Documents from Russian and European Archives on the Activities of Holstein Missions in the Holy Roman Empire in the 1740s — 1770s

In the mid-eighteenth century, the diplomatic missions of Holstein-Gottorp in the Holy Roman Empire were an important instrument of Russia's foreign policy, since during period in question, this North German duchy was headed by the heirs to the Russian throne — Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich (from 1762, Emperor Peter III) and his son, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, who was under the guardianship of his mother, Empress Catherine II, until he came of age in 1772. The activities of the Holstein missions in the Holy Roman Empire have hardly been studied by researchers, although they are sufficiently provided with sources with high information potential. The article provides a description of the vast collections of documents deposited in the funds of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents, State Archives of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Austrian State Archives. These documents shed light on the functioning of the Holstein missions in Vienna, where Imperial court and the highest judicial authority for inheritance matters — the Imperial Court Council were located, and in Regensburg, where the sessions of the Imperial Diet (the assembly of all Estates of the Empire) were held. The types of sources include correspondence between the Russian College of Foreign Affairs and Holstein authorities; letters of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp and the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, among them letters of credence and recall for Holstein diplomats in Vienna and Regensburg; correspondence of Holstein and Russian diplomats in Vienna and Regensburg with the Russian court; correspondence of Austrian diplomats in St. Petersburg and Regensburg.