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Russophobia and the “Testament” of Peter the Great, 1812–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Albert Resis
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Extract

Spurious documents may not change the course of history. But they do have their consequences—as the history of imperial and Soviet Russia vividly demonstrates. The most notorious modern forgeries spring to mind: “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” “The Sisson Documents,” “The Zinov'ev Letter,” “The Litvinov Journal,” and the oldest and most perdurable of them all, “The 'Testament' of Peter the Great,” his supposed grand plan for Russia to win world domination through conquest of the Near and Middle East. All of these forgeries have had their day and then passed into the lumber room of history—all, that is, except the “Protocols” and the “Testament.” Despite their notoriety, these two forgeries still find proponents today. But it is the most marginal, disreputable, and genocidal elements or states that pass off the “Protocols” as genuine, while some of our most respected officials, scholars, and journalists give credence to the “Testament.”

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , Winter 1985 , pp. 681 - 693
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1985

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References

1. For a useful study of such bogus documents, see Blackstock, Paul, Agents of Deceit. Frauds,Forgeries, and Political Intrigue Among Nations (Chicago, 1966).Google Scholar

2. Harrison, Lester, ed., Karl Marx: Secret History of the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1969)Google Scholar.The editor wrote that the British in the eighteenth century failed to realize that “India was one ofthe countries that Peter the Great had indicated in his will as an indispensable object of futureacquisition by Russia, and plans for its conquest were a recurrent feature of long-term Russianstrategy” (p. 36). On the background of Russophobia, see Gleason, John H., The Genesis of Russophobiain Great Britain (Cambridge, Mass., 1950 and 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Constantin de Grunwald, Lesalliances franco-russes; neuf siicles de malentendus (Paris, 1965). Extensive treatment of the earlyhistory of the “Testament” is found in Ragsdale, Hugh, Ditente in the Napoleonic Era (Lawrence,Kansas, 1980), pp. 13–25, 39–40, 109–10, and 138–41Google Scholar.

3. Time (January 15, 1979), p. 23. Similarly, the Christian Science Monitor (December 30,1979)reported that Peter the Great “would be proud of his commissar successors” for their push intoAfghanistan, as Soviet leaders were acting in accord with the injunction given in Peter's will to pushinto Constantinople and India to become “true sovereign of the world. “

4. Pu Yang, “Why the Soviet ‘Detente’ Smokescreen?” Beijing Review, no. 10 (March 10,1980),p. 25. See also Qi Ya and Zhou Jirong, “Expansionist Soviet Global Strategy,” ibid., no. 25 (June 22,1981), p. 23. Soviet historians have accused their Chinese colleagues of interpreting all of tsaristforeign policy in light of the “Testament.” See “Falsifikatory vsemirnoi istorii,” Problem)’ Dal'negoVostoka, 3 (1979): 25.

5. Dr. M. Yapp, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Testimony April 2,1980. Houseof Commons Fifth Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Session 1979–80. “Afghanistan:The Soviet Invasion and its Consequences for British Policy,” p. 86.

6. For a recent example, see Subtelny, Orest, “ ‘Peter I's Testament': A Reassessment,” Slavic Review, 33, no. 4 (December 1974): 663–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which focuses on early Hungarian and Ukrainian sourcesas possible origins of the “Testament. “

7. Quoted in Christopher Herold, J., ed. and trans., The Mind of Napoleon. A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words (New York, 1961), p. 195 Google Scholar.

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12. Ibid., pp. 175–76.

13. Text of the “résumeé” ibid., 176–79.

14. Charles Louis Lesur, L'histoire des Kosaques (Paris, 1814), pp. i–ii, n. 1. Employed inNapoleon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lesur acknowledged that he had been commissioned by thatgovernment to write the book on the Cossacks. The same is probably true of his 1812 book. Shieldinghimself against the misfortune that had overtaken his patron, Napoleon, Lesur wrote that his researchon the Cossacks now revealed that they possessed unsuspected qualities and charms, and he paidglowing tribute to the sagacity and moderation of Tsar Alexander I (ibid., pp. ii–iii and viii).

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21. Des Kaisers Napoleon politisches Testament. Nebst einem Verzeichnisse der Vermächtnisse, welche er hinterlassen hat. Zweite vermehrte Auflage. Mil dem politischen Testament Peters des Grossen,Kaisers von Russland (Leipzig, 1824).

22. Frederic Gaillardet, Memoires du Chevalier d'Eon publiés pour la première fois sur lespapiers fournis par sa famille d'après les matériaux déposés au ministère des Affaires étrangères(Paris, 1836), p. 168. Hugh Ragsdale has located a copy of the d'Eon version, dated 1760, in thearchives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The earliest of the major versions, the d'Eonmay have spawned all the others. (Ragsdale, Détente, pp. 16 and 109–10)

23. Gaillardet, Mémoires, pp. 169–75.

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27. Niles’ National Register (June 10,1843), pp. 235–36. Almost every American president fromJefferson to Cleveland warmly hailed the close amity, good understanding, and mutual interestsexisting between the United States and Russia. For statements by the presidents, see Jados, Stanley S., ed., Documents on Russian-American Relations. Washington to Eisenhower (Washington,D.C., 1965), pp. 1–31.Google Scholar

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34. Danilova, “Zaveshchanie,” pp. 5–6. In June 1876 Dostoevskii wrote in his Diary of a Writer: “In Europe, people believe in some ‘Testament of Peter the Great.’ It is nothing but a forgeddocument written by the Poles.” F. M. Dostoevskii, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh(Leningrad, 1972), 23:48.

35. Ibid., pp. 10–11. Subsequently the defeat of France by Prussia prompted the Russians tofoster conciliation with France by again exploding the myth of the “Testament.” Les auteurs duTestament de Pierre le Grand. Page d'histoire (Paris, 1872). See the review in Russkii vestnik, 98(March 1872): 338–44.

36. Georg Berkholz, Das Testament Peters des Grossen. Eine Erfindung Napoleons I(St. Petersburg, 1877), pp. 1, 4–6, 12–15, 18–19, 23.

37. Drevnaia i novaia Rossiia (1877), vol. 1. Reprinted in his Istoricheskie ocherki i rasskazy(St. Petersburg, 1911), pp. 354–69.

38. Ibid., pp. 363–69.

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42. Ibid., p. 98.

43. List, Walter, Das politische Testament Peters des Grossen (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

44. Danilova, “Zaveshchanie,” pp. 25–27.

45. Sykes, Sir Percy, A History of Persia, 2 vols. (London, 1915), 2:322 Google Scholar. Sykes included a fulltext of the “Testament,” which was repeated in the second edition (1921) and the third edition(1930). The third edition, p. 232, n. 1, adds the following information: “Russian ambassadors, underthe old regime, always kept a copy of this document among their private papers.” The third editionhas gone through several reprintings, 1951, 1958, and 1963.

46. Oberlander, “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte,” p. 58.

47. Ibid., pp. 58–59.

48. Iakovlev, N., “O tak nazyvaemom ‘zaveshchanii’ Petra Velikogo,” Istoricheskii zhurnal, 12(1941): 133.Google Scholar

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50. Grenville Clark to the President, New York, February 16,1948. Harry S. Truman to GrenvilleClark, February 18, 1948. Both letters deposited in President's Personal File, Harry S. TrumanLibrary, Independence, Missouri. For details, see Clifford, John Garry, “President Truman and Peterthe Great's Will,” Diplomatic History, 4, no. 4 (Fall 1980): 371–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51. As Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels viewed the problem: “The discovery ofhistorical truth can be left to future historians; we are serving historical necessity.” December 5,1942, quoted in Oberlander, “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte,” p. 59.

52. Dieter Groh, Russland und das Selbstverständniss Europas (Neuwied, FRG, 1961), p. 14.For a different view on the sources of the “Testament's” durability, see Ragsdale, Ditente, pp. 140–41.

53. Quoted in Hare, Richard, Pioneers of Russian Social Thought, 2d ed. rev. (New York, 1964),p. 258.Google Scholar