Diplomatische Gaben des Moskauer Reichs und Polen-Litauens in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Symbolische Kommunikation zwischen Zaren, Königen und Hetmanen

ENThe article deals with the gift exchange in diplomatic relations between the Polish-Lithua- nian Commonwealth and Muscovy/ Russia in the second half of the 17th century. It first part describes how these complicated rituals on a symbolic level represented real inten- tions of the negotiating sides. Either these "wordless messages" were to demonstrate willingness for peace (as in the case of the Mother of God icon brought back to Moscow by the Polish-Lithuanian envoys in 1667), or it had to give an object-lesson from one sover- eign to another (as it was with the saber re-given by Peter the Great to King August in 1709). Conflicts around diplomatic gifts were caused not by political confrontations, but by personal misunderstandings. The second part of the article deals with the ambiguous role the Ukrainian Cossacks played in accommodating these two gift-giving traditions to each other. On the one hand, the Cossacks' ambitions to conduct an independent foreign policy complicated diplomatic negotiations. On the other hand, the intermediary role of the Hetmans, their profound knowledge of diplomatic traditions of neighboring countries helped Muscovy/Russia to promote further contacts and to avoid symbolic misunderstandings. A paradigmatic example is the history of Ivan Mazepa's Hetmanate. Mazepa's gifts testified for his changing role on the international scene (at the beginning as a true subject of the Russian tsar, later as an independent ruler). The gifts which he got from Moscow or Warsaw were both pay- ments for Mazepa's services as well as acknowledgments of his partner status in foreign relations.This ambiguity survived till Mazepa's changing sides during the Second Northern War. Poltava battle (1709), as Mazepa's defeat, resulted in the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Hetmanate and the establishment of the Russian Empire on the international scene. It also signified the codification of the Russian diplomatic ceremonial in which gift-giving of the rulers from the imperial borderlands was strictly regulated.