Authors

Maya Lavrinovich¹;  ¹ --, Israel

Discussion

Examination of large volumes of late eighteenth-century Russian correspondence shows that patronage was embedded in the new emotional regime of 'natural sentiment', which produced sensitive friendship without benefit. Although Sharon Kettering, the most prominent scholar of patronage, cautioned against confusing the language of patronage with the real political circumstances of at least seventeenth-century France, I suggest that sentiment became a new basis for social ties and social identities in late eighteenth-century Russia.

One of the most famous patron-client pairs in 18th-century Russia is Count Alexandr Romanovich Vorontsov (1741-1805) and Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802). Their relationship is obscured by the glorious image of the latter as the first explicit oppositionist to the court and the monarchy. A study by Rodolphe Baudin has revealed the nature of their long-lasting relationship. The emotional component of Radishchev's letters to Vorontsov shows that it was based on the latter's continued protection, as well as on the fraternal bonds of Freemasonry. The specificity of masonic practices based on "love" and supported by the practice of writing diaries and letters led, on the one hand, to the distortion of the social hierarchy within the lodges and, on the other, to the adaptation of the new modes of behaviour to the everyday life of masons. In my paper, I juxtapose Vorontsov's letters to Radishchev with his correspondence with another of his previously unknown clients, Brigadier Alexei Stepanovich D'iakonov (1734-1789). An examination of their letters to each other reveals that Vorontsov's concern ("uchastie") for those below him in the social hierarchy was emotionally predetermined and interpreted as "love".

In particular, D'iakonov was confused when he called their relationship 'friendship', because he could not interpret it properly in habitual terms of the ancient meaning of the word, which implied patronage and personal loyalty. This resulted in the discrepancy of two registers of writing: sensitive in the Vorontsovs' letters and obsequious in D'iakonov's. Nevertheless, despite the differences in their social status, economic situation and cultural background, the two men, bound together by the Freemason ties of ten years earlier, remained devoted penfriends and, to some extent, even business partners until D'iakonov's death.