Russia’s “Soft power” in Turkey in the British travel novel of the first third of the 19th century

UDC 821.111-3(09)
DOI 10.20339/PhS.2-26.108

Kovalyov Maxim A.,

Candidate of History, Associate Professor of the History,

Archeology and Local History Department

Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletov;

Researcher of the General History Department

St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

e-mail: mkovalyov.89@mail.ru

M.A. Kovalyov’s article explores the possibilities of Russian influence in the Ottoman Empire by analyzing British travel novels. Based on Thomas Hope’s novels “Anastasy” and Charles MacFarlane’s “The Armenians”, the author examines how the potential of Russian “soft power” in the Eastern issue and the Russo-Turkish confrontation was understood within the framework of the fiction and documentary genre. The key object of the study is the image of the ethnoconfessional communities of the Ottoman Porte — the Greek Phanariots and Armenians — and their perception of Russia. Despite the genre similarities, the approaches of the two authors show significant differences. Hope paints a pessimistic picture, denying the Greeks the potential for rebirth and assimilating them within the framework of orientalist discourse with the “vicious” East. MacFarlane, on the contrary, takes a more pronounced Hellenophile position, contrasting the civilization of the Greeks with Turkish barbarism. However, he also comes to a skeptical conclusion about the prospects of Greek-Russian cooperation, pointing to the internal disunity, careerism and clannishness of the Phanariots. Of particular interest is the analysis of the image of Armenians, who, unlike the Greeks, are attributed a more consistent pro-Russian orientation. This was facilitated by the low status of the Armenian community in the Ottoman hierarchy, as well as Russia’s great successes in the wars with Persia.

Keywords: T. Hope, Ch. MacFarlane, Russian-Turkish wars, orientalism, “soft power”, Greek nationalism, Phanariots

This research was funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF, project No. 25-18-00670)

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