‘12th June 1812
‘There’s a rumour that our man in Paris, Kurakin, demanded his passport some time ago, and Lauriston, it seems, is now on his way home to France,’ Aristov commented. Pavel looked through the window of the carriage into the warm summer evening. Although this news of the Russian and French ambassadors didn’t augur well for those hoping for peace, this evening the threat of war still seemed far away.
From Children of the Flames, (work in progress), chapter twelve.
Yesterday we learned that the Russian Ambassador to London of seven years standing, Andrey Kelin, has departed, and at present it seems there are no plans to replace him. According to the Sunday Times “He left Britain in the hope that a more constructive and respectful dialogue could eventually be restored, should the UK reconsider its policies towards our country.” Our own Ambassador to Moscow is, at present, still in place.
The news strongly resonated with me, since, as can be seen from the extract above, my current work in progress, Children of the Flames, also features the departure of not one but two ambassadors. Since, however, the year is 1812, Britain was not involved and the the envoys in question were those of Russia and France.
The Russian ambassador to the French court in the early months of 1812, Prince Alexander Kurakin, pictured above in a 1802 portrait by Vladimir Borvovikovsky, found it much more difficult to leave his post in Paris than his modern-day counterpart seems to have done in London. The prince hadn’t been in France for long, and, under the circumstances, was not enjoying his job. Aware of the deterioration of relations between Napoleon and his Emperor, Alexander, he watched helpless as hordes of French troops left the city to march east, but, despite a spy scandal being exposed in the Russian Embassy, he found himself unable to depart. In those days an ambassador needed a passport to leave, but every time Kurakin asked for one, he was ignored. In the end it took a provocative letter from St Petersburg to elicit a response that enabled him to go. Alexander stated that he would only negotiate with France if Napoleon moved his forces back beyond the Rhine. By this time Alexander already had significant troops on the borders of Poland, so Napoleon sent the Russian back to Russia with a letter stating that Alexander should not presume to order Napoleon where to station his troops.
War broke out between Russia and France a few weeks later. Hopefully we are not anywhere near the same situation now.
Times and habits change, but I have to say, Kurakin’s uniform seems to me a lot more attractive that Mr Kelin’s specs and dark suit!
