Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

II. Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia / Ближний Восток, Кавказ и Центральная Азия 282 Proceedings of the International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa.Vol. I. 2020 exotic animal, dispatched from Iran by the embassy of Faẓl ‘Alī Bik together with other animals and birds, appeared in St Petersburg during the time of Peter I the Great. Elephants were brought to the Russian capital from Iran again in 1723 and 1737. Nine out of fourteen elephants that reached St Petersburg in autumn 1741 were gifted to Ivan VI (1740–1741). RegentAnna Leopoldovna, her husbandAnton Ulrich, Princess Elizabeth Petrovna, Count Andrey Osterman (Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostremann) and Oberhof Marshal Reinhold Gustaw von Loewenwolde were presented with one animal each. In early summer of 1741 preparatory arrangements were started in St Petersburg to meet and house the foreign guests. The Elephant Yard (‘Slonoviy dvor’) constructed near the Fontanka river close to the Summer Palace (Letniy dvorets) for the elephant sent from Iran with the previous embassy was to be enlarged. The existing elephant barn was renovated, and a second barn with a similar layout was built. The construc- tion of the third barn was finished by mid-November 1741. By January 1742 this complex of buildings was supplemented by a shed, an icehouse, a kitchen and stables. The Elephant Square leading to the Fontanka was constructed opposite the barns, and the footbridge was built for the purpose of walking and bathing the animals. The river was cleaned, and poles were installed to strengthen the riverbank. Apart from building the barns, reconstruction works were carried out to strengthen city bridges prior to the animals’ arrival. In 1742 half of the keepers, by that time numbering thirty-eight people, joined by the former elephant keeper Āghā Ṣadīq, returned to Iran together with the embassy. In 1743 eight out of the remaining nineteen elephant keepers who stayed in Russia were dismissed to Persia by the order of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741–1761). The population of the elephants settled in St Petersburg was gradually reducing. The last female elephant gifted by Nādir Shāh died in 1765. Several decades later, in 1797 and 1815, elephants appeared in St Petersburg again with embassies sent from Bukhara and Iran. Keywords : Diplomatic relations between Russia and Iran; embassy of Nādir Shāh Afshār; elephants in St Petersburg. Васильева Д. О. (Государственный Эрмитаж, Санкт-Петербург, РФ) Слоны как дипломатический дар: посольство Надир-шаха 1739–1742 гг. Резюме : Отправление торжественного чрезвычайного посольства Надир- шаха Афшара к российскому двору в 1739 г. является одной из ярких страниц дипломатических отношений России и Ирана. Поводом для снаряжения посольства послужила победа Надир-шаха (1736–1747) над правителем империи Великих Моголов Мухаммад-шахом (1719–1748), а также завоевание Бухары и Хивы, последовавшее вскоре после индийского похода. Дипломатические дары, привезенные в Петербург, включали драгоценные украшения, сосуды и предметы утвари из могольской сокровищницы,