Foreigners in Muscovy: Western Immigrants in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Russia

Between the late fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the State of Muscovy emerged from being a rather homogenous Russian-speaking and Orthodox medieval principality to becoming a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. Not only the conquest of the neighbouring Tatar Khanates and the colonization of Siberia demanded the integration of non-Christian populations into the Russian state. The ethnic composition of the capital and Muscovite towns also changed due to Muscovite policies of recruiting soldiers, officers and specialists from various European countries, as well as the accommodation of merchants and the resettlement of war prisoners and civilians from annexed territories. The presence of foreign immigrants was accompanied by controversy and conflicts, which demanded adaptations not only in the Muscovite legal, fiscal and economic systems, but also in the everyday life of both native citizens and immigrants.

This book combines two major research fields on international relations in the State of Muscovy - the migration, settlement and integration of Western Europeans, and Russian and European perceptions of the respective other .

Foreigners in Muscovy will appeal to researchers and students interested in the history and social makeup of Muscovy and in European-Russian relations during the early modern era.