In the 16th and 17th centuries, between the reign of Ivan the Terrible and that of Peter the Great, Muscovite Russian forces swept eastward, conquering, colonising, and controlling territories reaching from the Volga to the Pacific.... more
In the 16th and 17th centuries, between the reign of Ivan the Terrible and that of Peter the Great, Muscovite Russian forces swept eastward, conquering, colonising, and controlling territories reaching from the Volga to the Pacific. Unlike contemporary Western European empires, Russians left few theoretical considerations of what this imperial advance signified to them or how they understood their role as imperial conquerors and overlords. They did, however, leave a colourful collection of illustrated chronicles depicting their battles with the many varied peoples of the steppe and Siberia. Filled with blood and carnage, these images employ surprising visual tropes that distinguish moral from immoral and just from unjust uses of violence, with significant implications for understanding early modern Russian policies of imperial incorporation.
The article pertains to the German-language account of the Russian army’s expedition against the Crimean Tatars in the spring of 1689. The author of this narration was a Prussian diplomat and secret councilor Johann Reyer. In 1688–1689 he... more
The article pertains to the German-language account of the Russian army’s expedition against the Crimean Tatars in the spring of 1689. The author of this narration was a Prussian diplomat and secret councilor Johann Reyer. In 1688–1689 he traveled to the Moscow court as a prince-elector’s representative. The source and content analysis of the report from the expedition that he provided, based on the original Russian text, enables an exploration of how military events and warfare were perceived and understood at the end of the 17th century. The analysis has showed that Reyer understood and analyzed the wartime events in the same way as the company of the Russian commander-in-chief Vasily V. Golitsyn, by whose members the original Russian account was written. The data which he provided for the prince-elector’s court had some informative potential, but it lacked any analytical purpose of any kind. Therefore, even if among the military men on the Hohenzollern’s duty at the end of the 17th century there were people capable of rational and systematic analysis as well as critical reflection regarding military issues, informants such as Reyer were not able to provide them with data of sufficient quality. Johann Reyer’s case shows that the phenomenon of rationalization regarding military affairs at the end of the 17th century among the elite of Branderburg-Prussia had not yet begun.
