Comp. introductory articles and comments. A. Ya. Massov, M. Pollard.

Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya Publ., 2014, 352 p., ill.

The latest collection of materials on the history of Russian-Australian relations has been prepared jointly by researchers from the two countries. The Russian side is represented by the leading Russian expert on this issue, Professor A. Y. Massov, and the Australian side is represented by Marina Pollard, a member of the Russian Public Center of Queensland, a geographer by training, and our compatriot who now lives in Australia.

A. Y. Masov's introductory article "The Russian Consular Service in Australia in 1857-1917" is a big step forward compared to the two articles written by him in collaboration with Yu. D. Aksenov (2007). I would like to emphasize the high level of the new work of A. Y. Massov, which paints a vivid picture of the activity of the consuls of the Russian Federation.

empires on the Fifth Continent. At the same time, it should be noted that consuls in the strict sense of the word were not diplomats, as they are repeatedly referred to by both compilers. Published documents also show the difference between the consular and diplomatic services (p. 83, 256, 293). The characterization of Japan as "the dominant political force in the Pacific basin" seems somewhat exaggerated (p. 11). It is also unclear what the "mounted infantry" that supposedly existed as part of the Japanese army is. Another comment concerns the claim that by inviting the US navy to visit Australia in 1908, the Australian government took the step of "acquiring new foreign policy patrons" (p.11). The United States at that time was not yet such a powerful power, whose patronage could be relied on, so it would be more accurate to talk about the diversification of external relations of the Australian Union in the face of the weakening position of the British Empire in the Pacific and the growing independence of its dominions. Moreover, the above-mentioned author's judgment does not agree with the content of the documents published on pages 194, 234-236, 259.

M. Pollard's article "Imperial Russian Consuls in Australia", which is rich in factual material, contains biographies of consuls, which are presented so fully in the research literature for the first time. Only a few minor flaws can be noted in her article. On page 26, there is a typo in the date (1985 instead of 1895). "Aceh" (p.31) in the Russian transcription is usually called Aceh.

The main content of the collection consists of 144 documents from the funds of the AVPRI (Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire), starting from January 1859 to April 1917. Unfortunately, the published reports do not cover the entire period, leaving some chronological gaps, the most significant of which falls on the years 1880-1894. The collection publishes reports of the Russian Consul in Sydney E. M. Pohl (1857-1913) and consuls in Melbourne: J. Damion (1857-1894), A. D. Putyata (1894), R. R. Ungern-Stenberg (1895-1898), N. P. Passek (1900-1902), M. M. Ustinov (1903-1906), M. M. Gedenstrom (1908-1909), A. N. Abazy (1910-1917). Russian consuls were appointed to the main ports of Australia shortly after the end of the Crimean War, which was a turning point in the history of Russian-Australian relations. It was the events of that war that gave rise to the first "Russian panic" on the Fifth Continent, which was repeatedly repeated later in the moments of aggravation of Anglo-Russian relations. The "Russian panics" became a permanent factor in Australian history, largely contributing to the desire of individual colonies to unite their military efforts and, as a result, to create a single state on a continent-wide scale. It is no coincidence that a significant part of the published documents is devoted to various aspects of Russian-Australian relations and related problems of colonial defense. These are primarily reports of visits to Australian ports by Russian cruisers: the Svetlana in 1862, the Cruiser in 1894, and especially the Gromoboy in 1901.

The consuls reported important data on the activities of Australian Poles during the 1863 uprising and on the relationship between the problems of defense of Australia and India, which occupied an important place in the ideology of emerging Australian nationalism. Of particular interest is the report of A. Putyata on the reaction of Australian figures to the death of Alexander III in 1894. The published documents shed light on Russia's policy in the South Pacific, which was manifested by the expansion of the jurisdiction of the consul in Melbourne to the whole of Australia and the establishment of the Russian consulate in New Zealand. An important place on the pages of the collection was occupied by reports on the reaction in Australia to the events of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 and on the sharp change in attitudes towards Japan that occurred shortly after its end. The report of A. Abaza contains a detailed description of the Russian colony in Australia, formed by the beginning of the First World War.

The reports of the Russian consuls contain a large amount of information about the internal life of the Australian colonies, their trade, political and social structure, natural resources and culture. Special attention was paid to the unification movement in the Australian colonies, which culminated in the creation of the Union of Australia, and the characteristics of the new British dominion. Already in 1894, A. Putyata noted that "Australia is trying to act as a single federal state in an issue of international political significance" (p. 90). Another important topic that Russian officials were naturally interested in was social experiments in Australia, which, along with New Zealand, gave it a reputation as the "social laboratory of the world". "Australia positively wants to surprise the universe with the rapidity of its social progress," Poe remarked.

about A. Putyata (p. 108). Australian politicians, in particular, were among the first in the world to raise the issue of women's suffrage. The specific Australian version of socialism was also not ignored by representatives of Russia, who saw that in Australia "the worker is an impressive political force" (p. 76). M. Gedenstrom wrote in this connection that, unlike the Russian socialists, their Australian like-minded people were patriots and sought not "to destroy society, but only to destroy it". continuously improve your well-being in it." The compilers of the collection publish very interesting materials about the visit to the ports of the Fifth Continent by ships of the American Fleet, which became the largest foreign policy event in the early history of the Union of Australia. Of great historical interest is the extensive report of M. Gedenstrom, prepared at the end of 1908, which gives a general description of the economic and political situation of Australia (pp. 238-259).

Published documents are accompanied by detailed and qualified comments that allow you to get deeper into their content. Only some inaccuracies made by their authors can be noted. It is not quite correct to call Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich "the manager of the fleet and the maritime department" (p. 47). He had the rank of Admiral-General and in this capacity really headed the naval forces of Russia, but along with this there was the position of manager of the Maritime Ministry, which since 1860 was held by N. K. Krabbe. When mentioning the wars that England waged against the indigenous population of New Zealand (pp. 61-62), for some reason their well-established name in historiography - "Anglo-Maori wars"is not indicated. The terms "naval station" and" base " are not synonymous (p. 65). The term "station" meant rather a certain water area, within which a connection of ships intended for operations in these waters operated. In a narrower sense, a "station" was the point of permanent stay of a warship assigned to represent the interests of its state in a foreign port, even if there was no station at all. there was no base there (for example, "Varyag" was a" stationer " in Chemulpo). The drafters use the term "blokshiv" to refer to the ship that the authorities of the colony of Victoria intended to order in England for the defense of Melbourne (pp. 59, 64-65). In fact, it was decided to order a completely modern armored ship, which became the first in Australian waters. It is not entirely accurate to call the clashes on the Samoan islands "intertribal" (p. 92), since the tribal division of Samoan society had already given way to territorial division and the division of the warring parties did not take place along tribal lines. On page 237, without reference to the source, fantastic figures are given, indicating the alleged national enthusiasm for visiting Australian ports by ships of the US Navy. It is hardly legitimate to identify the term "caucus" exclusively with the "top of the party leadership" (p. 279). This is a much more ambiguous concept, which in different historical periods and in different countries denoted different mechanisms for developing a party line on a particular issue. Abaza more accurately defined the caucus as "a small group of bosses" in the Australian Labor Party (p.277). The name Josiah (p.281) is usually rendered in Russian as Josiah (as it is done on p. 184), the Russian spelling Joshua corresponds to Joshua. We regret to note that in some cases there are no comments where we would like to see them.

The last of the published reports, dated April 1917, notes "the ignorance of Australia and Russia of each other." In this regard, the founders of the then-established Australian-Russian Trade Reference Bureau saw one of their tasks as removing "obstacles that have existed so far on the basis of ignorance and misunderstanding of each other." This task still remains relevant, and the collection of documents prepared by A. Y. Masov and M. Pollard makes a significant contribution to its solution. A valuable addition to archival documents is the bibliography of published works of consuls. The publication also contains an excellent selection of illustrations, including unique photographs and other visual materials. The work of a researcher working with the materials of the collection will be facilitated by detailed name and geographical indexes. The reviewed documentary collection makes a significant contribution to the history of not only Russian-Australian relations, but also the entire consular service of the Russian Empire, which is still underestimated by historians, as well as to the history of Russian policy in the Pacific region.

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