenon can be observed: the “internal” correspondence of the Russian diplomats, which traditionally was conducted in Russian, started to change: we come across incursions in French in the correspondence written by Russian diplomats to their fellow-countrymen, sometimes whole letters are written in French while strictly speaking no “professional” need explain this language choice. We will argue that this phenomenon testifies to the progressive assimilation of new forms of polite sociability among Russian diplomats posted in various European countries while these forms and this language choice were still unknown or at least not assimilated within Russia itself. Such language and cultural phenomena can also be observed at the same time in Sweden, and we will compare the language use of Russian and Swedish diplomats in order to detect similarities and differences and better understand the origin, the reasons and the functions of this linguistic and cultural practice in a Northern European context.
