Face to Face With the Tsars’ Capital: American Diplomats and Urban Spectatorship in Imperial St. Petersburg

Abstract

This article examines the American diplomats’ experiences of urban spectatorship in Imperial St. Petersburg. Based on diaries, letters, and memoirs, the author argues that urban spectatorship in the capital of the Tsars differed from its traditional definition coined by Baudelaire and presented new challenges to the Americans. Conducting detached observation was difficult in the city where a pedestrian could unexpectedly become an active participant in a ceremony or event that was part of the Romanov scenario of power. The author argues that US diplomats dealt with this and other challenges successfully and recorded valuable observations about life in St. Petersburg.