Police supervision on Russians in Paris in 18th century (about the book by D. Kondakov and A. Stroev)
Bolt Valentina
The author analyzes a joint work by D. Kondakov and A. Stroyev, published in 2024 and devoted to the surveillance practices of the Parisian police, carried out jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on travelers arriving from Russia. The book was translated into Russian in 2025. The main content of the work consists of a chronologically organized set of archival documents, primarily police reports, which the authors collected over a period of over 10 years. During the period they studied — from 1729 to 1791 — they counted approximately 600 names of Russian travelers in Paris mentioned in police reports. According to their observations, the surveillance agencies did not pay attention to people of non-noble birth, the poor, or students and servants. Only those with social and political influence were under scrutiny. At the same time, the authors note, women were rarely subject to police surveillance, and a number of Russian intellectuals and writers, such as the poet V. K. Trediakovsky or the writer N. M. Karamzin, were completely overlooked. The authors did not aim to thoroughly examine the evolution of police institutions in 18th-century France; but, more importantly, the impressive material they collected allows them to reconstruct numerous details about the lives of the Russian aristocracy in Paris.