"A People Bor to Slavery": Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476-1748

Marshall T. Poe. A People Born to Slavery: Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476-1748. Studies of the Harriman Institute. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. xi, 293 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Appendices. Bibliographies. Index. $49.95, cloth. In the wake of Larry Wolff's magisterial study of the intellectual creation of Eastern Europe by representatives of the European Enlightenment, it is now hard not to read early modem descriptions of Russia as anything but invention. Although most scholars now use a theoretical framework largely inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism to deconstruct the European image of barbaric Russia, Marshall Poe has chosen the option of deconstructing this image through a long and thorough document criticism. The result is an admirable study focussed on the origins of the concept of as developed by European-read Western European-ethnographers, a category that includes both eye-witnesses of political mores and scholars who reflected upon the early modem political system without ever setting a foot on Muscovite soil. Poe, a visiting professor of modern history at Harvard University, has already published an analytical bibliography of foreign descriptions of Muscovy and devoted many articles to Muscovite institutions and political culture. In the work under review, he attempts to elucidate the origins of the modern image of Russia through criticism of major ethnographical works that informed the European educated elite of the state and customs of so alien a land as Muscovy. As the author himself admits, his method is not new, nor is his object. As scholars such as Iuzefovich, Kappeler, Letsch and Samuel Baron did before him, Poe pays serious attention to what can be called the conditions of production of knowledge, or the factors determining the depth and quality of the information provided by foreigners in Russia. The sources used by Poe include either accounts by Europeans who were never in Muscovy or descriptions written by eyewitness observers of Russia, mainly diplomats and merchants who briefly visited the country, as well as theoretical works by European scholars who conceptualized Russian tyranny in political terms. Poe presents his analysis in seven chapters that overlap each other in a logical exposition of the origins and development of the image of Russia as tyranny. He commences by analyzing the earliest ethnographical descriptions of Russia, mostly Livonian and Polish sources, as well as accounts from Papal envoys who often subordinated propaganda concerns to the needs of presenting Russia as a potential ally in the struggle against the Turks and the Protestants. These latter therefore tended to present the Muscovite system in a better light than did Russia's neighbours. Poe offers his best example of source criticism in the two chapters on European ambassadors and residents and their role in the making of tyranny. In addition to offering a rich exposition of perceptions of by Europeans in Russia, Poe also presents a clear explanation of the conditions that shaped these stereotypes. Clearly, foreigners took for granted the decorum and official formulas linked to Muscovite ceremonial, but they were rarely given the chance to achieve a deeper view of the functioning of the government. …

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