British Interest in the New Russia

British Interest in the New Russia (1714-1720)

A Comment on F.C. Weber’s The Present State of Russia Vol. 1

Jennifer Donogh

Beginning in 1710, Russian occupation of the Baltic region, replacing Swedish rule, brought a new government. This new government possessed an original background that would accordingly influence the area in different ways. The new government was Peter the Great, or Czar Peter I. He was a Russian, cultured in Western European ways of life, akin to their path of success, and was eager to follow in the footsteps of the British. He did this by providing his empire with the profitable characteristics of the region surrounding the Baltic Sea, thus furthering his partnership with Britain. In response to the changing of powers, Britain sent many ambassadors and ministers to observe and comment on the state of Russia. One such man was a German, Friedrich Christian Weber, who was also a British Foreign Minister. To protect the interests of the British, Weber spent time in Russia from 1714 to 1720 following the work of Czar Peter I. While there he observed city development, improvements in industry, cultural identification, and the spread of Russian hegemony in Northwestern Europe,

F.C. Weber originated in Hanover, Germany and later became a representative of England when George I, also of Hanover, took to the throne in 1714 (Meeting). In the Present State of Russia Volume 1, Weber details the Russian improvements in politics, economics, and social aspects of the Baltic region with admiration. In doing so, he provides evidence that the region was still profitable to Britain, even when under Russian rule.

A century later, Karl Marx, author of Communist Manifesto, discovered documents that insinuated the involvement of Britain with Russia during the time of Peter the Great (Blunden). Among the documents were contracts between Britain and Sweden as well as numerous pamphlets dating back to 1715 (Marx). The pamphlets he had discovered were pro-Russian propaganda that was distributed to the English public. Marx used the British involvement with Russia prior to the Crimean war to argue his position against Britain. However, at the same time there were also pro-Swedish pamphlets made to warn the English people of Peter the Great’s capabilities (Kirby 318). Britain in 1715 was sending a mixed message to its people and its neighbors. It offered its allegiance to Sweden, while at the same time was making plans to work with the supposed enemy, Russia. Aside from Marx’s documents it is evident, in published works such as Weber’s account, that Britain literally had a presence in the new region during the midst of the Northern War.

The City: from Swedish hegemony to Russian rule

Beginning his time in the Russian Empire Weber first arrived in Riga in 1714 finding it a desolate center of trade; tired and distraught from plague, famine, and war while in the hands of a new ruler. He would find many of the Baltic towns in a similar situation as the population of the area took an enormous decrease (Kirby 352). In Riga, Weber saw the effects the plague had on both the infrastructure and the population, but commented on the Czar’s failure to pay notice to the desperate conditions. When news spread that the Czar would come to Riga to view his new territory the people prepared their city for the new ruler, eager to discover what the future had in store for them. The Czar on arrival delivered a speech, as Weber accounted that “[assured] the magistrates of his constant favor, and that it was his intention to let the city enjoy their ancient privileges with out disturbance” (Weber 2). In examining the population’s reactions to these words the British diplomat saw that while the Nobility seemed content to follow Russian rule, the “Burghers and Country people wished to return to their former allegiance” (Weber 2). The nobility of the area were offered more freedoms than those of lower rank, when the land that the Swedish policy for reduction had taken away, was returned by the Russians (Kirby 306). Peter I was using the nobility’s favor to gain firm control over the area in case of continued Swedish threat (Kirby 307).

On the other hand, this also placed the favor of Baltic peasants farther away from their new regime. Traveling between prosperous St. Petersburg and Moskow, or Tweer, Weber was able to see the life of those active in the harvest, commenting on their surrounding environment, housing, and culture (Weber 118). Weber examined the lifestyles of the peasants, creating a juxtaposition of comfort and luxury to that of a life in poverty.

One of the towns he traveled through was Narva. He had been able to venture through it twice in one year, noting that it was still in the same “pitiful state.” The only exception being an increased population from the coming of around seventy families that were able to return from Eastern Russia where they had been held captive (Weber 96). Weber noticed the inhumane treatment of the indigenous people by the Russians, but at the same time was able to defend the Czar by separating him from his barbaric followers. Weber was told that the Czar had a hard time restraining the acts of his people. This was identified when Weber was taken to the actual table where years before, Peter I had thrown down his sword speaking to the people of Narva after a Russian attack, stating that “This is no Swedish, but Russian blood, which I shed to save your and your fellow neighbor’s lives” (Weber 96).

Life was better in parts of what was then Estonia primarily because the soil was better to farm. However, there were few churches and housing was an ever-increasing dilemma due to the effects of the war. Much of this and other barbarities were caused by the Czar who, as Weber noted, was not planning on maintaining control of the lands. Therefore, the Czar saw to it that the Calmucks and Tartars would threaten the Swedish, who then reigned over the territory, by committing atrocities to Estonia and its people (Weber 97). In Weber’s opinion, this was made amends when, in the following years the estates were returned to the nobility and out of Russian control.

In the midst of war began St. Petersburg where with its people, architecture, and commerce, Weber spent most of his time. When visiting in 1716 he noticed the diverse demographics of the city; there was a large population of Swedes, Finalanders, and Livonians in a predominately Russian community (Weber 301). Much of the diversity in St. Petersburg and Riga was due to the destruction of outlying towns and villages, which caused much of the Baltic population to be displaced. Sixty thousand houses were home to the city’s population, which was surrounded by palaces and churches (Weber 4). Commerce in the area was impressive despite the poor conditions of the ports. The presence of numerous large shipyards and access to the Gulf made St. Petersburg destined to take the place of Riga in the Baltic trade (Kirby 365). The Czar was responsible for this accomplishment. It was his goal to have the city be perfect enough for him to live in. To achieve this he ordered the nobility of his dominions to send peasants to help with the construction, regardless of the fate of their own villages (Weber 242). It was his “beloved Petersburg,” which he was willing to trade to Sweden the whole of the Baltic lands but keep Ingria and Petersburg (Kirby 304). While Weber commented that Russia’s Petersburg was a “wonder of the world” he was also skeptical in agreeing with other foreign dignitaries that it would one day reach the status of Venice. The likelihood that foreigners traveling there, “purely out of curiosity,” was not yet plausible to him (Weber 190). There would have to be further improvements in Russian culture and hospitability for that to happen. With the influence of Czar Peter I the villages, towns, and cities of the Russian dominion were on the path to development making them western friendly.

Russia's role in the interests of Britain: shipbuilding supplies and iron

Parallel to the success of the cities was the rise in Russian industry with the gain of Baltic territory. The English, having a history of important partnership with Sweden in Ship Building, needed to maintain the same healthy connection with Russia to ensure that the trade of raw materials was continued. The Baltic Region, under Czar Peter I, continued the tradition of shipbuilding as a source of economic wealth by making it a priority of the new regime. This attitude towards the profitable industry allowed Russia, in 1730, to take over the majority of iron production in trade with the British (Cross 142).

The relations between Russia and Britain were a priority to Peter I and because of this from 1698 to 1708 the volume of trade tripled in only a decade. Consequently, in 1733 Russian exports to Britain was five times what it was in 1697 and in the second half of the eighteenth century Russia held seventy-five percent of British iron exports (Cross 142). Weber confirmed the Czar’s passion toward economic success. The Czar was present at the presentation of many new ships. On one such occasion, “three men of war,” bought in England, were brought to Riga in 1714 and another in Petersburg, to which the Czar appeared to be in a “very good humor” (Weber 14). He triumphantly commented to his fellow Russians that this marked their success in shipbuilding. His speech went on to emphasize his newfound pride over the Russians in the Baltic. Yet, after the speech the Russian carpenters seemed motivated, but went back to their usual drinking (Weber 14). Despite the work ethics of the carpenters, in 1716 the number of Galley being built went from twenty to that of three hundred. The varieties of different size ships were capable of transporting 30,000 men and one thousand pieces of cannon to anywhere during war (Kirby 313).

Peter I’s force in shipbuilding was mirrored in the way in which he expected his people to learn to navigate them. During Friedrich Christian Weber’s time with the Czar, it had been proposed many times to build a Bridge of Pontons to ease the transition to navigation. This was unacceptable to the Czar, as his people were going to learn to navigate no matter what (Weber 9). In keeping with this tradition the Czar issued an order that forbid the use of oars by severe fines and corporal punishment, therefore forcing his people to use sails after the ice thawed on the River Neva (327). Historians confirm this tactic as one of many reforms that Peter the Great made in ignorant haste (Kirby 319).

In 1710 the Czar turned his ambitions on mining. He did this not only to increase iron production in the Baltic region, but also in hopes of discovering further natural resources. He wanted to ensure economic independence for his new empire. Russians had long been capable of discovering and refining gold in the rivers, yet hoped to find it and other precious metals in their mountains. In 1718 a Mining Board was established to regulate and educate the industry (Weber 183). Other industrial improvements came in diplomatic measures to change the route of trade.

Among the improvements considered by the Czar was to increase productivity in Archangel by moving settlements there. At the Czars request to move one of the centers of trade from Wologda to Archangel, representatives came before the court and Weber to plea for the discontinuation of the measure (Weber 102). Their argument was that three German merchants made use of 25,000 people to dress and prepare hemp for trade, making it impossible to move. They also argued that the rivers were more accessible from their current town, Petersburg’s climate was inadequate for the harvesting of hemp, and navigating the Gulf of Finland was dangerous (Weber 102). The development of Archangel, like many of the Czar’s plans may have been detrimental to the region, but it was important in ensuring Russian dominance in the Baltic area.

Another project that generated when Weber left Russia was a new canal to be built near Lake Ladoga and the River Volga. It was to come by way of the River Tweer, the River Emfa, and the River Wolkofa (Kirby 290). Timber for ships, corn, and persin commodities from the Caspian Sea would be brought through Petersburg via this canal. Weber was informed that this was going to be done the following summer, and once water filled them, trade between the Baltic and the Caspian Sea or between Russia and Persia would increase. With this oak would be plentiful for building ships, and the other materials needed for the venture would be produced or wrought in the Czar’s own Dominions, making his fleet a less costly sea power and of great interest to the British (Kirby 290). Russia was securing its position of power in the North and in doing so impressed the British by increasing its opportunity in trade.

The Baltic People: a transition in cultural differences

Weber saw that the power of Russia had yet to culturally affect the indigenous people of the region. The aspects of life in Russia’s Baltic region that Weber commented on were religion, alcohol, language, innovations, and assimilation. Religion was emphasized in Riga in 1714 as a practice that people would be free to commence with as they had been doing so in the past (Weber 4). But at the same time, it was Peter I’s goal to spread Christianity through his dominions. During Weber’s travels he saw the conversion as a slow process. A Prince later explained to him, that when considering how big Russia was, and how inaccessible some regions were it was understandable that many “heathen nations” were yet to be converted. The Czar did have a “zeal for propagating the Christian religion all over his dominions” (173). However, when traveling from St. Petersburg to Moskow Weber’s observations contradicts this. He notes an absence of schools and churches in the rural areas. Peasants were ignorant in regards to religion, reading and writing. However, in support of the Czar, Weber reminds the reader that Peter the Great was already “establishing school and writing masters, for the instruction of the youth in the towns, and [was] resolved to do the like in the villages” (Weber 173).

Discrimination in Russia for practicing a separate religion was scarce, but those that did publicly denounced Christianity, or claimed false miracles were burned at the stake (Weber 82, 235). Many of those oppressed by the Roman practice of Christianity were women. When visiting a Nunnery Weber discovered that women were kept in almost a slave like state where some developed “an aversion to matrimony and [preferred] a convent to it” (136).

Less pure endeavors were the appearance of alcohol and tobacco to lift the spirits of the Baltic and surrounding Russian land. Tobacco and alcohol acted as “comfort and consolation” to the peasants, serving often as an alternative to medicine for those who could not afford it (Kirby 262). However, these temptations themselves had a price. The Czar held the power over trade of tobacco and alcohol (Weber 318). Alcohol and tobacco was not only a popular past time of the peasants. Every party or organization Weber attended accompanied drinking games, rituals, brandy, and Hungarian wine (Weber 7). The Russians were not brutes, as the west saw them, but favored a good time.

In between parties Weber was able to see the differences in languages present in areas that came under Russian control. When in Reval during Harvest-time he heard the reapers singing in unison. A clergyman told him “they were old Heathen songs without rhyme, which they could not be brought to leave off” even though Lutheran hymns had been translated into the Estonian language “by degrees to the rules of poetry” (Weber 100). The same was attempted with the Livonian language, which “entirely [differed] from that of Estonia” (100). It wasn’t until this time that the Baltic people began to abandon their pagan practices and adapt to Christian piety (Kirby 37).

While Christianity developed language, and in turn increased the amount of educated people in the area, science and innovation became a prevalent aspect in the Russian Dominions. An example of which was the transportation of the Globe of Gottorp in 1715, during Weber’s stay. It was “carried over the snow by the help of sleds and large rollers to Riga” where it was then taken to St. Petersburg (Weber 83). The Globe of Gottorp was one of the wonders of Europe; an astronomical observatory that could sit up to twelve people inside it. Built in 1664 it was one of the first planetariums; it was a replica of the Earth on the outside and a planetarium on the inside (Museum). There was difficulty in the Globe’s transportation because it could not be taken apart. The region that it passed through was densely populated with trees, which had to be cut down in order to fit a structure the size of Gottorp. Another scientific observation of Weber’s was in seeing a mummy that was found in Estonia. He was amazed that there were others that were also found in the area (Weber 98). Russia’s ambition to succeed motivated a growth in development, which brought knowledge and new discoveries to the Baltic.

Along with the interests in science was that of innovations made in Russia, accomplished by the Czar Peter I. Weber was impressed with the speed in which innovations in industry were founded. He comments, that “in time the Russians will be able to furnish foreign countries with their own work” in artillery, anchors, and other efforts in iron and housing (183). The Czar also accomplished great strides in the printing press. He had a printing house in St. Petersburg where weekly newspapers in Russian allowed his subjects to hear of international affairs (Weber 183). Along with this, the Czar also took it upon himself to introduce a “neat legible print, in which the bible, and many other useful books, [could be] published” (318). Improvements in commercial productivity and communication would make the empire more convenient to trade with.

One of the most present aspects of the Czar’s diplomacy was in mimicking the French and the British. He introduced entertainment, dress, and health practices that followed after the places he admired most for their success. The Russian high culture was fond of parties where dancing, card playing, smoking, drinking, and entertainment were present. However, unlike the parties of the French, Peter I regulated the gatherings in print by restricting how to conduct one self as a host, invitee, and how the party should be organized in order to ensure the barbarities of the Russians did not come out (Weber 188). When in attendance Weber commented on how similar the dress of the Russians was to that of people in London or Paris. However, the similarities stopped at that. The dress, at a closer look, did not fit properly and the teeth of the Russians were black (Weber 27). The dress of the population was further enforced to be less Russian and more western when the Czar forced his people to stop dressing as they customarily would, in long coats (Weber 119). When a person crossed a border, he or she would have to kneel for the guard who would then cut off the coat at the knees (Weber 119). Czar Peter I created Russia knowing that his power would only be legitimate if the western sovereigns acknowledged it. Weber’s account proves that Russia’s goal was to improve its industry potential and assimilate to the western culture, thus becoming more favorable as a trading partner.

Sufficient Progress: Russia as a model of quick adaptation

Weber in his preface describes to the members of parliament and to other influential contributors to industry and military that the Russians have developed quickly during his visit. In his descriptions he infers that the people of the Baltic became civilized while their industry was robust.

The progress and establishment of civility was a high priority of the Czar’s as Weber described. His account attests to Peter I’s efforts in traveling Western Europe in 1698. He observed the British characteristics that attributed to greatness: its schools, museums, shipyards, industrial centers, and political systems. From this he was able to recruit a number of British scientist to come to Moskow in order to foster a development of science and progress in his soon to be empire (Cross 141, 142). During this time he did not hide his plans for gaining the port access of the Baltic that would allow him to improve trade with the West (Kirby 299). Weber’s travels confirm these influences in describing the way the Czar ran his empire, and thus in what he was hoping to achieve in his endeavors.

As Marx pointed out in his Revelations of 18^th Century Diplomacy, the British heightened their involvement in Russian relations with Peter the Great signing contracts, and deceptively departing from its alliance with Sweden. Weber portrays a representative of the new German influenced throne of England that was interested in Russia’s development and potential partnership in economic and defensive matters.

Works Cited:

Blunden, Andy. "Marxists Internet Archive." Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century by Karl Marx. 13 Feb. 2006 <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/russia/index.htm>.

Cross, A.G., ed. Great Britain and Russia in the Eighteenth Century: Contacts and Comparisons. Newtonville: Oriental Research Partners, 1979.

"Encyclopedia of Baltic History." 15 Sept. 2003. The University of Washington Baltic Studies Program. 09 Feb. 2006 <http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/encyclopedia.html> .

Haney, Barbara. “Western Reflections of Russia 1517-1812.” (PhD diss., University of Washington), 1971.

Kirby, David. Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World 1492-1772. 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 1998.

Marx, Karl. Secret Diplomatic History of the Eighteenth Century and the Story of the Life of Lord Palmerston. New York: International Publishers, 1969.

"Meeting of Frontiers: Friedrich Christian Weber." Global Gateway: World Culture and Resources. 29 Aug. 2005. Library of Congress. 09 Feb. 2006 <http://international.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdiscvry/weber.html> .

"Museum Exhibitions and Collections: M.V. Lomonosov Museum." Kunstkamera. 1998. Kunstkamera. 19 Feb. 2006 <http://www.kunstkamera.ru/english/collection/lom.htm> .