The Uprising of Francis Rákóczi the Second in the Сontext of Russian Diplomacy

Abstract

The uprising of Francis II Rákóczi in 1703–1711 is a frequently debated topic in European historiographies (especially in Hungarian, Slovak and Polish). For the Slovak historiography (since its beginning), anti-Habsburg uprisings in the 17th and early 18th centuries has been a key issue. There is a number of works that deal with the last anti-Habsburg uprising in Hungary in detail. The aim of this study is to examine the mentioned events through the prism of a different historical source, the Russian newspaper “Vedomosti”, which in 1703 to 1711 captured relatively detailed information about the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi. The first report about the anti-Habsburg uprising in Russian Journal “Vedomosti” was published in October 1703. Most reports describe military operations on the Slovak territory, which makes their content interesting for Slovak historiography. The study analyses the problems of international relations and political interests of the Imperial Russian court with regard to Francis II Rákóczi in the context of sources, scholarly literature as well as information from the newspaper itself. Reports of the Francis II. Rákóczi’s uprising in the Russian periodical from 1703–1711 may not be of key importance to the scholarly research of the uprising itself, but they demonstrate the interest of the Russian diplomacy in the events in Central Europe and Hungarian anti-Habsburg rebellions in the context of European policy in the early 18th century. After the conclusion of the treaty of Satmár, Francis II Rákóczi remained interesting for European politics, even in a different context. After 1711, Tsar Peter the Great invited F.Rákóczi and his supporters to immigrate to Russia. However, such an option was unacceptable to F.Rákóczi himself.