The beginnings of foreign cultural politics in Russia. Part 3. Heinrich von Huyssen's European network in the service of the foreign cultural policy under Peter the Great

Heinrich von Huyssen’s cultural and political work was certainly not limited to promoting Russia’s image and the tsar’s governmental policy through his own writings. He furthermore developed a differentiated and intricate system with the intention of exercising influence over the public opinion of Russia in Western Europe. Heinrich von Huyssen made systematic use of networks of European scholars and provided them not only with finished texts but also detailed information from other authors. It seems likely that his experiences with Neugebauer led to the decision not to identify himself as the author of his works and rather to deliver information and materials to others in such a way that they were then in the position to transmit a convincing and positive image of Russia using authentic documents from the Moscow (and then later Saint Petersburg) chancellery. Thus, he influenced the way in which the reports on Russia were presented in European newspapers and journals, lexica, travel writing, historical works and biographical and autobiographical writing. Particular attention is paid in the paper to the first German-language biography of Peter the Great, which came out in 1710. The tone of the writing evokes justified doubts about the claim that the text might have been written by a German-speaking author. Furthermore, the analysis of the biography demonstrates that the writer has an immense quantity of documents at his disposal which can obviously only come directly from the chancellery of the Russian court.