The Inception of Russo-Brazilian Relations (1808-1828)
IN late November 1803, two ships crossed the equator and, to the jubilation of those aboard, set a course for the distant shores of Brazil. The passing of the line, recorded one of the voyagers, "is sufficiently interesting to all Europeans to be noted in their journals; how much more remarkable then was it to Russians, since ours were the first vessels of that nation that had ever navigated these waters, that had ever visited the southern division of the globe.... A feeling of national pride was awakened in every breast," he added, "and even we, who were foreigners, joined in the exultation, since we shared in the honor of laying the foundation for an active commerce, which might be in the end of the greatest importance to the Russian nation."' The ships were the Nadezhda and the Neva, outbound from Kronshtadt on the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe. With their sailing began a new chapter in the history of Russian imperial expansion, a chapter that would bring the tsarist empire into direct and continuous contact with Latin America. From the outset, Brazil occupied a pivotal role in Russian approaches to the New World and, accordingly, was the first Latin American nation to establish formal diplomatic relations with the tsarist court. The history of the inception of Russo-Brazilian ties embraces more than a bilateral relationship between two states. It obliges one to view Brazil as a functional component of the much broader