An Episode from History of Elizabethan Russia's Counter-Intelligence: «Mariamsky's Case»

The article contains an analysis of history of secret diplomacy by an example of «Matters of Student Mariamsky and His Political Adventures. 1751» published in the 4 volume of Prince Vorontsov's Archive. The document was compiled to as a report to empress Elizabeth of Russia. The source may be divided into three parts. The first part tells about a student named Pavel Mariamsky, who served at extraordinary envoy L. Lanchinsky's staff in Vienna. In 1747 Paul reported that Prussian agents had tried to get keys to cipher keys of Russian diplomatic correspondence. Soon after that he fled from Lanchinsky because of problems with his creditors. The student appeared again in 1751 and reported to the College of foreign affairs about the anti-Russian intentions of French resident Louis Castera, German count Ulrich Lowendal and prince Rudolf Kantakouzenos. These persons had tried to recruit Mariamsky to their side. Pavel was detained. These affairs are depicted in the second part of the document. The third part which is the biggest one contains Mariamsky's answers to a questionnaire compiled for the student's second interrogation. That interrogation revealed some new details about the French agents' intentions. The most important testimonies concerned Lowendal and Kantakouzenos. As Mariamsky met Lowendal he got to know about the latter's plans to establish certain relations with brothers Razumovsky and to break Hetmanate apart from Russia. Kantakouzenos' intrigues were aimed first of all to damage Austria and to bring benefit to the Porte, Prussia, and France. As Russia was allied to Austria it could also have been threatened. It was evident as the prince encouraged the Turks to promise to Little Russia and to the Cossacks to provide privileges equal to those of Danubian Principalities. Russian government reacted to Mariamsky's case by dispatching two agents to examine the plans of France. As we study «Mariamsky's case» we find an example of how diplomatic counter-intelligence worked i.e. how it gathered primary information about any potential damage to Russian interest. Its structure could be depicted as following: staff of diplomatic missions - College of foreign affairs and the chancellor as its head - the Empress. Consequently though the chancellor A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin was a head of counter-intelligence service the empress was invisibly present there. The document is also an example of a spy adventure. That adventure was multileveled as various adventurers from different countries took part in it. The French crown itself plunged into adventures to protect its interests in the zone of «Eastern Barrier» and to increase its influence in Poland and in Porte opposing the interests of Austria an Russia in these territories. To reach its aims French monarchy was ready to use the force of absolutely incomparable people. Both self-reliant and noted prince Kan-takouzenos and an unremarkable clerk Mariamsky could serve its interests.

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