Ambassador Count Nikolaus Esterházy: Languages and Network-Building in St Petersburg, 1753–1761

This article scrutinizes the patterns of written and oral communication of the imperial and Austrian ambassador to St Petersburg, Count Nikolaus (Miklós) Esterházy. He was the first Hungarian aristocrat to secure a diplomatic career, representing the House of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire at several European courts, including Saxony, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Spain, and Russia. Only a few of his autographs in German and French survive. Esterházy’s biography, however, proves that he was fluent in these languages and additionally mastered the basics of written Latin and (at least) spoken Hungarian. Furthermore, the article illustrates how the Austrian mission in St Petersburg functioned in the middle of the eighteenth century and what languages were used in correspondence with the imperial vice chancellor and state chancellor. It also shows what languages diplomats needed to be proficient in to manage incoming and outgoing correspondence and how present-day historians use the private archives of the diplomat, which preserve most documents processed by the mission in their completeness and variety. Attention is paid to the diplomat’s principal counterparts at the Russian court – Empress Elizabeth, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna, Alexei P. Bestuzhev-Riumin, Mikhail I. Vorontsov, and Petr I. Shuvalov. During his stay in Russia, Esterházy followed the existing practices of writing dispatches to Vienna and communicating with the College of International Affairs in St Peterburg in German. Although it is not always clear if he used German or French at the Russian court, he was flexible enough to use both for acquiring information and gaining favors.