In the middle of the eighteenth century, despite several efforts to improve its image, Russia was still often represented in Western Europe just as it was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it was thought to be a country of ‘infinite brutality’, a ‘rude and barbarous kingdom’. The image of a country and that of its court was of particular importance in Europe because diplomatic, dynastic, and even economic relations depended on it.

Several actions that could be described today in terms of ‘media’ or ‘propaganda’ helped improve the image of Russia in Europe. Some of them, like Voltaire's famous book on Peter the Great, were only indirectly related to translation; for others, translation was central to the issue. Among the best known is the translation of Catherine II's Instruction to the Legislative Commission, or the famous Nakaz (1767), which was guided by enlightened principles and therefore presented a positive image of the sovereign and her country; or the translation of the Plans and Statutes of the educational establishments instituted by Catherine II, written by Ivan Betskoy, translated by the historian Nicolas-Gabriel Le Clerc, and published with the help of Diderot. Such books, translated into Western European languages and published in Europe, sometimes in Russia too, enjoyed a certain popularity. Though the question of the language arose from time to time in the discussion of these works, it still remained secondary.