ИСТИНА

The paper will focus on one of the first Russian resident ambassadors on Count Andrey Artamonovitch Matveev (also Matveyev, 1666–1728) and his impact on the ‘westernization’ of the Russian diplomatic culture during the age of the Petrine reforms. Matveev’s missions to the Dutch Republic, Austria, France and England have been well studied before, but have never been discussed from the ‘gender’ point of view. Matveev was one of the first Russian ambassadors, who took his family with him on his missions. He made a remarkable effort to educate not only his sons, but also his wives and daughters – thus he encouraged to shape new attitudes towards women, which was being promoted during the Petrine period. He was married three times and all of his wives were somewhat privy to his diplomatic work. Although the overall information about them is scant, it is still possible to evaluate their role in the shaping of the new Russian diplomatic practice.