Raguzinsky's secret report on China (1731)
A Russian ambassador's private assessment of Qing power, written for Empress Anna in 1731.
Full title Secret information on the strength and condition of the Chinese state (report to Empress Anna, 1731) and Note on China
Секретная информация о силе и состоянии Китайского государства (1731); Записка о Китае
Count Sava Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, Russian ambassador
Count Sava Vladislavich-Raguzinsky negotiated the Treaty of Kiakhta in 1727 and travelled through Mongolia in 1725 to 1728. His secret report to Empress Anna in 1731, with a shorter Note on China, sizes up the strength of the Qing state and the Dzungar-Qing war zone. It touches Mongolia, the Kiakhta frontier, Beijing and Manchuria. The atlas does not hold the text: the card names two nineteenth-century Russian web texts (1842 and 1900), and nothing is stored in the corpus.
- How they knew
- Eyewitness
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card lists Qing China, Khalkha Mongols, Dzungars and Manchus.
- Why read it
- A Russian statesman's view of Qing power and of the frontier line fixed at Kiakhta, which later maps draw.
- Watch out
- It is a strategic assessment written for the empress, and the 1842 printing came from an anonymous editor. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
firsthand: ambassador who negotiated the Kiakhta treaty 1727 and travelled through Mongolia; strategic assessment
Research notes
- 1842 publication anonymous editor; 1900 publication by Bartenev.
Why it matters
Russian statesman view of Qing power and of the Dzungar-Qing war zone in the 1720s; frontier-fixing context for the Kiakhta line that later maps draw.
Places named
Mongolia; Kiakhta frontier; Beijing; Manchuria
Peoples named
Qing China; Khalkha Mongols; Dzungars; Manchus