The Catacazy Affair and the Uneasy Path of Russian-American Relations

Prof. Lee A. Farrow (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

216 Seiten

2021
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-10718-2 (ISBN)

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Constantin Catacazy whipped up scandal in Washington after his appointment there as Russian Ambassador in 1869, ignoring diplomatic protocol and defying social mores. By 1871, President Grant and his Cabinet requested that he be recalled. But the timing of this request overlapped with the visit of the tsar’s son to the USA - a celebrated diplomatic event symbolising the friendship and good will between the two nations. Consequently, Catacazy was allowed to travel with the tsar’s son, but only as a persona non grata. This tense resolution led many to worry about the future of the Russian-American friendship.

With a keen sense of the human interest, Lee A. Farrow demonstrates that this affair was one of the earliest significant complications in the relationship between Russia and the USA. Using a lively micro-historical approach and fresh materials such as the letters of Catacazy and of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish from archives in the USA, UK and Russia, Farrow explores 19th-century politics and diplomacy, and the pre-suffrage power of women in the political arena through an investigation of the Washington wives’ reactions to the controversial figure of Olga Catacazy. The result is a cutting-edge analysis of this pivotal episode in modern history.

Lee A. Farrow is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at Auburn University-Montgomery, USA. She is the author of Seward's Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase (2016), Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-1872 (2014) and Between Clan and Crown: The Struggle to Define Noble Property Rights in Imperial Russia (2005).

List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. ‘Objectionable and Obnoxious’: Constantin Catacazy’s Early Life and Career
2. ‘Fictitious Pretentions’: The Perkins Claims
3. ‘The Intermeddling of the Russian Minister’: The Alabama Claims
4. ‘Falsehood, Intrigue and Hostility’: Catacazy’s Breaches of Protocol
5. ‘She Had a Story and a Past’: Olga Catacazy and the Washington Wives
6. ‘A Thorough Mischief Maker’: The Recall of Catacazy
7. ‘He … Smirked Too Much to be Dignified’: The Last Years of Constantin Catacazy
8. Conclusion: The Significance of the Catacazy Affair
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	08.10.2021
Reihe/Serie	Library of Modern Russia
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	481 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-350-10718-2 / 1350107182
ISBN-13	978-1-350-10718-2 / 9781350107182
Zustand	Neuware