In the Lands of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917)

It is hard to believe that anyone has ever known more about relations between Britain and Russia than Anthony Cross and impossible to imagine that his expertise will be surpassed in the foreseeable future. [This bibliography] will not only remain the indispensable starting-point for novices in years to come, but is also guaranteed to pay immediate dividends even to those with established interests in the subject. Surely everyone will discover something new to them here. [...] For it is an especially attractive feature of In the Lands of the Romanovs that readers are encouraged ‘to help develop this collaborative edition by adding new entries and creating links to existing resources’ (p. vi). Those who wish to do so may access the online version identified above. [...] This outstandingly useful book belongs on the shelf of all those interested in Anglo-Russian relations and in the Russian experiences of other foreign visitors and residents.

A major addition to the scholarship on Anglo-Russian and American-Russian historical and cultural contacts, In the Lands of the Romanovs is available in two different formats: as a paperback book and as a free publication on the publisher’s website. A free, socially enhanced version of this book is also available on Wikiversity, a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to educational resources. This innovative publishing practice will make it even more easily available to the Russian audience and to the student audience alike.


This is no mere booklist but an exercise in critical bibliography, detailed and interesting to read as a text: each entry is accompanied by information on the author and Professor Cross’s reflections on the book in hand. It is a work of considerable research on Cross’s part and he should be commended for digging out the biographical details of some very obscure men and women. Practically, all the entries depend upon 'first-hand’ knowledge – in historians’ parlance, they are primary sources. [...] Only a specialist with the greatest expertise (not me) could find omissions or mistakes in this book. But I find it hard to believe that much has escaped the painstaking scrutiny of Professor Cross.


In the Lands of the Romanovs is remarkable not only for its thoroughness, but also for its innovation and accessibility. [...] an invaluable database that should become a model for other scholars to emulate and develop.

1 Portrait of Aleksei Mikhailovich, in Samuel Collins, The Present State of Russia (London: J. Winter for D. Newman, 1671). Wellcome Trust, London: http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/52/6c/5505fbbb60e719803d9da656fffc.jpg
2 Peter I in Russian dress during the Grand Embassy (n.d.), artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_I_in_russian_dress_during_Grand_Embassy.jpg
3 Portrait of William Tooke (1820), engraving by Joseph Collyer the Younger, after Martin Archer Shee. National Portrait Gallery, London. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Tooke.jpg
4 Portrait of Claire Clairmont (1819) by Amelia Curran. Oil on canvas. Reproduced in Robert Gittings and Jo Manton, Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claire_Clairmont,_by_Amelia_Curran.jpg
5 St Petersburg, Senate Square, 14 December, 1825 (1825-26), by Karl Kolman. Reproduced in Literaturnye mesta Rossii (Moskva: Sovetskaia Rossiia, 1987). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peterburg,_Senate_Square,_1825,_dec._14.jpg
6 Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Craven, later Margravine of Anspach (1778), by George Romney. Oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElizabethCraven.jpg
7 Count Francesco Algarotti (1745), by Jean-Étienne Liotard. Pastel on parchment. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-%C3%89tienne_Liotard_-_Portret_van_Graaf_Francesco_Algarotti.jpg
8 John Henniker-Major, 2nd Baron Henniker (1780s-90s), by Henry Hudson, after George Romney. Mezzotint. National Portrait Gallery, London. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2ndLordHenniker.jpg
9 William Coxe, Russian edition of his Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark (Moscow: I. Smirnov, 1837). Wikimedia Commons: http://bit.ly/1kJGgwN
10a Title page of the 1799 German edition of Peter Simon Pallas, Bemerkungen auf einer Reise in die südlichen Statthalterschaften des Russischen Reichs in den Jahren 1793 und 1794 (Leipzig: Gottfried Martini, 1799). Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Leipzig. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Travels_through_the_southern_Provinces_of_the_Russian_Empiredeutsch.jpg
10b Title page of the 1812 English edition of Peter Simon Pallas, Travels through the southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the years 1793 and 1794 (London: John Stockdale, 1812). Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Leipzig. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Travels_through_the_southern_Provinces_of_the_Russian_Empire-english.jpg
11 A map of Kamtschatka engraved from the russian map by Tho. Jefferys, in Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov: The history of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands with the countries adjacent; Illustrated with maps and cuts. Published at Petersbourg in the Russian language by order of her Imperial Majesty and translated into English by James Grieve (Glocester:printed by R. Raikes for T. Jefferys, 1764). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_map_of_Kamtschatka_engraved_from_the_russian_map_by_Tho_Jefferys.jpg
12 Edmund Spencer, Travels in Circassia, Krim-tartary, &c: including a steam voyage down the Danube, from Vienna to Constantinople, and round the Black Sea (London: H. Colburn, 1839). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circassian._Travels_in_Circassia,_Krim-tartary,_%26c.jpg
13 British bombardment of the fortress Bomarsund (Aland Islands) during the Crimean war (1854), artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bombardment_of_Bomarsund.jpg
14 Only known photograph of Mary Seacole (1805-1881), taken c.1873 by Maull & Company in London, photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seacole_photo.jpg
15 Sketch of Mary Seacole’s "British Hotel” in the Crimea (n.d.), by Lady Alicia Blackwood. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blackwood_Seacole_sketch.png
16 William Simpson photographed by Roger Fenton on Cathcart Hill before Sevastopol, Crimea, 1855. Adrian Lipscomb collection. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Simpson_in_the_Crimea.jpg
17 Balaklava harbour (Crimea) [1855], photograph by Roger Fenton. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cossack_bay.Balaklava_1855.3a06075r.jpg
18 Portrait of Donald Mackenzie Wallace (no later than 1905), photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Donald_Mackenzie_Wallace.jpg
19a‑b Title page and photograph of a first edition of Florence Crauford Grove, The Frosty Caucasus (1875). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Frosty_Caucasus,_front_page.jpg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Frosty_Caucasus_%281875%29.jpg
20 "The Great Game: the Afghan Emir Sher Ali Khan with his ‘friends’ Russia and Great Britain” (30 November, 1878), cartoon by Sir John Tenniel. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Game_cartoon_from_1878.jpg
21 Portrait of Moses Montefiore (n.d.), artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moses_Montefiore.jpg
22 Tolstoi organising famine relief in Samara (1891), photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tolstoy_organising_famine_relief_in_Samara,_1891.jpg
23 Thomas Stevens on his penny-farthing bicycle. Image from his Around the world on a bicycle (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1887). Cornell University Library. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Stevens_bicycle.jpg
24 Harry de Windt (no image credit). Photograph published in his From Paris to New York by land (Thomas Nelson & Sons: London, Edinburgh, Dublin and New York, 1903). Projects Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26007/26007-h/26007-h.htm. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_de_Windt.jpg
25 The Governor-General of India George Curzon with his wife Mary in Delhi (29 December 1902), photographer unknown. Published in Joachim K. Bautze, Das koloniale Indien. Photographien von 1855 bis 1910 (Köln: Fackelträger Verlag, 2007), p. 211. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Curzon_and_Mary_Curzon_on_the_elephant_Lakshman_Prasad_1902-12-29_in_Delhi.jpg
26 Portrait of Mandell Creighton (1902) by Hubert von Herkomer. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, London. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mandell_Creighton_by_Sir_Hubert_von_Herkomer.jpg
27 A Christmas dinner on the heights before Sevastopol (Capt Burnaby is the fifth figure from the left), by J.A. Vinter. Tinted lithograph. Published in The Seat of War in the East (London: Paul & Dominic Colnaghi & Co., 13 & 14 Pall Mall East; Paris: Goupil & Cie, 1855). Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Christmas_dinner_on_the_heights_before_Sebastopol.jpg
28 Pen portrait of Stephen Graham, by Vernon Hill. Published in Stephen Graham, Changing Russia (London: John Lane, 1913), frontispiece.
29 Mikhail Fedorovich, first tsar of the house of Romanov (n.d.), artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_titularnik.jpg
30 Aleksei Mikhailovich (n.d.), artist unknown. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexis_I_of_Russia.jpg
31 Fedor Alekseevich (1685), by Ivan Saltanov, Erofei Elin and Luka Smolianov. The Moscow Kremlin. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feodor_III_by_Ivan_Saltanov_-_detail.JPG
32 Peter the Great (1698), by Godfrey Kneller. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection. Wikimedia Commons: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Peter_I_by_Kneller.jpg
33 Catherine I (1717), by Jean-Marc Nattier. Oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_I_of_Russia_by_Nattier.jpg
34 Peter II of Russia (circa 1730), by Ioann Vedekind. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_II_of_Russia_by_Vedekind.jpg
35 Anna Ivanovna (circa 1730), artist unknown. Moscow State Historical Museum. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anna_of_Russia_by_anonymous_%281730s,_GIM%29.jpg
36 Empress Elizabeth (n.d.), by Ivan Argunov. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivan_Argunov_02.jpeg
37 Great Duke Peter Fedorovich, later Peter III (1758), by Fedor Rokotov. Oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_III_of_Russia_by_Rokotov.jpg
38 Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice (1783), by Dmitrii Levitskii. Oil on canvas. Russian Museum, St Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitry_Levitsky_-_Portrait_of_Catherine_II_the_Legislatress_in_the_Temple_of_the_Goddess_of_Justice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
39 Paul I, Emperor of Russia (n.d.), by Vladimir Borovikovskii. Oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Borovikovsky_Pavel_I.jpg?uselang=en-gb
40 Alexander I (c.1814/1815), by François de Gérard. Reproduced in Matti Klinge (ed.), Helsingin yliopisto 1640–1990: Keisarillinen Aleksanterin yliopisto 1808–1917 (Helsinki: Otava, 1989), p. 15. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_I_by_Gerard.jpg
41 Nicholas I (1856), by Vladimir Dmitrievich Sverchkov. Oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Au_service_des_Tsars_-_Nicolas_1er_-_01.jpg
42 Charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade, 25th Oct. 1854, under Major General the Earl of Cardigan, print by William Simpson (1 March 1855). Published by Goupil & Cie, Paris, and Day & Son, London. The Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Simpson_-_Charge_of_the_light_cavalry_brigade,_25th_Oct._1854,_under_Major_General_the_Earl_of_Cardigan.png
43 Alexander II (n.d.), photographer unknown. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_II_of_Russia_photo.jpg
44 Alexander III (n.d.), photograph by Félix Nadar. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_III._Czar_Of_Russia_Nadar.jpg
45 Nicholas II (1898), photograph by A.A. Pasetti. Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tsar_Nicholas_II_-1898.jpg