The agreement was the oral [1] union negotiations of the Russian tsar Pyotr Alekseevich and the Polish king and elector of Saxony August II , held on August 10-14, 1698 in the Ukrainian town of Rava Russkaya when Peter returned from abroad with the Great Embassy .
Content
Background
The meeting of sovereigns in Rava was prepared by preliminary negotiations between Peter and the representatives of Augustus II: Bose in Amsterdam and General Karlovich in Vienna . During this top-secret meeting, the question of creating a coalition with the aim of winning back the Baltic lands that it had once occupied from Sweden was first discussed. Even the Polish nobles surrounding Augustus were unaware of the content of the conversations. Both sides were extremely interested in a new alliance. For Russia, he opened the prospect of access to the shores of the Baltic , and therefore Europe; August II, on the other hand, hoped, having captured Livonia , to strengthen his position in the Commonwealth.
The Importance of Negotiation
The failure of the negotiations of the Great Embassy on the search for allies in the war with Turkey prompted Peter to radically revise his foreign policy. After the Rav negotiations, the activity of Russian diplomacy sharply changed its direction. However, the matter did not go beyond the verbal agreement during a meeting in Rava. Augustus II was still too fragile on the Polish throne, and Peter understood that he could not start a new war before the end of the war with Turkey.
Negotiations on an alliance against Sweden resumed in Moscow, after being drawn into the Northern Union of Denmark, and ended with the signing of the Preobrazhensky Union Treaty on November 21, 1699 .
Literature
- Molchanov N. N. Diplomacy of Peter the Great. - M .: International Relations , 1990
Notes
- ↑ The Equal Agreement // Soviet Historical Encyclopedia : in 16 vol. / Ed. E. M. Zhukova . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1961-1976.