At the Coronation! A Khivan Ambassador Makes It to Moscow (1762)

Abstract

Abstract Based on documentary material collected from the archives in Astrakhan and Moscow, the present article sheds light on a Khivan embassy to Moscow in 1762 for the coronation of Empress Catherine II. Prior to this diplomatic mission, Khivan diplomats had sought with little success to be granted access to the Romanovs’ court. While this mission was little different from those that preceded it, the political circumstances in Russia within which it took place were significantly distinct; and against this political backdrop, the mission seems to have acquired unexpected significance. Indeed, the visit of the Khivan envoy in 1762 was clearly welcomed by Catherine herself who, lacking any legal claim to the Romanov throne – either by heredity or by designation – was eager to attract as many foreign emissaries to her coronation ceremony as possible. Yet the proposals of the Khivan envoy regarding the current state of trade across the Caspian Sea elicited great interest and were embraced by some factions at court. In this article we recount the story of this embassy and present several documents originally written in eighteenth-century Cyrillic handwriting (skoropis’) which surround this specific diplomatic encounter.