The Ambassador’s Report of Zakharia Meyer on the Trip to Moscow

Abstract

The article contains a translation and an original text of the report of Ratmann of Lübeck, Zhachariah Meyer, about his diplomatic trips to Moscow in 1586–1587. The document is stored in the Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck) and has not been published so far. On behalf of a magistrate of Lübeck Meyer visited the court of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich in Novgorod and Pskov. In the context of the transformation of the Hanseatic League, which took place in the second half of the 16th century, in order to retain the status of its head, Lübeck needed to take a leading position in the supply of Russian export products to the Western European market. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to reject commercial and diplomatic mediation of the Hanseatic cities of Livonia, which during the Livonian War fell under foreign rule, and carry out its own program set out in the pamphlet “Kürtzer Bericht…” of 1571. Meyer’s report, which includes the German text of the letters patent from Fyodor Ioannovich to Lübeck in 1586, the translations of the tsar`s letters to the governors of Novgorod and Pskov, and Meyer`s petitions, testifies to the successful start of this program. The report, among other things, contains information about situations in the trading courtyards of Novgorod and Pskov, in particular, about their relations with the city administration. Their lack of self-government and administrative dependence on the Russian authorities distinguished the Lübeck courtyards from the Hanseatic offices in their heyday.