RUDN Journal of Russian History (Dec 2016)
RUSSIA AS VIEWED BY FRENCH TRAVELLERS IN XV-XVIII CENTURIES
Abstract
The article considers the formation of Russia's image in the views of French travellers who visited Moskovia in the XV-XVIIIth centuries. In this period the French begin to “discover” for themselves the Russian lands, get acquainted with the traditions, culture, peculiarities of the state and society. The works of French travellers contain valuable information that allows modern scholars to trace the genesis and evolution of the image of the Russian state in the views of foreigners, to analyze the geography of the routes of European travellers, to detect the features of mental maps of Western Europe, the formation of which goes to the XV-XVIth centuries. The authors come to the conclusions that up to the middle of the XVIIIth century Europeans had stereotypes which had been formed in the XV-XVIth centuries from the negative assessments of Russia.
