Baroness Maria Petrovna Fredericks: a brief review of documentary materials from the funds of the Ministry of the Imperial Court 1849-1903s

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-2-367–384

For citation

Ashikhmin, Andrey V. (2025). Baroness Maria Petrovna Fredericks: a brief review of documentary materials from the funds of the Ministry of the Imperial Court 1849-1903s, Herald of an Archivist, № 2, pp. 367–384, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-2-367–384

Ashikhmin, Andrey V., National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

Baroness Maria Petrovna Fredericks: a brief review of documentary materials from the funds of the Ministry of the Imperial Court 1849-1903s

Abstract

The article presents a brief review of documentary materials of the former archive of the Ministry of the Imperial Court (MFAv) related to the biography and court service of Baroness Maria Petrovna Fredericks (1832-1903). The author aims to introduce into scientific circulation and systematize court-bureaucratic documents related to the activities of the maid of honor. The materials of the Chancellery of the Foreign Ministry on her accession to the rank of maid of honor (1849-1850) and dismissal from the staff (1868), on her funeral and will (1903), on the Crimean estate of Jemiet and some others are considered and systematized. It emphasizes the poor study of archival materials related to M. P. Fredericks, despite the popularity and demand for her memoirs in historiography. The review of archival materials includes an introduction to the scientific turnover of documents from the fonds of the Chancellery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Main Directorate of Estates, which are stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA). In the context of studying the biography of Baroness M. P. Fredericks, the author analyzes the domestic and foreign historiography of recent decades and provides a brief history of the archival complexes under consideration. The author presents a typology of official and personal documents related to M. P. Fredericks: mainly notices, decrees, high commands, relations, reports, lists of employees, certificates, official telegrams, personal letters, and the will of the baroness. The documents of the former archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contain information about both the period of the maid of honor's service in St. Petersburg and her life in the Crimea after her dismissal in 1868. For the first time, the Baroness's farewell letter to Emperor Nicholas II (April 2, 1903), found in the file “On the Death of the Maid of Honor Baroness M. P. Fredericks” from the Chancellery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is published in full. Some materials about the funeral, will and fate of the maid of honor's property are introduced. The methodological basis of the article is the traditional historical and archival approach applied to poorly studied sources. Genetic and general scientific methods, classic for the archival review, as well as the method of historical periodization were used. The author has shown that the identification of official sources and their consideration in the context of the history of such a significant institution as the imperial court are the first steps towards creating a full-fledged picture of the cultural and bureaucratic history of the Russian court of the Empire period. The figure of Baroness M. P. Fredericks is more than representative in this sense: researchers know more about her from her own stories than from the archives of the imperial bureaucracy that record court reality.

Keywords

Maria Petrovna Fredericks, Ministry of the Imperial Court, maid of honor, review of documents, biography, court service, Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers, Russian Red Cross Society, Crimean estate of Jemiet, archival documents.

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About authors

Ashikhmin Andrey V. National Research University Higher School of Economics, Institute of Regional Historical Studies, Research Project Executive, Moscow, Russia, +7-911-847-06-55, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 24-28-00169, https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-00169/

The article was received in the editorial office on 11.10.2024, recommended for publication on 20.03.2025