Friedrich Christian Weber ( Friedrich Christian Weber ; d. 1739 ) - Hanover resident at the Russian court in the reign of Peter the Great , the author of notes on the state of Russia, covering the years 1714-1719.
Frederick Christian Weber | |
---|---|
Date of Birth | |
Date of death | |
A country | |
Occupation | , |
After the Elector Georg of Hanover became the English king, Weber represented the interests of both Hanover and the English court in St. Petersburg . He arrived in Petersburg in 1714 and stayed there until 1717, when he went to Hannover to receive instructions. Returning to Petersburg in the same year, he stayed in Russia for another two years and finally left abroad in October 1719.
Reported in all the essays in which weber is spoken of, the news that he spent several more years in Russia after the death of Peter is not supported by any data. The importance of Weber’s embassy in diplomatic terms is very small, but his contemporaries' attention was drawn to his notes about Russia, published under the title “Transformed Russia” ( Das Veränderte Russland ) in 3 volumes, in 1721, 1739 and 1740.
The first part was published in four editions (1721 and 1729, in Hannover, 1738 and 1744 in Frankfurt and Leipzig) and was translated several times into French and English. This writing is a collection of various information about Russia at that time. Bypassing political and military events in silence, the author in the first volume, describing the events before 1720, discusses the importance of Peter's reform, which attaches great importance; the second volume embraces the history of the last years of Peter the Great; the third - 1725-1730 years. This writing, thanks to the author’s acquaintance with all the outstanding Russian people of that time, gives us an interesting picture of Russia's internal transformation. However, only the first volume is of particular importance, since the second and third volumes were not written by the author on the basis of personal observations.
In 1880, Professor E. A. Herman issued Weber’s reports (although by no means all) stored in the Hannover archive: “Zeitgenössische Berichte zur Geschichte Russlands. Peter der Grosse und der Zarewitsch Alexei, vornehmlich nach and aus der gesandschaftlichen Correspondenz Friedrich Christian Webers (Leipzig). The title is not completely accurate, since, apart from the work of Tsarevich Alexei , these reports also touch on much more. They serve as a supplement to the Weber notes, enclosing data for the political history of Russia.
In addition to the mass of precious data for the history of relations between Peter and Alexey, Weber reports a lot of information about Russia's relations with England, about life and institutions of Russians, about society and people’s views on Peter’s reform, etc. In general, Weber’s opinion about Peter and Russia more optimistic in his great work than in reports. The first volume of Weber’s work, with the exception of an interesting preface and appendices, was translated into Russian by Barsov , in the Russian Archive 1872. Long before, in 1777, General M. S. Begichev undertook the translation of Weber's notes, but this work remained in manuscript.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 BNF ID : 2011 open data platform .
Links
- Translation by P. P. Barsova Weber, Friedrich-Christians . Eastern literature . The appeal date is February 19, 2011. Archived on August 27, 2011.
- Translation by Yu. N. Bespyatykh Weber F.-H. From the book of Frederick Christian Weber “Transformed Russia” (Part I). Appendix about the city of St. Petersburg and related to this remarks / Per. Yu. N. Bespyatykh // Bespyatykh Yu. N. Peterburg Peter I in foreign descriptions. - L .: Science, 1991. - pp. 102-138.
- Translation by D. Solovyov: Weber F.-H. Transformed Russia: New Notes on the Current State of Muscovy. - SPb., 2011. - 304 p. - ISBN 978-5-210-01640-9 .
Literature
- Weber, Christian-Friedrich // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.