CORDIAL relations with Britain were renewed during the 1760s by Catherine the Great, who made Imperial Russia one of the Great Powers of Europe thanks in no small part to Scotsman Samuel Greig, whom she appointed to revitalise the Navy.*
In 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte, bent on European domination, persuaded Paul I to harass the British in India, and prevailed on Alexander I to impose sanctions in 1807. Napoleon’s schemes were ruined when his assault on Moscow and humiliating retreat in September 1812 subsequently led to final defeat by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo in 1815.* But he had sown distrust. Russia and Britain allied to help Greece win independence in 1832; but shortly after a young John Wesley Hackworth began Russia’s railway revolution in 1836,* lingering fears for India led Britain and Russia into conflict in Afghanistan, and then the Crimean War of 1853-56.* By the 1860s, Russophobia in Westminster was feverish, but Alexander II’s state visit to Windsor Castle in 1874 promised something better.*
See Samuel Greig.
See Retreat from Moscow and The Battle of Waterloo.
The Afghan Wars of 1838-42 and 1878-1880, and the Crimean War of 1853-1856. See The Crimean War.
Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone accused Russophobes of an ugly nationalism: see An Exceptional Nation; free-trade campaigner Richard Cobden MP warned that critics had misunderstood the Russian national psyche: see Misreading Russia; and pioneering journalist William Stead accused anti-Russian newsmen of Playing with Fire.