Russian Diplomatic and Consular Officials in East Asia: A Handbook of the Representatives of Tsarist Russia and the Provisional Government in China, Japan, and Korea from 1858 to 1924 and of Soviet Representatives in Japan from 1925 to 1968George Alexander Lensen

Excerpt

The success or failure of a nation’s diplomacy depends to a large extent on the skill and experience of its representatives abroad. Impressed by Russian expansion in East Asia often with little or no use of direct force, Western observers, particularly in the 19th century, attributed Russian ability to get along with Orientals to Muscovite shiftiness and to a common cultural, if not racial, heritage. A more acceptable explanation of Russian know-how, from a modern historian’s point of view, would be language knowledge and first-hand acquaintance with Asian ways. There is only one way to ascertain whether Russian representatives in East Asia had the opportunity to acquire the expertise of experience and that is by examining the careers of all the personnel–from language students to Ambassadors–since the establishment of regular diplomatic and consular relations.

1968. 294 pages.
Hardback. [Out of print]