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Accepted Paper:
Reconsidering knowledge. Transformation of the oceanic nature's understanding and the 18th century Romanovs maritime project.
Alexei Kraikovski
(University of Genova)
I will demonstrate the link between transformation of societal vision of the sea through the 18th century and adaptation of strategies used by authorities in order to make Russia maritime, not just possessing a navy, but participating in the oceanic industries and consuming the products of the Ocean
Paper long abstract:
I will present and discuss basic ideas of a monograph submitted to Cambridge Oceanic histories. I will demonstrate the link between transformation of societal vision of the sea as a natural object through the 18th century and adaptation of strategies used by the Russian imperial authorities in order to make Russia maritime, that is not just possessing a navy, but participating in the oceanic harvesting industries and consuming the products of the Ocean. Furthermore, I argue, knowledge as such became part of these dynamic consumption patterns, with the expansion of the image of societal importance of Oceanic nature's knowledge from the purely Royal curiosity materialized in the courtly collections to the open discussion in the journals that formed the opinions of educated society. I will concentrate on three cases – influence of the Amsterdam cabinets of curiosities observed during the Grand Embassy, on the image of oceanic exoticity and superabundance; interlinks between the Royal curiosity of Russian emperors from Peter I to Catherine II and their authority over the natural resources of the sea; a conflict between educated knowledge of the sea elaborated in St. Petersburg and local expertise of hunters and fishermen accumulated in the White Sea area.