Memories of Embassy Dated 1774 and fifteenth-eighteenth Ottoman-Russian relations

In this study, we tried to reflect the Ottoman-Russian political relations of the XVIII century, to a certain extent. In our study, we made use of documents from the Prime Ministry?s Ottoman Archive, from works published in Ottoman Turkish, and from works published in the Latin alphabet. Primarily, we made mention of the definitions of ambassador reports and the number of available ambassador reports. Thereafter, we mentioned the diplomatic relations beginning from the 15th century, in which the Ottoman-Russian relationships started off. On the other hand, we gave place to the transcript and tabulation of the ?Inventory Book of 1188? that included a list of articles handed over to Abdülkerim Pasha acting in his capacity as the Governor of Rumelia and Ambassador, to which office he was appointed for the sake of fortifying the peace as per Article 27 of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca that was signed in 1774, along with ?Records on the Articles reaching from Küçükçekmece to Edirne to be handed over to Abdülkerim Pasha, who will go to Russia in his capacity as Amabassador?. Besides, we tabulated the halting places, where he lodged during his travel, and the duration of such lodgings. Within the scope of our study, the ambassador report was translated into contemporary Turkish with the help of Aslı İlkmen?s work, in which the text of the ambassador report was transcribed. Finally, the fact that the ambassador report is an important historical resource ? as it includes the observations of an Ottoman statesman on Russian society ? is an outstanding aspect of our study. We provided information in a general framework on facts indicating that these two states took a dim view of each other in the course of history, that the religious and political ambitions of the parties conflicted with each other at times, and how far their efforts reached to get the upper hand in diplomacy.