Autobiography, or a State Debenture bond? John Elphinstone’s Narrative about His Service in Russia of the Age of Catherine the Great
In 2003 the Princeton University Library bought the collected papers of John Elphinston, the British seaman and rear admiral in Russian service during the reign of Catherine the Great, and among the other documents a big Narrative on Elphinstone’s service during the Russian Archipelago Expedition in 1769-1771. Elphinstone’s Narrative may be considered as a rather discreditable source for analysis of the Russian Court and especially of the Russian Navy, but it offers a rare opportunity to study a detailed alternative version of important events and of the British impact on the Russian naval history of the eighteenth century.