How Russia knew what it knew about China from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, combined with what Russia wanted to know about its Asian neighbor as its place in the world changed, especially after the Romanovs assumed power and proceeded to construct a global empire is the story Afinogenov aims to present in his book. As such, this book opens up a new path to consider not only how Russians gathered intelligence but also how their project of empire-building evolved during the period under examination. Not surprisingly, the author demonstrates that the Russians deployed various means to gather information that ranged from engaging in trade, especially in the porcelain industry, to training orthodox students in Beijing, to deploying Buddhist monks and Jesuit priests to gather information effectively acting as spies. Just as fascinating and equally important to Afinogenov’s study is how Russia’s view of itself prompted a subtle yet, in the end, a dramatic transformation of state policy. In the seventeenth, indeed beginning in the sixteenth century, Russia started reaching out to the Qing dynasty in an attempt to open doors not only to China but also to Siberia in an effort to develop trade relations. Then, after Peter the Great energized the Romanovs’ imperial project, the aim of relations with the East transformed from trade to gaining hegemonic control over vast stretches of territory, even at the expense of trade. Most impressive is the author’s scholarship as he relentlessly worked in archives in London, Paris, Moscow, and St. Petersburg while richly using numerous printed primary and secondary sources to construct the engaging narrative he presents in this book. Because of the high level of research, this book authoritatively offers readers a new lens to consider Sino-Russian relations over the course of their history.

Central to Afinogenov’s work is his discussion about the role and activities of the Jesuits in the course of the continuous encounters between Russians and Chinese emissaries. Noting that key to understanding his image of Russia’s relations in China are the numerous reports and essays Jesuits sent back to Europe, the author presents the conclusion that the Russians considered such information authoritative because of the belief that they had unusually close connections to the court of the Qing emperors. Although the Jesuits in fact were losing influence in China as time passed the Russians still considered them “consummate shakers and movers” in information gathering at least until the end of the eighteenth century. Jesuit missionaries, therefore, were responsible for the shaping of Russian, indeed European, views toward China and Chinese culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Cloak and dagger, often the key to spy networks at any point in history, was not the basis of this effort to gather information. Instead, Afinogenov informs readers that the relationship was based on the exchange of reports. For example, he reveals that Lorents Lang, a Siberian trader originally sent by Peter the Great to Beijing in 1715 developed a relationship with the Jesuits’ Dominique Perrenin and Antoine Gaubil through the exchange of books and letters. Ultimately, the letters of the Jesuits ended up in the hands of Russian academics who used this correspondence to develop an understanding of the Chinese. What started out as a private exchange of information, therefore, ended up being instrumental in the formation of state thinking toward Asia and the Chinese. Or, a century later Afinogenov reports how the dynamics of the relationship changed over the course of the eighteenth century largely because of the British conquest of India. More than one Russian diplomat viewed the emergence of Britain as a factor in South Asia as an indicator that the next place they would seek to conquer would be China. At this time, Catherine the Great shrewdly deployed her court’s Jesuit connections to seek the support of the Qing leadership to let her representative set up a mission in China to act as counter-measure to growing British influence in Asia. Specifically, in 1773, a time when Pope Clement XIV had formally dissolved the Society of Jesus, the Orthodox tsarina refused to accept his Dominus ac redemptor largely to protect their status in recently annexed portions of Poland resulting from the First Partition. The Jesuits in Russia, therefore, remained active and this resulted in two of them, Gabriel Gruber and Manswet Skokowski responding to Catherine’s request to write a letter to the their colleague in Beijing with the specific intent of asking them to approach the Chinese emperor to seek his permission for the Russian to establish an permanent embassy in China’s capital. Although in the end nothing came from this effort, that was because Emperor Qianlong did not accept the overtures of the British or the Russians yet still maintained his connections to them via the Jesuits.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this book is how Afinogenov’s lucid writing style enlivens what could be very dry history; the book reads like a detective novel. The author’s tremendous erudition, based on his rich and comprehensive research in archives, results in revelations about a host of people ranging from missionaries to bureaucrats representing both countries to adventurers and merchants who together comprised the brain-trust that formed the impressions about China that existed in the West. As the eighteenth century progressed, the activity of Jesuits in particular informed the Russian state as their relationship with China transformed from one based on trade to that of a foreign policy problem that required solutions for the empire to continue to grow. This information became highly desired in the West, which not only enlightened them about China, it also enhanced the prestige and standing of the Russian government across Europe in the eighteenth century. Gregory Afinogenov has written a tour de force that offers new information about the rise of empires and the globalization of the world in the early modern period of history. It should be widely read by all interested parties.