An English Resident. Revelations of Russia in 1846. London: Henry Colburn, 1846.  357 pages.

Published by the London-based Henry Colburn, who also printed the memoirs of Thomas Jefferson (1829) and Goethe (1824) as well as other travelers’ accounts from Southern Africa (1812), Italy (1840) and India (1842), Revelations of Russia is the second of two volumes, which delves into six topics on mid-1800s Russia: characteristics of Moscow and the regions surrounding it, Finland, Georgia and the Circassia caucuses north of the Black Sea, and descriptions of the Russian military and navy. Written during a period of Tsarist imperial ambition toward the Ottoman Empire, it is not surprising that a British author would give great consideration to the capabilities of the armed forces and the nature of the perceived aggressor. One sentence within the text, although considerably long, effectively sums up the motivation of the British to know their enemy:

To form an approximate idea of a state so essentially warlike in all its institutions as the Russian empire, it is not only necessary to acquire a correct knowledge of its actual military strength, but we must also investigate the latent elements which may be called into action to increase it; we must consider how far its subjects are adapted for the purely military character with which its government appears so anxious to invest them, and to what extent they are, or may be, fitted for the mission of extensive conquest which its ambition probably destines, and which the apprehension of Europe ascribes, to them (pp.95). 

In terms of "revelations," the author specifically notes the surprising strength of the Russian military. However, his account also extends beyond description of the armed forces and recognizes the staggeringly high population, significantly productive system of agriculture and great details concerning the history, landscape, climate, wildlife, customs and languages of Western Russia.

Although the author of the account is identified only as an "English Resident," two possible candidates exist. The first, Charles Frederick Henningsen was an Enlishman who would have been only 31 years old at the time of publication, but who also published other texts on Russia during the same period such as Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas (1846) and Revelations of Russia or the Emperor Nicholas and his Empire in 1844 (1844). The second possible author, Ivan Golovin, was a Russian exile who became a naturalized Englishman in 1846 and who also pulished multiple books such as History of Alexander the First, Emperor of Russia and Russia Under the Autocrat, Nicholas the First. Ultimately, the true identity of the author is still very difficult to determine.  (LB 2005)