Nikita Gaidyshev of the NRU Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg sent the following report on his visit to London in July 2024.

Outside the National Archives, Kew, London.

My name is Nikita Gaidyshev, and I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at the History Department of the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg. I specialise in studying Anglo-Russian relations in the 16th-17th centuries. The main topic of my research activity is cross-cultural exchange between the Muscovy Tsardom and England and the perception of Russia in England. Most of the documents necessary for my research activities are kept in Great Britain, namely in London. Participating in the Robert Anderson Research Charitable Trust program has been an incredible opportunity for me as a researcher. During July with the help of the Trust I worked in several different institutions in London including the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), the National Archives, the British Library and the Warburg Institute.

All of these institutions are essential for my academic work. In order to finalize my article on the formation of the image of Muscovy in Early Modern England and to prepare my thesis, it was extremely important for me to familiarize myself with primary sources on Anglo-Russian relations. At the beginning of July Mr Howard Davies helped me to get a reader’s pass for the LMA where I studied the documentation of the Russia Company (Treasurer’s books, court minute books etc) for two weeks. No less important was my experience of working in the British Library, where I found a huge number of unpublished documents about Anglo-Russian relations in the 16th century. One of these documents will be the basis of my term paper in the fourth year of my studies.

Another important institution for me as a researcher was the National Archives. There I spent several days working on the State Papers collection. It consists mainly of reports and accounts of English ambassadors, merchants and travellers who came to Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Also at the National Archives, I worked with copies of correspondence between the Russian Tsar and Elizabeth I and James I. I also tried to find documents about the English life of members of the Moscow Trading Company. To do this I worked with different types of bureaucratic documents including ledgers and certificates.

Equally important to me as a historian of the Early Modern period was the opportunity to communicate with colleagues and to look at academic institutions related to my subject matter. That is why I was interested in visiting the Warburg Institute. Thanks to Mr Davies’ help, I was able to meet one of the professors working at the institute. In addition, it was really useful and helpful to see in person the places and monuments with which my research interests are connected in one way or another.

It’s hard to recount everything that has happened to me this month in this short report. Notwithstanding the above, I would definitely say that taking part in the Robert Anderson Research Charitable Trust program was an outstanding experience for me. It helped me to develop my academic knowledge and gave me an opportunity to finish my article. At the same time the visit to London and the work in the British Archives provided the inspiration for many scientific projects in the future! I made a lot of photocopies of documents, which will be useful for my future career. Imagining such academic growth without the help of the foundation would simply not have been possible.

I would like to thank Robert Anderson Research Charitable Trust one more time, and I would like to offer my special thanks to Mr Davies for his help and kindness!