Jean Potocki, Lettres à Andrej Jakovlevitch Budberg (fin 1806 – début 1807). Éditées et commentées par Emiliano Ranocchi

Utilizing correspondence that he recently had discovered in the Moscow Archive for Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, Emiliano Ranocchi describes an attempt by Jan Potocki to exercise an influence on Russian foreign policy. In particular in three of these confidential letters that he sent in December 1806 to the Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire, Andrej Jakovlevič Budberg, Potocki 591 sought to encourage a new direction in Russian foreign policy. The letters contain a kind of political manifesto entitled Reflexions sur l’influence de la politique asiatique dans les circumstances actuelles. Potocki discusses there the dynamics involved in European power games, which in his view, led time and again, however, to a balance of power. In view of France’s involvement in Egypt, Potocki pointed to the necessity for a more active intervention by Russia in Turkey. The letters are reproduced in the appendix to this volume.