Baron Alexander Stroganov’s Mission to Vienna (1761): Dynastic Policy and Symbolic Communication

The article is based on the materials from Russian and Austrian archives and devoted to lesser-known circumstances of the preparation and course of the 1761 diplomatic mission of Baron A.S. Stroganov to Vienna on the occasion of the wedding of the heir to the throne, Archduke Joseph, with Isabella of Parma. The embassy is considered in the context of symbolic communication through ceremonial gestures between St. Petersburg and Vienna. It emphasised the particularly friendly nature of the relationship between the two dynasties and two courts, not only united by a bilateral treaty and membership in the anti-Prussian alliance during the Seven Years War but also symbolically related as godparents. A.S. Stroganov was a young aristocrat without proper experience in the field of diplomacy and of the modest court rank of Kammer-Junker. The appointment was explained by his kinship with Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov whose daughter Anna officially accompanied her husband on the trip. The imperial ambassador to St. Petersburg Count Nicolaus Esterházy spared no effort to smooth over the awkwardness and find benevolent patrons for the young couple in Vienna. European education and the exceptional personal qualities of the ambassador allowed A. Stroganov to fulfil the commission with honour and receive the title of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Francis I as a reward. The embassy became the last page in the history of relations between St. Petersburg and Vienna on the eve of the break of bilateral relations and Russia’s withdrawal from the Seven Years War in 1762.