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“Peter I's Testament“: A Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Orest Subtelny
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Extract

For over a century scholars have been intrigued by one of history's most famous apocryphal works, the “Political Testament of Peter the Great.“The central theme—a warning of the danger Russia represents to all her neighbors —has always been a relevant topic for discussion. However, a satisfactory explanation of the document's genesis is yet to be given. One thing is clear: the “testament” is a forgery, an attempt to “frame” Peter I. But who is the culprit? The question has aroused the instincts of the detective in many historians and set them on the miscreant's trail.

Suspects were not lacking. Initially, circumstantial evidence pointed to Napoleon as the author or inspirer of the fabrication, since it was in 1812 in France that the first published version of this document appeared. Soon, however, suspicion fell on C. L. Lesur, one of the emperor's propagandists and the author of the work which contained the published text.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 663 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1974

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References

I am grateful to the International Research and Exchanges Board and to the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute for their support during the writing of this article.

1. The most recent of the numerous articles on this subject are Erwin Oberländer, “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte historischer Fälschungen: Das ‘Testament’ Peters des Grossen,” Jahrbüchcr für Geschichte Osteuropas, 21 (1973): 46-60; Blanc, Simon, “Histoire d’une phobie: Le Testament de Pierre le Grand ,” Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, 9 (1968): 265–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewitter, L. R., “The Apocryphal Testament of Peter the Great,” Polish Review, 6 (1961): 27–44 Google Scholar. The last article contains an English translation of the apocryphal testament.

2. Bresslau, Harry, “Das Testament Peter’s des Grossen,” Historische Zeitschrift, 41 (1879): 385–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Sokolnicki, Michel, “Le Testament de Pierre le Grand,” Revue- des sciences politiqucs, 27 (1912): 88–98 Google Scholar. The original is found in Archives du Ministére des Affaires Éitrangères (henceforth AMAE), Mémoires et documents, Russie, vol. 35, fols. 149-54.

4. Gaillardet, Cf. Frédéric, Mémoires du chevalier d’Éon (Paris, 1836)Google Scholar. The most erudite of the many Soviet articles supporting the authorship of d’Éon is Danilova, E. N., “Zaveshchanie Petra Velikogo,” Trudy Istoriko-arkhivnogo instituta, 2 (1946): 203–70.Google Scholar

5. Oberländer, “Wirkungsgeschichte,” p. 48, n. 9.

6. For biographical information concerning János Pápai (d. 1740) and Ferenc Horváth (d. 1723) see Ráday Pál iratai, 1703-1706, 2 vols. (Budapest, 1955), 1: 444, 447.

7. Ibid., p. 446.

8. The summary of Leopold von Talmann’s report may be found in Hurmuzaki, Eudoxiu, Fragmente zur Geschichtc dcr Rumäncn, 5 vols. (Bucharest, 1878-86), 3-5: 23-24Google Scholar. The report was entitled “Due Memoriale presentati li 23 di Marzo et li 23 d’Aprile 1706 dagli Agenti del Conte Ragozzi, Papay ed Horvath, al Supremo Viziro; progiettati pero dall’ Ambassador di Francia col Cavagliere Ruzzini.” See also Solov'ev, S. M., Istoriia Rossii s drcvncishikh vretnen, 15 vols. (Moscow, 1959-66), 8: 167.Google Scholar

9. There is very little biographical information available about this Transylvanian nobleman. For a brief sketch of his activities during the Bender period see Aladár Ballagi, XII Károly és a svédek átvonulása Magyarországon, 1709-1715 (Budapest, 1922), p. 115. The text of Rákóczi's instructions to Talaba may be found in Rdday Pál iratai, 2: 51.

10. Des Alleurs to Louis XIV, Jan. 24, 1711, AMAE, Correspondance politique, vol. 49. In the spring of 1711, Sutton, the British ambassador to the Porte, wrote: “the former [des Alleurs] made use of one Thalaba, a Hungarian, who had been Prince Ragoczy's Agent at the Court of Moscow, to carry on the work in Poland and Muscovy.” Kurat, Akdes Nimet, The Despatches of Sir Robert Sutton, in Royal Historical Society, Camden Third Series, vol. 78 (London, 1953), p. 47 Google Scholar. Also see Tengberg, E. S., Från Poltava till Bender: En Studie i Karl XII: s turkiska Politik, 1709-1713 (Lund, 1953), p. 114 Google Scholar. For a detailed treatment of des Alleurs's contacts with the Hungarians see Köpeczi, Béla, La France et la Hongrie au début du XVIIIe siècle: Étude d’histoire des relations diplomatiques et d’histoire des idées (Budapest, 1971).Google Scholar

11. This document (dated 1710) bears the title “Summa capita sua momenta quae N.N. aulae moscoviticae, per modum consilii de rebus ad portam hac tempestate agendis insinuaverat.” It was published by Bodiansky, A. O. in the Chteniia v Imperatorskom obshchcstvc istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh, no. 1 (Moscow, 1847), p. 56.Google Scholar

12. This summary appears in a letter which Orlyk wrote to his son, Hryhor, in 1732 and in which he described events which had occurred in 1710. A copy of this letter may be found in Orlyk’s diary “Diariusz podróżny … ,” located in AMAE, Mémoires et documents, Pologne, vols. 7-11. For a discussion of this interesting and valuable source see Orest Subtelny, “From the Diary of Pylyp Orlyk,” Ukrains'kyi istoryk, 8 (1971): 95-104. The much briefer Swedish summary appears in Johann von Kochen, Kanslidagbok från Turkict till största delen förd, 1709-1714 (Lund, 1908), p. 45. This source is vol. 4 of the Karolinska Krigares Dagböker, edited by A. Quennerstedt.

13. AMAE, “Diariusz podróżny,” vol. 11, fol. 351.

14. Comte des Alleurs (d. 1748) was appointed French ambassador to the Porte in 1711. He remained at this post until his death.

15. Cf. Kurat, Despatches of Sir Robert Sutton, p. 34; Solov'ev, Istoriia Rossii, 8: 84; and Florovsky, A. V., Ot Poltavy do Pruta (Prague, 1971), p. 94.Google Scholar

16. Florovsky, Ot Poltavy do Pruta, pp. 55-56.

17. Things did not go well for Talaba in France. Shortly after his arrival and interrogation by French officials he became involved in some misdemeanor as a result of which he was rejected from French service and, in September 1712, asked to leave the country. Cf. Fontcs Rcrum Austriacarum, 17: Actenstücke zur Geschichte Franz: Rakoczy, ed. Joseph Fiedler (Vienna, 1858), p. 617. According to Ballagi (XII Károly, p. 115), Talaba then returned to the Ottoman Empire and requested Charles XII's chancellor to obtain a pardon for him from the Viennese court. This proved difficult because the Viennese court bore Talaba a special grudge. At this point we lose sight of this interesting Hungarian émigré.

18. Solov'ev, Istoriia Rossii, 9: 84. In 1707 Peter I informed Mazepa of his plans to conquer Tatar and Ottoman territories as soon as the war with the Swedes was over. See Ukrains'kyi arkhcografichnyi zbirnyk, 3 (Kiev, 1930): 29. Similar references appear in Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki, ed., Documente privitóre la istoria Românilor, suppl. 1 (Bucharest, 1886), p. 365, and in Kurat, Despatches of Sir Robert Sutton, p. 48.

19. For a discussion of this question see Feldman, Józef, Polska a sprawa wschodnia, 1709-1714 (Cracow, 1928)Google Scholar, passim, and the Harvard University dissertation by Orest Subtelny, “The Relations of Pylyp Orlyk with the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Porte, 1710-1742” (1973).

20. A thorough study of Orlyk’s political career is Borys Krupnyts'ky’s Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, 1672-1742, vol. 42 of Pratsi Ukrains'koho naukovoho instituta (Warsaw, 1934).

21. Rumors that Ivan Skoropadsky, the man Peter I appointed to succeed Mazepa, was secretly corresponding with Orlyk were quite widespread in the Ukraine and in Moscow. The Russian authorities, however, did not make an issue of this matter for fear that it might cause the remainder of the Ukrainian Cossack starshyna to join Orlyk on the eve of the war with the Ottomans. Cf. Solov'ev, Istoriia Rossii, 8: 588-89, and Pis'ma i bumagi imperatora Petra Velikago (Moscow, 1962), 11 (1711): 346. Twenty years later (December 21, 1731) Orlyk’s son, Hryhor, informed the French government that in 1711, “Mon Père par une secrète correspondance, engage les Cosaques de l’Ucraine de se déclarer pour luy …,” AMAE, Pologne, vol. 180, fol. 391.

22. Orlyk recounted this incident, and many others which took place in the dramatic months before Mazepa’s final decision, in a long letter to his former patron and mentor, Stefan Iavorsky, which was written from exile in Poland on June 5, 1721. Cf. Osnova (St. Petersburg), 10 (1862): 1-15.

23. Ibid. See also Kentrschynskyj, Bohdan, “Propagandakriget i Ukraina, 1708-1709,” Karolinska Förbundets Arsbok (Stockholm), 48 (1958): 81–125 Google Scholar, passim.

24. Chteniia, p. 56.

25. Sbornik statei i materialov po istorii Iugo-zapadnoi Rossii izdavaemyi Kievskoi kommissici dlia rozbora drevnikh aktov, vol. 2 (Kiev, 1916), p. 60. In this letter Orlyk also argued that Russia could be weakened by exploiting the discontent among her Muslim subjects just as the tsar was doing with the Christian subjects of the Porte.

26. A somewhat romanticized biography of Hryhor Orlyk (1702-59) is available in an English translation from Ukrainian: Borschak, Éilie, Hryhor Orlyk: France’s Cossack General (Toronto, 1956)Google Scholar. The Ukrainian version appeared under the title Velykyi Mazepynets' Hryhor Orlyk (Lviv, 1932).

27. Included with Gustav Zülich’s letter of recommendation was a short summary of Mazepa’s and Orlyk’s reasons for struggling against the tsar. See AMAE, Pologne, vol. 184, fols. 261-63.

28. For this mission Hryhor was given Louis XV’s personal letter of recommendation. AMAE, Turquie, vol. 83, fol. 285.

29. See note 12.

30. For example, see the series of memorials delivered by Hryhor to the French Foreign Ministry in the 1730s. AMAE, Pologne, vol. 180, fol. 292. Borschak first noted the similarities between the writings of Hryhor Orlyk and the later versions of the apocryphal “testament”; however, he did not delve into this matter more deeply. See his Velykyi Mazepynets’ Hryhor Orlyk, and “Zapovit Petra Velykoho,” Ukraine (Paris), no. 3 (1950), p. 179.

31. “Mémoire présenté au Ministre par le Comte d’Orlick … ,” Apr. 5, 1742, AMAE, Mémoires et documents, Pologne, vol. 2, fol. 204.

32. “Mémoire pour M. le de Puysieulx, Ministre et secrétaire d’état des affaires étrangères,” ibid., fol. 221.

33. “Mémoire présenté par le Comte d’Orlick,” ibid., fol. 258.

34. AMAE, Restitutions de correspondance, 1661-1806, fol. 222.

35. See Blanc, “Histoire d’une phobie,” p. 277.

36. According to Lewitter, d’Éon’s library contained an Histoire de Pierre le Grand in which there was a reference to a “favorite plan of Peter the Great.” There were also books which could have served as models for spurious “political testaments,” such as those referring to the “testaments” of Richelieu and Colbert. Lewitter, “The Apocryphal Testament,” p. 38. This author, however, rejects d’Éon as a possible formulator of the “plan.”

37. Blanc, “Histoire d’une phobie,” p. 276.

38. Cf. Rulhière, Claude, Histoire de I’anarchie de Pologne, 4 vols. (Paris, 1807), 1: 106, 162.Google Scholar

39. AMAE, Mémoires et documents, Pologne, vol. 2, fol. 205.

40. Ibid., fol. 351. It is difficult to establish who the readers of these documents were. Notations in the margins of the “Diariusz podróżny” indicate that they corresponded with such French specialists in East European affairs as Breteuil and Le Clerc.

41. Sokolnicki, Michał, Generał Michał Sokolnicki, 1760-1815 (Cracow and Warsaw, 1912).Google Scholar

42. Ibid., p. 221.

43. Ibid., pp. 64, 221.

44. For example, see Lewitter, “The Apocryphal Testament,” p. 48.

45. Sbonik Russkago istoricheskago obshchestva, 108 (1900): 134, 348. At this same time, calendars caricaturing the Russian Empire and its ministers were smuggled into the Ukraine. Kochubinsky assumed, correctly in our opinion, that Orlyk was implicated in their formulation. See Kochubinsky, Alexander, Graf A. I. Osterman i razdel Turtsii: Iz istorii vostochnago voprosa, 1735-1739 (Odessa, 1899), p. xxxvii.Google Scholar

46. Konopczyński, Władysław, Polska a Szwecja (Warsaw, 1924), p. 141.Google Scholar

47. See Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. 6 (Cracow, 1948), pp. 155-56. Hryhor also informed the French of his cooperation with his brother-in-law against the Russians in Poland. For example, see AMAE, Mémoires et documents, Pologne, vol. 2, fol. 206.

48. This copy is at present in Cracow in the Biblioteka Czartoryskich, no. 1977. In 1830, Adam Czartoryski wished to have this copy published and had already obtained permission of the censor when the project was interrupted by the events of 1830-31. Cf. Subtelny, “From the Diary,” p. 95.

49. Sokolnicki, Sokolnicki, pp. 202-3.

50. Ibid., pp. 399, 407. The originals of these memorials are in AMAE, Mémoires et documents, Russie, 1811-12.

51. Ibid., p. x.