Project for a Dictionary of the French in Russia in the eighteenth century.

This project aims to help the study of the French community in Russia move forward. It is based on an historical analysis of the formation of this community. Although there is a vast amount of sources available for the history of the French in Russia, our knowledge of the "Russian French" of that period (merchants, private tutors, cooks, etc.) is still sketchy and incomplete. The dictionary makes a census of all French emigres regardless of status. This principle allows us to apprehend the community, its evolution and the role it played in eighteenth-century Russia's political and cultural history through its main professional groups, all this being attested by concrete documents. The material presented in the dictionary is large in scope and, we hope, will make it a valuable toot for specialists of all kinds (art historians, specialists in the history of trade, specialists in education, engineering, military arts, national identity and interethnic contacts, genealogists, and of course, specialists in the history of emigration).