THIS little book on Scottish influence in Russia has been planned during the year which is the Tercentenary of the Romanoff Dynasty to interest travellers who visit Russia, and also in the hope of reminding Russians where many of their ‘instructors’ came from. In spite of our very desirable, but very recent friendship, Russia and Britain are still too far apart historically to know much about each other. The old intercourse (a very limited one when all is said) between England and Russia is narrated in many books of travel, and I have therefore given it but a short introductory chapter. I am unaware of any book, however, which shows separately to any degree the part the Scot played in Russia (individually, though hardly as a nation) in helping to ‘Westernise’ the great empire of the Tsars, so I have endeavoured shortly to sketch the ‘service’ given by the Scots who enrolled themselves in the Russian employ. My book is founded, not so much on Russian, as on French and British sources, and thus the dates and the spelling of names may be sometimes irregular. It, however, claims the privilege of an explorer or that of a pioneer.

I have tried to indicate where authorities on my subject may be most easily found, and have therefore cited copiously only from the rarer and less known books.

Some day a Russian scholar will dig up lists (lists I long to see) of Scottish names from the depths of the archives of Russia. I hope he will come soon. Until he does, I trust that my essay may help the Scot to understand Russian history better, and the Russian to be interested in those of the Scottish nation who helped to connect his Byzantine civilisation, marred as it was and retarded by the Tartar conquest, with that of Western Europe.

I have to thank especially my friends Mr. R. H. Bruce Lockhart, British Vice-Consul at Moscow, Mr. G. E. S. Bowen, R.F.A., Mr. John F. Baddeley, and M. Vladimir Ivanovitch Kameneff for their valuable help in putting my book in order.

A. FRANCIS STEUART.