Faction, Rhetoric, and Ideology

From his appointment as principal secretary to Elizabeth I in 1573, Sir Francis Walsingham was instrumental in every sphere of English diplomacy. He was particularly interested in maintaining friendly relations with Scotland, though this was complicated by his suspicions of individual Scots, especially the king, James VI, who embarked on his personal rule after the execution of the last regent in 1581. Walsingham’s keen interest in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy was partly occasioned by his office, but more importantly by his own concerns about the implications a weak or hostile Scotland would have for England. His extensive network of contacts among both English and Scottish diplomatic personnel enabled him to exert influence over this area of policy. Walsingham’s view of Scotland and his preferred policy drew him into conflict with other members of Elizabeth’s government, who espoused a different policy and outlook and had their own networks of influence. Using particularly the acrimonious falling out between Walsingham and another privy councillor, Lord Hunsdon, over Scottish policy in 1584, this essay analyzes the influence of personalities, political allegiances, and ideological factors on the formation and implementation of England’s Scottish policy.

“Do Not Allow Common People ... to Saunter Abroad without Purpose Year on Year”: The Privy Councillor A. I. Temnitsky’s Note on Russian Pilgrims (1910)

The article introduces a note about Russian pilgrims, written by the privy councillor A. I. Temnitsky on January 26, 1910. The original text is stored in the files of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. Substantial analysis of the source accompanies its publication. The document is being introduced into scientific use for the first time with minor abbreviations that do not affect its style or content. The identity of the note’s author has not been established; it is known that Temnitsky owned land in the Minsk gubernia and lived in Kiev for a time. The article is to characterize this source on the pilgrimage policy of the Russian Empire found in the archival file “Correspondence on transportation of pilgrims and on pilgrims’ daily routine en route to Jerusalem, 1897-1914.” The hypothesis about the crisis of the pilgrimage policy of the Russian Empire on the eve of the First World War has been tested with traditional methods of historical science: comparative, historical, problem-chronological, retrospective. The note of Temnitsky enables to correct the existing ideas on pilgrimage practices of the Orthodox believers from the Western gubernias of the Russian Empire. The document offers a different view on the Russian pilgrimage policy of the early 20th century, undermines the researchers’ arguments that it was the conservative part of that Russian society that supported the activation of pilgrimage activities in Russia. The publishers underscore the value of the suggestion made by Temnitsky: Russia should have its own chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and extend the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission to Egypt. The publishers conclude that Temnitsky’s note gives researchers an alternative point of view on the organization of Russian pilgrimages on the eve of the First World War and demonstrates systemic problems in the implementation of the Russian pilgrimage policy that contrast with increased statistics on the entry of Russian subjects in Palestine.

Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov: Forerunner, co-founder and Inspector-General of the Red Cross

Surgeon Nikolay I. Pirogov and Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Romanova, née Württemberg, contributed substantially to the emergence of neutral organised care to soldiers during times of war and victims of epidemics. They closely cooperated in organising and training women as nurses to care for the wounded at the battlefront during the Crimean war. Russia became the first country to send trained nurses to the Crimea. They became a model for other women to train as nurses by the Red Cross. Their expertise was precious during the famine and cholera epidemics. During the Crimean war, Pirogov pleaded for the establishment of an international treaty to oversee the provision of medical help, including civilian volunteers, to both civilian and military victims of war, regardless of rank or nationality. Pirogov was a founder and Privy Councillor of the Russian Red Cross. Internationally he acted as Inspector-General for the Red Cross to report on the medical care in the Franco-German and Russian-Turkish War.