Newspaper Le Moniteur Universel as a source of Russian-French relations in 1801-1807

The topicality of the theme of this article can be explained by the fact that nowadaysit is the European direction that is one of the most important directions in the Russian foreign policy. In the past it was France thatembodied and represented Europe in the Russian and European relations. Nowadays France continues playing a major role in the foreignpolicy of the RF. In the article we considered a small, but very important period of interaction between Russia and France. - 1801-1807,the period of the most active relations, the period when Russia participated in the anti-French coalitions (the 3rd and the 4th coalition).Since March 1801 the French press, particularly, the newspaper Le Moniteur universel paid attention to Russia for the first time. It wascaused by the palace revolution and the following Alexanders accession to the throne. In total there are 78 publications, in which Russiawas mentioned. There are about 2552 publications for the period of 1801-1807 that contain 835 mentions about Russia. This article canbe divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to the characteristics of Le Moniteur Universel. The author of the article considers thehistory of newspaper establishment, explains the reasons for its establishment and main aims its founder pursued. According to thefounders idea the newspaper was to highlight revolutionary events and life in Paris and provinces, countrys domestic policy and actionson the international scene, news in the field of science, literature and culture. After that the author describes the events in the countrythat had caused the changes in the newspapers status and its orientation. With Napoleons accession to the throne the newspaper gotthe status of the official governmental newspaper, the main aim of which was to misinform the enemy and create the appropriate atmospherefor continuation of aggressive wars in the society. In the second part the author gives statistic data, composed on the basis of articlesin the newspaper. In the tables there are numbers that reflect the frequency of mentions about Russia, and the form of publicationsin the articles - either it was correspondence from theatres of wars or feuilletons that were so characteristic for the French press in the19th century. On the basis of the data the characteristics of Russian and French relations in 1801-1807 was given, which helps to understandthe dynamics of the development of the relations and trace the tendency for the decreasing of interest in Russia. In general, theauthor notices a large data volume, which means that Russia had taken an important place in the French foreign policy. The newspaperLe Moniteur universel being a historical document gained the special historical value for the research. Firstly, it broadens informationabout the relations between Russia and France; secondly, it is one of the sources that provide data that can help to understand the dynamicsof the development of relations in the period of 1801-1807 and understand the domestic situation in the country and Frenchmensattitude to Russia.

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