I managed to get hold of the album “Report of Erik Palmqvist on the diplomatic mission to Russia in 1673.
From the description:
Eric Palmkvist's report on the diplomatic mission to Russia is one of the treasures of the Swedish State Archives. Nowadays, this book is shown to the general public only at large exhibitions behind a glass display case, and therefore it cannot be seen in full.
The creator of this book, Eric Palmqvist, was about 20 years old when he traveled to Moscow with the embassy of Count Gustav Oxensherna. He was tasked with compiling maps, sketching defenses and describing land and waterways from Swedish Ingermanland to Moscow. His report, which is usually called the Palmqvist album, in addition to descriptions of important cities and sketches of churches, monasteries, everyday scenes, contains characteristics of technical devices and other objects. which aroused his interest and about which it was important for the Swedes to learn. The folio book contains 28 pages of maps and drawings in sepia or watercolor, and comments on the illustrations on 20 handwritten pages. As a source of information about Russia in the second half of the 17th century. the album is unique.
The album is the only major work left after Palmqvist. In 1676 he was taken prisoner by the Danes, after which his trace was lost.
For more than 300 years, Palmqvist's album has been kept in the Swedish State Archives, but only in the 19th century. it was discovered by researchers. Extracts from it were published in 1881 by the archivist Theodore Westrin. In 1898, Axel Lagrelius and K. Sandgren published a black and white copy of the album in a phototypic manner, with a circulation of 75 copies. Thanks to this publication, his images gained prominence and aroused well-founded attention in Russia. At the turn of the century, the text of the album was twice translated into Russian - by A. Vakulovsky and E. Granström. Vakulovsky's translation was published in 1993, when G. Kovalenko prepared the edition of the album in a reduced format. The illustrations were reproduced in a relatively simple technique in black and white. A circulation of 30 copies had to precede a large scientific publication, which was never carried out.
Subsequently, the album was transferred to a high-quality digital format by the chief photographer of the State Archives of Sweden Kurt Eriksson and photographer Emre Olgun. This digital copy forms the basis of this publication.
The task that Palmqvist was to carry out as a member of the embassy reflected the growing interest of the Swedes in Russia in the 17th century. His album is one of the links in the chain of compositions about Russia, the character of which was determined by the education, profession and goals of their authors.
Promotional video:
After the Stolbovo Peace of 1617, Sweden established itself as the main Baltic power and established its control over Russian trade in the Baltic. Trade yards were opened in Stockholm, Moscow and other cities of both countries. This led to the expansion of personal contacts between Russians and Swedes. However, the restoration of the economy and military power of Russia after the chaos of the Troubles posed a threat to Swedish rule in the Baltic. Therefore, the interest of the ruling circles of Sweden to the eastern neighbor was great.
Diplomatic contacts in the 17th century were intense. Sweden's diplomatic and trade interests in Russia were represented by residents and factors located in Moscow, Novgorod and Pskov. Ambassadors from Sweden traveled to Russia quite often on various assignments, but large embassies were not sent often, since they required lengthy preparation. In the second half of the century, four large embassies were sent, one of which was Eric Palmquist.
Here is what Palmqvist writes about Russia:
Russia as a whole should be told:
1. That people are servile, but at the same time arrogant and very self-righteous, they despise all foreigners.
2. That the Russians are very strong, sturdy in constitution. They are very hardworking, but very lazy. And if need does not force them to work, then they indulge in revelry.
3. That their character is most of all manifested in deception and fraudulent trade, for the honesty of Russians seldom resists money. They are so greedy and cunning that they consider gaining an honor.
4. That Russians do not know generosity, they consider a lie to be a virtue. They know how to hide their intentions, so it is often necessary to understand their words in the opposite sense.
5. That Russians are by nature very skillful in all kinds of crafts and are content with little, both in equipment and in food. This can be noticed during their travels and campaigns, for a merchant or soldier takes with him on the road no more than a sack of oatmeal, a few tablespoons of which he stir in water or kvass, and this mixture replaces food and drink for him.
6. Their country should be said to be mostly low-lying, flat and fertile, but covered by vast swamps, large dense forests and wastelands. We can say that deep navigable rivers and lakes are especially favorable for trade.
7. That most of the rivers have their source not in mountains or highlands, but in swamps or sandy places.
8. That the roads in Russia are mostly good and dry where pine and spruce forests grow. But where birches, aspen or alder grow, they, on the contrary, are of little use, since fireboxes and knitting. And although they can be easily improved using the forest, of which they have a lot of growth around them, they deliberately do not do this, especially with those roads close to the border that lead into the interior of the country, and keep them in such a state that they create difficulties for foreigners and do their advancement, if not impossible, then at least difficult. For the same reason, they do not have a single bridge across the Volga, since it is inevitably crossed on the way to Moscow.
9. That the printed cards are mostly fake. They show that all the known rivers between Novgorod and Torzhok flow into the Meta River from the east, while in fact they flow into it from the west. This means that for those entering the country and passing through them, the Meta River will always remain on the left.
10. That on maps the word "portage" means the place in which ships are dragged across the land for short distances from one river to another. Therefore, in spite of the fact that the rivers have no communication with each other, you can get from one to another overland with your sheets and ships. It is all the more easy for the Russians to do this, since ichlorets and plows are not heavy, since they are fastened not with iron, but with bast so tightly that the boards seem to be glued to one another. So that the connections do not wear out, the bast is sunk into the boards and tightly pulled, and from above it is smeared with blubber several times.
11. Of all the Russian fortresses, only two were fortified with modern bastions. One of these, Rostov, 20 miles north of Moscow, was built by Quartermaster General Rodenburg while he was in the Russian service; another fortress on the border with Persia, built by a Dutchman, is called Terki.
12. Roads in Russia are measured in versts, a fifth of the Russian mile, but Russians do not use miles, although they know them. These versts decrease as you get closer to Moscow.
…”Character is most of all manifested in deception and fraud in trade, for the honesty of Russians rarely resists money. They are so greedy and cunning that they consider gaining an honor … Russians do not know generosity, they consider lying to be a virtue"
Well, this song is familiar to me. But what about the merchant's word? What about the fact that the doors to the houses did not have locks? Didn't they lock them up because there were no thieves?
And the thugs who were waiting for the following punishment (from the code of 1649):
a) Chopping off the hand, which was used in relation to someone who forcibly, against the will of the owners, entered a foreign court;
b) Chopping off a finger, which was allowed for minor crimes: for theft for the first time (the little finger and ring fingers of the left hand were chopped off)
c) Chopping off the left arm and right leg was allowed for “one robbery, for murder in a fight while drunk, if the victim was robbed”.
d) The section of the ears was used in relation to: swindlers in general and card fraudsters in particular; thieves for the third theft of fish from a cage or pond;
Well, and so on … Do not take a walk, right?
So, this album has been released with a circulation of 500 copies. The quality is high, it's a pity the size disappointed.
Judge for yourself:
Most of the texts cannot be read through a microscope.
Nevertheless, I suggest to dear readers some of the drawings of the album. Pictures are clickable, if that.
Winter departure of noble Russian women. As usual, an ugly Tatar slave is always sitting at their feet, shading the beauty of the mistress.
Here is an interesting drawing, do not confuse it with a tsar cannon which is not a cannon!
Vii. These mortars fire not only large barrels and barrels filled with various smaller varieties of grenades, incendiary and gas bombs, fastened with double iron hoops, but there is also a type of mortar that fires special cannonballs consisting of 20-30 smaller cannonballs. Their structure can be judged from figure VI.
The main advantage of these mortars is that one shot can release up to four square cubits of stone cannonballs, the aforementioned barrels and bombs. The effect of these numerous grenades and fireballs is that when fired, they hit the space around them 100 steps and cause great harm, and the fires they produce are difficult to extinguish.
Figures VIII and IX represent in section the base and the profile of the deepening of these mortars, as well as the section of the mortar itself, methods of loading and firing it. Shooting is always carried out at an angle of 45 degrees, and the size of the powder charge corresponds to the distance. Despite the effectiveness and usefulness of such mortars, they are inconvenient to handle, load, transport and install, which creates many difficulties. Therefore, the Russians usually take these monsters not on all campaigns, but only to where they can be delivered without much effort along the rivers by ferries or ships.
Ferry??? What kind of translation is this? Ferry - from the word steam and refers to the engine. What engines if we haven't even thought of the chimney?
A bear and a balalaika are missing in the album, and so, a full set of stamps of wild Russian life.
It would be interesting if it were not so small.
Meeting of the ambassadors and the Russian bailiff at the border near Muraveino.
It is interesting that Russian houses (on the right) are without pipes, that is, they are heated in black when smoke comes out of the windows, unlike the houses of civilized Europe on the other side. As always, the shelter of a wretched Chukhontsi….
Only I know that:
The laying of stoves in Russia has been at a high technical level since ancient times. This is evidenced by the design of a chimney (without a chimney) hearth, which was widely used in Ancient Rus. Such a hearth became the prototype of a perfect universal device known as the "Russian stove". In the 15th-16th centuries. chimney furnaces were built with a chimney. Initially, chimneys, called chimneys, were made of wood in the form of a thick plank, which was fire hazardous.
During the period of intensive development of cities in the XVI-XVII centuries. Russian technology has reached a high level. The main center of the art of stove and the training of masters of stove affairs in the period from the creation of the Russian state to the second half of the 17th century. was Moscow. Here, progressive designs and new architectural forms of heating stoves were born, a technology for the manufacture of stove tiles was developed, brick factories and iron foundries that manufacture stove devices were built. [A source]
Directly microfilm spy and not publication.
Saline plan at Mshaga.
Eight salt pans were built, of which only three were in operation in 1674. Their water comes from sources located near the river. Here and in the nearby Staraya Russa, such an amount of salt is produced, after the appearance of this salt plant, only the city of Narva annually loses income from more than a thousand salt flippers *. Salt from Mshagi is white and fine, like Luneburg salt. But it is not as good for salting as the one that is obtained from Staraya Russa, located ten miles from Novgorod on the shore of Lake Ilmen.
Section of the mentioned saltworks Explanations for the letters:
a. Well, into which water is supplied from springs
b. Pipes that supply water from the well through the walls to the saltworks
from. Large logs in which salt water is collected and where it comes from through pipes d.
d. gradually enters the iron pans e.
e. ff Various iron strips that hang on the beams and are riveted to the bottom a »vorod h.
i. A stone oven that heats a frying pan to. Various devices used in this production /. Chimneys
Punishment of the offender.
But, there is something that surprised me and even amazed me in this album!
"What is it?" - you ask. And like that!
You probably noticed that on the pages with pictures I have cited, the reverse side of the previous sheet is often empty, and this is already strange in itself, but besides this, there are a lot of blank sheets in the album! This is not the same sheet - see the numbering signatures below? This is not a print marriage either. I did not find an explanation of the reasons for this strange phenomenon on the pages of the book. Maybe there is, but I overlooked? It seems that the publisher scrupulously copied the original, then the question to the original - why are there so many blank sheets? The unfinished Radziwill Chronicle resembles the one that Peter received. Remember, Peter passed through Konigsberg saw and ordered a copy, and when in 1758, during the Seven Years War with Prussia, Konigsberg was in the hands of the Russians, and the original in which, oddly enough, some of the drawings were not painted and, I don't remember exactly,but it seems that some pages are empty as here. Somewhere I saw scans of these pages, but now I have not found it. Correct me if I am confusing something.
What is it?
Maybe the pictures from these pages are lost?
Maybe I didn't come out to look at the drawings from these sheets?
A Masonic conspiracy?
Reptilians?
Fraud and falsification?
Looks wild and suspicious.
The publisher replied that this was intended. I quote: "This is exactly what Palmqvist's book looked like, only its format was much larger."
Tell me, would you buy an album full of blank sheets? But the edition is still on sale at a price of 653,000 rubles!
It is difficult to judge by personal inner feelings. They, as in the case of Northern and Eastern Tartary of Witsen, are negative. Some kind of persistent sense of deception. Maybe this rejection of reality from excessive fantasizing on the theme of the great Aryans, plus, the view of our today's reality, dullness, abomination, impassable stupidity and excessive greed of people, especially become disgusting and you think, perhaps it has always been so. But, I am not ready to put up with this version, as well as with the fact that this album is a fake and a late throw-in.
Here's another thought the reader gave me - to listen to what the Western media say about Russia today - so we don't just drink balalaika vodka but almost drink the blood of babies. Judging by the attitude of these comrades about the state of affairs in Russia then what is extremely stupid and irresponsible today.
And you have to understand why the embassy was traveling. And it was traveling for the funny reason that the peasants massively poured into unwashed Russia and the Swedes, having considered their losses, went to the Russian Tsar to issue invoices! Here, they say, in recent years, so many people have fled to you, and so many thousands of gold coins were missing! Return !!!!
I am not kidding! Of course these clowns were deployed with nothing. Here is a small riddle for you. From enlightened Europe, where all the houses with pipes and women with iPhones were massively poured into Russia, where supposedly a thief on a thief, everyone lives like cattle and there are no roads! And no, in order to put things in order, they, like Ukraine, Russia, also came to expose for losses!
Palmqvist's album is also called the report of the Palmqvist spy. He had to draw up maps, record distances, collect data on fortifications. And he coped with this work perfectly. This information should really be of interest to historians. And the phrases about the evil and stupid Russians are nothing more than teasing the king, why are we waiting, let's take these savages!
Look for someone who benefits from - and everything will be clear. If you look at the album in this light, then everything will fall into place.
And to believe that Palmqvist conceived 20 blank sheets from an album at 40 is what kind of a cretin you have to be. It is clear that not everything has been published. And what we do not need to see is removed. The full-page image of the berdash, and the next 4 drawings of Russian horsemen huddle on one piece of paper. Was there no room? Some pictures of a forest or lake are completely uninformative. What, there was nothing to draw? Ha ha!
Author: Sil2