Enlightened Declarations: Ottoman and Russian Proclamations in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1768–1774

Abstract

This article analyses the Ottoman and Russian proclamations during the Ottoman-Russian War of 1768–1774 to understand their similarities and differences in discourse and their intended audiences, with a special focus on the elites of the Ottoman Empire. The article shows that Ottoman diplomacy practiced Enlightenment diplomacy in the same way as its rivals, using the language of enlightened absolutism to win the hearts and minds of the Polish nobility. However, the war made diplomacy and its accompanying discourses an internal affair, and the imperial elite rejected the idea of fighting for Polish liberties. This had a lasting impact on how Ottoman power was framed and understood by both the imperial elite and its subjects. This was the main difference between the Ottoman and Russian empires; the former had already created an elite consensus based on shared European cultural signifiers that depended on the European Enlightenment, while the latter never did.