Russian and Danish Diplomats in Parisian Society

Referring to official and private correspondence, memoirs, and police reports, this study compares the cultural references and social practices of Prince Antioch Dmitrievich Cantemir and Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, two diplomats serving in Paris consecutively between 1738 and 1750. The Russian and Danish ambassadors had a shared interest in literature and the sciences. They both communicated with Montesquieu and Voltaire, the most notable philosophers and writers of their time. However, their relations with these men of letters and their participation in the social life of the French capital were fundamentally different. Police reports demonstrate that the Russian ambassador was content with quite modest company, which mostly included foreign diplomats, French scientists, and writers. Outside this circle, he only contacted “useful” people to get information. Police reports do not mention Cantemir’s meetings with Montesquieu at all, although they had very much in common. In contrast, Bernstorff shone in Parisian beau monde, had numerous acquaintances in various spheres, and received both Voltaire and Montesquieu at his home. However, their contact with him remained limited. The patriarch of Ferney seldom visited the Danish diplomat and only wrote to him about practical matters. Montesquieu showed courtesy to Bernstorff but did not share his literary plans with him. The Parisian beau monde commented ironically upon the Danish diplomat’s manners. Consequently, both Cantemir and Bernstorff, with the former preferring philosophical solitude to fashionable entertainment and the latter willing to become famous in the Republic of Belles-lettres by means of contacts with Voltaire and Montesquieu, failed to establish themselves in the social life of Paris. In the eyes of the beau monde, they remained enlightened barbarians, incarnate characters of the Persian Letters

Art · Art history · Courtesy · Danish · Entertainment · Media studies · Memoir · Political science · Sociology · Classics · European Political History Analysis · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy

• Under the Watchful Eye of the Police

  Open Access•Angelina Vacheva•Quaestio Rossica•2025

  Add to list