Notes on Muscovite Affairs

Notes on Muscovite Affairs (Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii) (1549) was a Latin book by Baron Sigismund von Herberstein on the geography, history and customs of Muscovy (the 16th century Russian state). The book was the main early source of knowledge about Russia in Western Europe.

Background

Herberstein was an Austrian diplomat who was twice sent to Russia as Austrian ambassador, in 1517 and 1526. Born in Vipava (German Wippach), Slovenia, he was familiar with Slovene, a Slavic language, which became important later on his mission in Russia, when he was able to communicate with ordinary Russians in Slovene, another Slavic language.

These visits occurred at a time when very little was known about Russia outside the region. The few published descriptions of Russia were in some cases wildly inaccurate.

Historical note on Muscovy and Russia

Muscovy in the 16th century was the Russian state which separated itself from the Kievan Rus' after it fell apart. It evolved into the Russian Empire under Peter the Great starting at the end of the 17th century. Russia was the region, Muscovy was the state until it no longer included just Moscow. Muscovy was then ruled by the Muscovite monarchy, starting with Ivan III (1462–1505), who expanded Muscovy, and ending with Ivan IV, who claimed the title "Tsar of Russia".

In this article, Russia and Muscovy are treated as similar entities. In land area there is not much difference between Muscovy and Russia west of the Ural Mountains. Herberstein wrote about Muscovy (region based on Moscow) because that is what it was known as in the West then. We know the area as Russia, so that is how it is referred to here.

Research

Herberstein developed a keen interest in all things Russian, and researched in several ways:

The Book

As a result, Herberstein was able to produce the first detailed eyewitness ethnography of Russia, encyclopedic in its scope, providing an accurate (very accurate for the time) view of trade, religion, customs, politics, history, even a theory of Russian political culture.

The book contributed greatly to a European view held for several centuries of Russia as a despotic absolute monarchy. This view was not new, but previous writers presented an idealized view. Herberstein influenced the development of this view in two ways:

His investigations made it clear that Muscovy, contrary to the view of fanatical loyalty, had suffered a violent political struggle and that Muscovy had emerged only very recently as the dominant power in the region. What's more, the man who achieved the unification of Muscovy, Ivan III was characterized by Herberstein as a cruel tyrant, drunk, and a misogynist; far from being a ruler of great fairness and equity.

His description of Ivan's unification campaign was a series of banishments and forced relocations of whole populations to break the power of regional rulers. This culminated in, as Herberstein wrote, Ivan's "plan of ejecting all princes and others from the garrisons and fortified places" all the formerly independent princes of Russia, "being either moved by the grandeur of his achievements or stricken with fear, became subject to him." All very much at odds with previous perceived reality, but much closer to currently understood Russian history. Similarly the previously touted ideal of the fairness of the Muscovy monarchy was contrasted with Herberstein's depiction of peasants as being in "a very wretched condition, for their goods are exposed to plunder from the nobility and soldiery".

Tsar vs Czar

One final thing for which Herberstein and his book was noted, though not widely understood, was his contribution to a spelling confusion which did not emerge until the end of the 19th century and still causes disagreement: he recorded the spelling of tsar as czar. This cz spelling is used only in the Polish language; although the spelling varies, most Slavonic languages use the ts pronunciation, and usually that spelling in the Romanised form. English and French moved from the cz spelling to the ts spelling in the 19th century. Note that cz was as good a spelling as any at the time Herberstein recorded it.

English translations

Marshall Poe, who has written extensively on Herberstein and Russian history generally, uses the English title Notes on the Muscovites consistently when translating the Latin title. A slightly more precise English translation of the Latin title would be Notes on Muscovite Affairs, as used for this article. There are one partial and two complete English translations of this work, the most recent one, by J. B. C. Grundy, based itself on a German version.

Online editions:

Others:

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