The beginnings of foreign cultural politics in Russia. Part 1. Foreign cultural policy in the ministry for foreign affairs under Peter I

In western Europe, the beginnings of an active foreign cultural policy are usually connected with the foundation of corresponding departments in the foreign ministries in the early 20th century. It is, however, as the author shows, evident that the beginnings of foreign cultural policy in Russia lie much further back. They were in fact already develpoing during the second decade of the 18th century at the court of Peter I, who was not content just to collect, passively, information about how Russia was portrayed in western European media and to react to it periodically in the form of protest or censorship. Rather, he tried to use his governmental apparatus to exert an active influence on the perception of his country and his governmental initiatives. A typical case of the diplomatic action taken by his new ministry is to found in its reaction to the anonymously published “Lettres Moscovites” by Francesco Locatelli in 1736. The paper analyzes in detail formation of foreign cultural policy on the basis of the Collegium for Foreign Affairs with an emphasis on the mission of German diplomat Heinrich von Huyssen and Russian diplomat and writer Antioch Kantemir in this progress.