Russian Diplomatic School during the Reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741—1761)

The article is devoted to the study of the Russian diplomatic school in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. The empress came to power under the slogan of the Russian revival, trying to transfer government posts from the hands of foreigners to the hands of Russians. However, it retained Russian diplomatic posts abroad for foreigners, which was explained by a lack of trained national personnel. The need to prepare their own diplomats forced the Russian court, in the absence of Russian universities, to use the institute of nobles of the embassy introduced by Peter I, who served in missions abroad as students. If earlier the nobles of the embassy studied a variety of subjects in European capitals, now they studied precisely diplomatic work. Ultimately, the young diplomats had to be ready to replace the heads of diplomatic missions. The estate character of the Russian state assumed that the nobles of the embassy would replace the heads of missions, and their assistants (secretaries, translators, clercs) would be students of the embassy, mainly immigrants from unprivileged classes. The preparation of the embassy students was also entrusted to the heads of missions. Diplomats should have followed the studies of both embassy nobles and embassy students, encouraged good studies, and punished laziness. The experience of training the nobles of the embassy was recognized as successful, and in 1756 the Russian court ordered to have three noblemen of the embassy in officer ranks at each mission. The most capable of these nobles could obtain the position of adviser to the embassy, thus becoming the first deputy ambassador or envoy. This measure was intended only for nobles. The former democratic nature of the College of Foreign Affairs was already a thing of the past (although immigrants from other classes continued their diplomatic service under Catherine II, reaching the posts of heads of mission). The government of Elizabeth Petrovna paid great attention to the training of diplomats, and, in the opinion of the author of the article, created a good national diplomatic school capable of responding to the challenges of our time, another thing is why this school was not in demand in the same volume in the Catherine II reign.