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The Pragmatic Diplomacy of Paul I: Russia’s Relations with Asia, 1796–1801

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Muriel Atkin
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In recent years, a number of scholars have argued that the traditional negative image of Paul I is in need of substantial revision. Even Boris Nolde’s seminal history of the Russian Empire presents the emperor in an uncomplimentary light, as a man who was greedy for territory but not an astute analyst of the information available to guide his decisions. If no one has yet claimed that Paul was an exceptionally wise and able man, some historians, at least, have shown that he was neither as foolish nor as mad as the partisans of Catherine and Alexander would have him be. Hugh Ragsdale has argued that Paul was far more aware of Russia’s international interests and more assertive in policy making than is usually thought.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 60 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1979

References

1. B., Nolde, La Formation de I'Empire Russe, 2 vols. (Paris, 1952%), 2: 379–82.Google Scholar

2. Hugh, Ragsdale, “Was Paul Bonaparte's Fool?,” Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 7, no. 1 (Spring 1973): 52–67.Google Scholar Other articles in the same issue seek to offer fresh insights into different aspects of Paul's reign.

3. Saul, Norman E., Russia and the Mediterranean, 1797-1807 (Chicago, 1970)Google Scholar; and Stanislavskaia, A. M., Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia i problemy Sredizemnomor'ia 1798-1807 (Moscow, 1962)Google Scholar.

4. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, pp. 36-37, 46, 50-51, 73-74, 142, 144.

5. Stanislavskaia, Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia, pp. 168 and 173.

6. M. A. Atkin, “The Khanates of the Eastern Caucasus and the Origins of the First Russo-Iranian War” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1976), chapter 1.

7. Paul to I. V. Gudovich [commander of the Caucasian Line], January 5, 1797 ( Dubrovin, N. F., Istoriia voiny i vladychestva russkikh na Kavkaze, 6 vols. [St. Petersburg, 1871-88], 3: 199 and 195)Google Scholar.

8. Although there were a number of Georgian principalities in the eastern and western Caucasus, the kingdom of K'art'lo-Kakheti was the one which was called Georgia at that time.

9. Lang, D. M., The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832 (New York, 1957), p. 210–11.Google Scholar

10. Brosset, M. F., Histoire de la Géorgie depuis I'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siécle, 4 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1849), vol. 2, part 2, p. 262 Google Scholar; Lang, Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, pp. 213 ff., 226-29; K. F. Knorring [commander of the Caucasian Line] to Alexander, July 28, 1801 (Akty sobrannye kavkazskoiu arkheograficheskoiu komissieiu, 12 vols. [Tiflis, 1866-1904], 1: 426 [hereafter cited as Akty]); Rezā Qoli Khan Hedāyat, Rouzat os-Safā-ye Nāseri [addition to the chronicle of Mir Khand], 10 vols. (Tehran, 1960 [Shamsi: 1339]), 9: 271.

11. Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 3: 103-4, 118-20, 132-46, 149, 165, 171, 185- 88; Anon., , “O pokhode Rossiiskikh voisk v 1796 godu v Dagestan i Persiiu pod komandoiu Grafa Valeriana Aleksandrova Zubova,” Otechestvennye zapiski (June 1827), part 1, pp. 127–68Google Scholar, part 2, pp. 266-314.

12. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, pp. 52-54; Stanislavskaia, Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia, pp. 80-82.

13. Paul to Knorring, July 10, 1800 (Akty, 1: 106); Paul to P. I. Kovalenskii [Paul's representative to the King of Georgia], April 17, 1799 (ibid., 1: 95).

14. Paul to Kovalenskii, April 16, 1799 (ibid., 1: 94-95); ukas of April 22, 1799 (ibid., 2: 1149).

15. Typical of this approach was the rebuff given the Khan of Qarābāgh in 1783 when he wanted to negotiate a treaty with Russia as his ally, King Erekle of Georgia, had done but was alienated by the Russian insistence that he comply with nonnegotiable demands (Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 2: 30-35).

16. Paul to Ebrāhim Khalil Khān of Qarābāgh, May 2, 1797 ﹛Akty, 2: 1143); Knorring to I. P. Lazarev [commander of the Russian garrison in Georgia], December 15, 1800 (ibid., 1: 630); Lazarev to Kalb ‘AH Khan of Nakhjavān, March 22, 1801 (ibid., 1: 624); see also Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 3: 5.

17. College of Foreign Affairs to Kovalenskii, April 16, 1799 (Akty, 1: 94).

18. Paul to Kovalenskii, January 23, 1801 (ibid., 1: 414).

19. Paul to the khans of Erevan, Qarābāgh, and Ganjeh, August 3, 1800 (ibid., 1: 108-9); Paul to Gudovich, January 5, 1797 (Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 3: 200).

20. Catherine to V. A. Zubov, February 10 and 19, 1796 (Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 3: 72-74, 125-27); manifesto to the Caucasian and Iranian peoples, March 27, 1796 (ibid., p. 192).

21. Knorring to Paul, April 11, 1800 (Akty, 1: 113); Kovalenskii's observations on Georgia, August 1800 (ibid., 1: 678).

22. This was also reflected in the letter by the reference to Paul's interest in “all other Persian rulers,” Paul to Bābā Khan, March 23, 1799 (ibid., 2: 1145); Paul to Kovalenskii, April 16, 1799 (ibid., 1: 96); Paul to Skibinevskii [consul at Anzali, Iran] (ibid., 1: 678).

23. Lazarev to Knorring, August 25, 1800 (ibid., 1: 142); Kovalenskii's observations On Georgia, August 1800 (ibid., 1: 113); Lieutenant Merabov [Paul's messenger to Fath 'Ali Shah] to Kovalenskii, July 1800 (ibid., 2: 1161 and 1168).

24. Paul to Bābā Khān, March 23, 1799 (ibid., 2: 1145).

25. Reference to a letter from Paul to Gudovich, 1797, cited in Knorring to Alexander, March 6, 1802 (ibid., 1: 688); session of the state Council, November 11, 1798 ﹛Arkhiv Gosudarstvennago Soveta, 5 vols. [St. Petersburg, 1869-1904], vol. 2, part 2, col. 726 [hereafter cited as AGS]).

26. Paul to Bābā Khan, March 23, 1799, and Russian government's reply to two notes from Mirzā Sayyed Hasan [Fath ‘Ali Shāh's emissary to Paul], n.d. (Akty, 2: 1145-47); Paul to Kovalenskii, April 16, 1799 (ibid., 1: 96); ukaz of College of Foreign Affairs, July 19, 1799 (ibid., 2: 1149).

27. College of Foreign Affairs to Skibinevskii, July 27, 1800 (ibid., 1: 681).

28. Paul to Kovalenskii, April 17, 1799 (ibid., 1: 96).

29. Paul to Knorring, July 10, 1800 (ibid., 1: 106-7).

30. Session of the state council, April IS, 1801 (AGS, vol. 3, part 2, col. 1911); report to the state council, June 24, 1801 (ibid., cols. 1220-26); meeting of the'secret committee, August 13, 1801 ( Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Nikolai, Graf Pavel Aleksandrovich Stroganov, 3 vols. [St. Petersburg, 1903], 2: 90–93)Google Scholar; see also Dubrovin, Istoriia voiny i vladychestva, 3: 416 and 419.

31. P. D. Tsitsianov [commander-in-chief in the Caucasus] to Alexander, April 27, 1803 (Akty, 2: 290); Tsitsianov to Prince Adam Czartoryski, foreign minister, May 22 and September 26, 1805 (ibid., 2: 706, 1036-37); Chancellor N. P. Rumiantsev to N. F. Rtishchev [commander-in-chief in the Caucasus], April 7, 1812, two letters (ibid., 5: 649- 50).

32. Hāji Ebrahim [chief vizier] to Kovalenskii, n.d. [1800] (ibid., 1: 97); Mirzā Shafi' [chief vizier] to Tsitsianov, May 23, 1804, and Tsitsianov's reply to Mirzā Shafi', May 27, 1804 (ibid., 2: 808-9); see also Domboli, Abd or-Razzāq, Ma'aser Soltāniyeh (Tehran, 1972-73 [Qomri: 1392]), p. 109 Google Scholar; Hedāyat, Ronsat os-Safā-ye Nāseri, 9: 389-90.

33. Lang, Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, pp. 228, 230-32, 235-36, 239-45.

34. Giorgi to Paul, 1799 ( Tsagareli, A. A., Gramoty i drugie istoricheskie dokumenty XVIII stoletiia otnosiashchiesia do Gruzii, 3 vols. [St. Petersburg, 1891-1902], vol. 2, part 2, pp. 288–89Google Scholar; Hedāyat, Rouzat os-Safa-ye Nāseri, 9: 328; Brosset, Histoire de la Gé;orgie, vol. 2, part 2, p. 267.

35. Lang, Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, pp. 242-44; N. N. Beliavskii and Potto, V. A., Utverzhdenie russkogo vladychestva na Kavkase, 12 vols. (Tiflis, 1901-2), 1: 121.Google Scholar

36. Stanislavskaia, Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia, p. 168.

37. Rostopchin to Tsitsianov, April 21, 1804 (“Pis'ma F. V. Rostopchina k Kniaziu P. D. Tsitsianovu [1803-1806],” Deviatnadtsatyi vek, 2 [1872]: 62).

38. Paul to V. P. Orlov [commander of the Cossack expedition], January 12, 1801 (in Shil'der, N. K., Imperator Pavel I [St. Petersburg, 1901], p. 417).Google Scholar

39. Paul to V. P. Orlov, January 12, 1801 (Shil'der, Imperator Pavel I, p. 418); see also “Zapiska grafa F. V. Rostopchina,” Russkii arkhiv, 1878, no. 1, pp. 105-7, 109-10.

40. Shil'der, Imperator Pavel I, p. 418.

41. Captain M. Williams to General John Malcolm [representative of the governorgeneral of India to the Shah], April 13, 1808 (Great Britain, Public Record Office, Foreign Office papers, 248/2, pages unnumbered).

42. 1801 treaty, articles 4 and 5; 1809 treaty, article 3; 1812 treaty, article 1 ( Aitchison, C. U., ed., A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sunnuds Relating to India and Neighboring Countries, 4th ed., 13 vols. [Calcutta, 1909], 12: 40–41, 46, 48-49).Google Scholar

43. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, p. 150.

44. Session of the state council, April 16, 1797 (AGS, vol. 2, cols. 646-47).

45. Shil'der, Imperator Pavel I, pp. 417-19.

46. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, p. 149. For a similar view, see Rawlinson, H., i England and Russia in the East, 2nd ed. (London, 1875).Google Scholar.

47. For a discussion of the “Great Game” in terms of what happened and what each ) side thought was happening, see Firuz, Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864-1914 j (New Haven, 1968).Google Scholar

48. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, p. 149. 1

49. Caulaincourt [French ambassador to Russia] to Napoleon, January 21, 1808 ( Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Nikolai, Les relations diplomatigues de la Russie et de la France d'après les rapports des ambassadeurs d'Alexandre et de Napoléon, 1808-1812, 7 vols. [St. Petersburg, 1905-14], 1: 73).Google Scholar

50. Mémoir de Leibnits a Louis XIV, sur la conquete de I'Egypt, publié, avec une project d'expedition dans I'Inde, par terre concert entre le premier consul et I'empereur Paul Ier au commencement de ce siècle, ed. Monsieur Hoffman (Paris, 1840).

51. Dubois de Jancigny, A. P. and Raymond, X., Inde (Paris, 1845)Google Scholar; P. P., Karatygin, “Proekt Russko-frantsuzskoi ekspeditsii v Indiiu 1800 g.,” Russkada starina, 8 (1873): 401–8.Google Scholar

52. Mémoires posthumes du feld-maréchal Comte de Stedingk, ed. General Count Björnstjerna, 3 vols. (Paris, 1845), 2: 6-8.

53. Ibid., p. 7; Karatygin, “Proekt Russko-frantsuzskoi ekspeditsii,” pp. 401-4.

54. A strong argument against its authenticity, based on the timing of certain key events, was made by Miliutin, General D. A. in Istoriia voiny 1799 goda, 2nd ed., 3 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1857), 2: 537–38 Google Scholar, and 3: 667-69. The attack has been expanded by J. L., Shneidman, “The Proposed Invasion of India by Russia and France in 1801,” Journal of Indian History, 35 (1957): 167–75.Google Scholar However, Shneidman's article suffers from factual errors and the failure to consider certain relevant sources, especially the complete text of Rostopchin's memoir on Paul's foreign policy options.

55. Miliutin, Istoriia voiny, 2: 538, note.

56. Sprengporten's report to St. Petersburg, March 16/28, 1801 (A. Trachevskii, ed., Diplomaticheskiia snosheniia Rossii s Frantsiei v epokhu Napoleona I, 4 vols. [vols. 70, 77, 82, 88 in Sbornik Imperatorskago russkago istoricheskago obshchcstva, 148 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1890-1903)], 70: 94).

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58. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean, pp. 149-50; Stanislavskaia, Russko-angliiskie otnosheniia, pp. 166-67.

59. Shil'der, Imperator Pavel I, pp. 417-18; Karatygin, “Proekt Russko-frantsuzskoi ekspeditsii,” pp. 409-10.

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