Stateinye Spiski

a type of official record kept in Russia from the 15th to early 18th centuries, arranged in articles or according to individual items. Most numerous were the ambassadorial stateinye spiski, reports of Russian ambassadors or records of the reception of foreign ambassadors. These originated in the 15th century as gramoty s vestiami (“documents with news”), reports that were sent to Muscovy during the course of negotiations. In the second half of the 16th century, this type of stateinye spiski acquired the form of a diary giving a day-to-day summarizing report. Extensive stateinye spiski of other types, whose texts were interspersed with daily records of events, were widely used in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The ambassadorial stateinye spiski always included sections providing detailed descriptions of the route taken by the ambassadorial party, its stay abroad, and its return home. The central section was a record of the mission’s negotiations abroad. Many of these stateinye spiski contained information about the country where the embassy was stationed, its governmental structure, and its political and economic life. The ambassadorial stateinyespiski are a very valuable source for the history of Russian diplomacy.