English Translation

24 - 21 - on September 30, 1975, after which Russia against an English annual payment of half a million pounds an army of Russia shall fall into its backs. But then the famous overthrow of the coalitions, "renversement of the alliances", destroys the just initiated English-Russian cooperation. The sudden swing of England to the side of Frederick the Great, with which on January 6, 1756 - only three days after the ratification of the English-Russian Treaty! - it closes the convoy of Westminster, in which both parts guarantee their possession, lets English-russian friendship break again. Friedrich the Great had hoped to get rid of the Russian threat through this alliance with the friend of Russia. However, he had miscalculated himself in Elisabeth and in the strength of the English influence at the Russian court over-estimated by the English envoy in Petersburg Williams. Elisabeth joined Austria and thus joined the anti-English party. Nevertheless, there is no open break between England and Russia. The English envoy Williams. remains at the Russian court and does everything in its power to lure Russia back on the side of England - and that is to say at that time: also on the Prussian side. To this end, he leads a daring play in which he spans the future tsaress Catherine and her husband, the Tsarevich Peter, since the weak health of the Empress Elisabeth is calculated with their soon demise. Katharina's correspondence with Williams is one of the most impressive examples of the methods of English politics.2) This correspondence between the Russian heir to the throne and the English heir shows the English success- l) Perepiska Ekateriny Aleksčevny i anglijskago posla sera Carl'za G.Uill'jamsa, Moskva l909, S.XII; Stählin 2, p.359. 2) See also Tarle, Zapad i Rossija, Petrcgrad 19l8, pp.150-159. 3) Edited by S.M. Gorjainov, Moscow 1909.