The art of diplomacy lies in the substitution of meanings and the ability to say "yes", meaning "no", and vice versa. The Russian tsar always knew who to write to and what to write. To know one's worth, to speak without equivocation, directly, openly - how is it in Russian!
From a letter from Ivan the Terrible to the Swedish king Johan III
“You sent to us through the captive your letter, filled with dog barking. You write your name in front of ours - this is indecent, for our brother is the Tsar of Rome and other great sovereigns, and you cannot be called his brother, for the Swedish land is honor lower than these states, as will be proved ahead … You started an evil deed as soon as you sat down against the state, and our great ambassadors …, innocently and with mockery, he ordered to rob and dishonor - they were left in only shirts! But these are great people….
And what you wrote to us barking and then want to bark to respond to our letter, so we, great sovereigns, to you, except barking, and write nothing, but to write barking is not appropriate for great sovereigns; We wrote to you not barking, but the truth, and sometimes because we wrote so at length that if you do not explain, then you will not receive an answer from you. And if you, taking a dog's mouth, want to bark for fun - then your servile custom: this is an honor for you, but for us, great sovereigns, it is dishonor to get along with you, and barking to write to you is even worse, and to pee with you - There is no worse than that in this world, and if you want to drink too much, then find yourself a slave like you are a slave, and drink with him. From now on, no matter how much you write barking, we will not give you any answer. (January 6, 1573)
From the message of Ivan IV to the Polish king Stefan Batory
“It is known that you call the Livonian land your own in vain, wanting to shed innocent Christian blood. Your gentlemen also told our ambassadors that you had sworn an oath that you would get the Livonian land - is it a Christian thing: to swear that you will be absurd and unjust, desiring fame, wealth and expansion of the state, to shed innocent Christian blood? You wrote that our ancestors expanded their state by unjust actions, - and you very justly get what you lost, shedding blood in spite of the oath? Your masters also said to our ambassadors that they stood up for the Livonians with the whole land because the Livonian land of the Roman faith, the same faith with them, the Poles, and therefore all this land should be in your power, for it is not good that there are two sovereigns in one land: “And we have a sovereign - according to our will: we choose for ourselves as sovereign whoever we want;no matter what kind of sovereign we have, he does nothing without us; and if he wants to do something, we will not give; and when we were now choosing our sovereign, we pointed out to him that many places in our land were unjustly selected by your sovereign and his ancestors; and our sovereign has sworn to us that he will get our old possessions and cleanse the Livonian land."
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