As historical examples prove, economic interests can be a mighty vehicle for peace-building if fear and prejudice are not the underlying basis of nations’ protective identity. In 1698 Peter I visited England. According to V. O. Klyuchevsky’s opinion, first and foremost in the West, Peter was looking for technology. The tsar brought home 800 foreign specialists: officers, engineers, doctors … The Kingdom impressed him with its order and moderation so much, though, that the English influence can be traced in the creation and construction of the Navy, industrial manufactories, banks and other spheres of life. It was Peter the Great who actually laid the foundations of the modern trade and political relations with England.

In the 18th century Russia discovered the achievements accumulated by Western European civilization which contributed to the intensive development of its own culture. Catherine II fostered the publication of periodicals, founded an art gallery, issued an order for mandatory inoculation and showed a personal example. Thomas Dimsdale (who was invited for this purpose) would have been much surprised at the suspicious attitude of the Russian people towards English medicine as “a foreign poison”. In turn, his third wife, Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, in her diary tells of “wild bath rituals” she faced in Russia. At the end of the 18th century Russia sought to know the English lifestyle. The English Park in Peterhof, English embankment of the Neva and the first metal bridge over it designed by the English engineer William Hastie… are some of the countless examples of the trend. Even the term “anglomania” was invented. Alexander Pushkin softly laughed at Eugene Onegin for his glorification of the ideas of the English Enlightenment, “Homer, Theocritus, he jeered, But Adam Smith to read appeared.”

Although English kings and Queens did not invite Russian specialists on purpose and there was no obsession with everything Russian or Soviet, the England’s interest to Russian culture was noticeable. One of the most striking examples is the appearance of “The Brothers Karamazov” translated by K. Garnett, a prominent interpreter from the Russian language. That book made Dostoevsky extremely popular in England. In the mid-1910s, the worship of the Russian writer became a cult. With Dostoevsky, a new idea about Russian soul entered English mass consciousness. The “Russian seasons” also helped to create a positive image of our country in England. After the triumph of the first ballet season in Paris, the outstanding impresario, S. P. Diaghilev, first showed his productions in England on June 26, 1911. “Diaghilev seasons” introduced England to the music by I. F. Stravinsky, P. I. Tchaikovsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and the art works of A. N. Benoit, L. B. Bakst, N. S. Goncharova, M. V. Dobuzhinsky and many others. Under the influence of the performances of Diaghilev’s company, England began to develop its own national ballet school.

The emigrants created a Russian Diaspora that influenced all areas of English life. The whirlwind of revolutionary terror at the turn of the 20th century scattered around the world Russian intellectuals, which led to the spread of Russian culture. As Ivan Bunin said in his speech in Paris in 1924, “We are not in exile, we are in a mission. It is a mission, difficult, but also high, entrusted to us by fate.” The Russian emigration gave the world some Nobel laureates (Ivan Bunin in literature, Vasily Leontiev in Economics and Ilya Prigozhin in chemistry) and a galaxy of eminent scientists and technologists whose work constitutes the world’s heritage.