Korea in the Works by Nikolai Spafariia and Lorenz Lang

Revising the history of Russian-Korean relations in the last years of the XIX century allows us to trace the main stages of the process of a gradual increase in the role and place of Korea in Russia's foreign policy in the Far East, the activities of Russian diplomats in neutralizing the policies of aggressive powers in Korea and maintaining the independence of the Korean state. Studying Korea in Russia has a long and meaningful history, which began in the XVII century and continued to develop intensively already from the end of the XIX century. The first complete and realistic description of the Korean state was given by the Russian traveler and ambassador to China - Nikolai Spafariia. The data collected by N. Spafariia and the works provided to Russian society, in particular, the chapters providing sufficiently complete information about a hitherto little-known country - Korea, were the first works that told about the history, economy, and culture of this country. As well as N. Spafaria, L. Lang made a great contribution to collecting information about the Korean state, in particular about trade.  Until the end of the XVIII century, detailed information about Korean trade collected by L. Lang was a reliable source both for Russian and for Western European researchers.