List of foreign observers of Russia

In the following list of foreign observers of Russia dates are normally date of first publication, or other appropriate date where this is not possible

• 922: Ahmed ibn Fadlan travelled from Bagdad to near Kazan, saw Vikings
• c. 950: Ahmad ibn Rustah went to Novgorod
• c. 1241: Snorri Sturluson described Rus chieftains as typical Vikings
• c. 1300: Marco Polo mentioned Russia as a distant country in the far north
• 1476: Ambrogio Contarini Venetian ambassador to Persia, passed through Moscow. Early (earliest?) printed source
• 1486: Iurii Trakhaniot Muscovite ambassador to Milan, interviewed by Milanese officials, their report possibly not published
• 1487: Giosafat Barbaro Venetian to Sea of Azov, published 1543
• 1515 Jacob Piso: Polish anti-Russian propaganda, never in Russia
• 1517: Maciej Miechowita "first accurate geography of Eastern Europe"
• 1519 Christian Bomhover: Teutonic Knight, first book solely on Russia, very hostile, never visited Russia, little cited by later authors.
• 1525–1543: Albert Compense, Paolo Giovo, Johan Fabri: Favorable accounts in interest of church union. Never in Russia.
• c. 1527: Sigismund von Herberstein, Habsburg ambassador to Moscow. Saw government as despotic. Much copied by later writers.
• 1553: Richard Chancellor reached Muscovy via the White Sea, wrote Booke of the Great and Mighty Emperor of Russia
• 1561–1583: During the Livonian War a number of anti-Russian pamphlets published in the German lands.
• 1578: Heinrich von Staden German soldier, in oprichnina
• 1586: Antonio Possevino Papal diplomat
• 1589: Richard Hakluyt published voyages of the Muscovy Company
• 1589: Anthony Jenkinson, with Muscovy Company, to Moscow, Astrakhan, Bukhara and Persia, published in Hakluyt
• 1591: Giles Fletcher, the Elder English ambassador to Muscovy, wrote Of the Russe Common Wealth
• 1607: Jacques Margeret French mercenary, 'first printed French book on Russia'
• 1610: Isaac Massa Dutch merchant and envoy, via White Sea
• 1615: Peter Petreius Swedish diplomat, wrote History of the Grand Duchy of Moscow
• 1617: Conrad Bussow German involved in Time of Troubles
• 1621: Jerome Horsey with Muscovy Company
• 1647: Adam Olearius Holstein ambassador to Persia via Muscovy and the Volga
• 1653: Paul of Aleppo favorable view of an Orthodox theocracy. In Arabic, English translation 1829
• 1663: Juraj Križanić Croat and proto pan-slav. Advocated liberalizing reforms similar to the later enlightened despotism
• 1671: Samuel Collins (physician) physician to the Czar
• c. 1678: Nicolae Milescu Moldavian in Siberia and China
• c. 1680: Patrick Gordon: Scots soldier, left diary
• 1682: John Milton A Brief History of Muscovy compiled from other sources
• 1687: Foy de la Neuville possibly travelled in Russia
• 1701: Dembei Japanese castaway taken to St Petersburg
• 1712: Tulishen Manchu ambassador to Russia and the Kalmycks
• 1721: Friedrich Christian Weber German diplomat
• c. 1723: Lorenz Lange Swede in Siberia and China
• 1729–1732: Two Chinese embassies to Russia^[1]
• c. 1733: Johan Gustaf Renat Swede captured by Russians and then Dzungars. Mapped Siberia and Dzungaria
• 1746? Georg Wilhelm Steller journals of the Bering expedition
• 1751: Johann Georg Gmelin, with Bering, botany of Siberia
• 1757: Gerhard Friedrich Müller, with Bering, examined Siberian archives
• 1771: Peter Simon Pallas German natural historian
• 1784: William Richardson (classicist) Scots traveler
• c. 1829: Alexander von Humboldt German naturalist
• 1839: Marquis de Custine very hostile
• 1847: August von Haxthausen publicized the peasant commune
• 1870: George Kennan (explorer) in eastern Siberia
• 1876: Edward Delmar Morgan British traveler and translator
• 1877: Donald Mackenzie Wallace British journalist
• 1894: Constance Garnett translated Russian novels
• 1909: Jeremiah Curtin visited Buryats
• 1913–1919: Arthur Ransome English author, journalist and translator; witnessed revolution
• 1919: John Reed (journalist) witnessed revolution

• For the Soviet period see Category:Writers about the Soviet Union

• Marshall T. Poe, "A People Born to Slavery: Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476–1748", 2000
• Anthony Cross, "In the Lands of the Romanovs: An annotated bibliography of first-hand English-language accounts of the Russian Empire (1613–1917), 2014