In the Land of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-Hand English-Language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917)

摘要

British links with Russia go back a long way. Richard Chancellor's trading journey dates from the 1550s and Antony Jenkinson was sent as Elizabeth I's ambassador in 1571 when he "enjoyed" the hospitality of Ivan the Terrible. In the seventeenth century, Peter the Great attracted Scottish engineers to develop the empire and Russia became a military ally of Britain in the struggle against Napoleon. As the imperial reach of both Britain and Russia began to grow in the nineteenth century, amicable relations became difficult. The Great Game in Asia threatened to produce collisions between the two great powers. There were tensions with Russia in the Balkans in the late 1870s and in Persia and the Far East in the years before the First World War. Even Tibet was a flashpoint. Most famously, Russia and Britain went to war in the Crimea in 1854.