Découvrir les Russes au xviiie siècle : l'altérité à l'aune des récits de voyage

While it had long been an unfamiliar and even mysterious country, Russia became in the eighteenth century a magnet and meeting ground for numerous European migrants. This period coincided with a “discovery” of Russians that this paper will address in two sections. After defining the broad outlines of the Russia-“West” convergence, it will focus on sources that are particularly rich in stereotypes, travel accounts, and on the search for Russian “national character” that influenced their authors.