Russian-Swedish Diplomatic Relations 1722—1725: Actors, Practices, Social Ties

The article deals with Russian-Swedish relations in 1722—1725, when official diplomatic communication was resumed after the Great Northern War and negotiations on the recognition of Peter the Great’s imperial title in Sweden (1723) and the conclusion of the Stockholm Treaty of Alliance (1724) were underway. These subjects have been sufficiently covered in the literature within the framework of the traditional state-centred history of foreign policy. However, their consideration within the concept of new diplomatic history has considerable potential and allows us to see how diplomacy functioned. The focus of the article is on the interaction of traditional diplomatic actors, the system of social ties and patron-client relations built by them, the correlation of formal and informal practices in diplomacy.