The “Courland Question” in the Reports of A. M. Devieir, General Chief of Police

This article examines the reports sent by A. M. Devieir, the General Chief of Police, to Empress Catherine I in January-February 1727. These reports reveal the details of Devieir’s mission to Courland on the eve of the Polish Sejm. Published here for the first time, the reports have come down to us in their original form; they are kept in Fund 9 (Office of Peter I and its continuation) of the RGADA (Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Moscow). Devieir’s reports help to find new details about the Courland conflict, which united various states that had geopolitical interests in the Baltic region, and the struggle of political groups in Courland and Semigallia over the issue of preserving or abolishing “ancient” rights and autonomies, and the accession or non-accession of the territory to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The reports also provide valuable information about the state activity and the character of A. M. Devieir, who for the first time was involved in the implementation of diplomatic missions, and his interactions with other statesmen. Thirdly, and rather indirectly, the correspondence of the General Chief of Police helps reconstruct the political hierarchy and the nature of social ties between the highest officials of the Russian Empire in the post-Peter period. Thus, an important role of A. V. Makarov, Office Secretary; A. I. Ostermann, Vice-Chancellor; P. I. Yaguzhinsky, former Prosecutor General of the Senate; P. M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Chief Hoffmeister of the court of Anna Ioannovna, can be noted as well as the reduced influence of Prince A. D. Menshikov, who lost confidence after unauthorized interference in the affairs of Courland in 1726. All these reasons make Devieir’s reports a valuable historical source. Their significance is fully revealed when they are analysed together with similar documents related to the Courland crisis of the 1720s, deposited in the funds of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the Supreme Privy Council.