Vztah mezi Habsburky a Ruskem v druhé polovině 17. století : poselstvo Baklanovského a Michajlova do Vídně roku 1654

The author deals in his studies with returning of diplomatic relations between Muscovite state and Austrian Hapsburgs. The impulse for their returning came up from the czarist court by two political actions - the resolution of Zemsky sobor from lst (11th) of October 1653, and by signing the agreement in Perejaslav on 8th (18th) of January 1654 accepted Zaporozhian Cossacks, let us say, the whole Ukraine to their serfdom. So, they really declared war on Rzeczpospolita that the imperiál court used to have good and close relations with. It was necessary to calculate on the fact that the beginning of new military conflict in eastern Europe will not stay without response. The czarist rule did not risk anything, and started nobly taken diplomatic offensive in fall inl653 and in the first half of the year 1654. It was meant to introduce to the rulers of these states Muscovite version of the latest events in advance, and at the same time also an offer of "friendly neutrality" of a kind that meant support for Moscow, and withold from help to Rzeczpospolita. Moscow did not mean to sign military alliance with western-european powers. Moscow would prefer the most keeping status quo without interference of other states. Vienna did not belong to the first wave that was directed at the countries that, it is difficult to say, if that had happened by chance or by some political calculus, were against Hapsburgs during Thirty Years War - Sweden, France, Denmark, Netherlands. The first wave of delegation did not have any major problems. These states had to solve their own problems, and did not really want to interfere with a new war. The delegation to Vienna along with the delegation to Brandenburg and Courland was dispatched in May 1654 as last. The official reason of this delegation was announcement of the death of czar Michal Fedorovič, and accession of his son Alexej Michajlovič to the czarist throne. He acceded in 1645, so it was already nine years ago! There was no remark in the official czar's document about accepting The Cossacks as serfs of Muscovite czar, and about true reasons of the war. At the head of delegation were gentlemen Baklanovskij and Michajlov. Their main task was to keep imperator away from Polish-Muscovite conflict, and to reach that he would acknowledge the new czar, so in fact, acknowledge annexation of Ukraine and its attachment to The Muscovite state. The imperial court was in difficult situation, their options were greatly limited, and all their energy had to concentrate on completely different direction - The domains of Austrian Hapsburgs were undergoing difficult financial and economic crisis, Ferdinand 3rd was on the side of Spain in The Spanish-French war, the army of Austrian Hapsburgs stayed in Italian front, the Anti-Hapsburgs coalition started to form again in The Empire trying to grow together with France and Sweden, the unexpected death of the crown prince Ferdinand 4th, and to make younger son of Ferdinand, Leopold, to be elected as Roman imperator; to maintain peace in The Empire. He did not have a time, resources and enough of specific and confidential information to solve the other problems. It was all even more difficult because of the fact, that no one from The imperial court had the idea about the real situation on Muscovite side, and about the backround of the conflict that could have had also the other causes. No one could know what pose had Sweden and France in the whole case, and they even doubted about the attitude of The Osman Empire. It was possible that they did not interfere, and stayed in the background, to take advantage of bad political situation in easter Europe, to strengthen its position in The Empire, and invite a new military conflict with imperator. That is why the imperial court decided to oppose the least, and because they did not want to provoke Moscow for nothing, and to slow down the progress of hardly made new relationships, they decided rather to step aside temporarily and save time. The imperial yard stated the new official titles in the document for czar and promised that they will not help Polish king with the army, financially or in some other way. But at the same time they offered to be as a middleman in the future peace negotiation. There is no doubt about indisputable foreign and political success of Moscow. The czar could had been satisfied. The threat of interference of Hapsburgs was warded off, and it was quite sure that Rzeczpospolita will stay, till the beginning of peace negotation at least, in her fight alone. The great success was also that the imperator receded even though it was just tactics, and named a new czar in his documents. Why he did so, if it was just temporarily because he did not want to provoke Moscow and etc, it was bussiness of nobody at the czarist court. What was written down was important for them at that moment, not what imperator was thinking about it. According to the author's opinion, that decision was the only one possible in that particular situation. In addition, Moscow was not able to realize one of the main settings of delegation, namely to keep the imperator out of the game, and prevent him from interfering with the war in East. There was a perfect surprise for czarist delegates, and it was absolutely unexpected suggestion of imperator's instrumentality. As we can see from the instructions the czarist yard was not prepared for this eventuality at all, and the offer of instrumentality was real surprise for Muscovite delegates. The delegation of Baklanovskij and Michajlov became a prelude of the future engagement of Hapsburgs in a big military conflict that attacked eastern Europe already in the following year 1655, and almost made Rzeczpospolita to disappear from the map by so-called "Northen War". When Rzeczpospolita was attacked by Sweden, Brandenburg and Transylvania, the imperial diplomacy tried really hard to rescue Rzeczpospolita and the beginning of this trying was just a delegation that was led by Allegretti and Lorbach who were sent to Moscow by the imperial court already the following year 1655.