It is very difficult to write about Russia, because at a certain time individual recollections were concealed; through a whimsical policy, the old rulers of that country forbade their subjects to write so much as the slightest word about their native land

In 1689 a Russian nobleman printed the journal of Golitsyn's Crimean campaign: the publication was burned in public, although it contained nothing against the government or the Grand Duke. This custom still held in the time of Peter the Great, and it is hardly surprising that he himself was unaware of what was going on in countries far from his realm.

…there is no country where so many precautions have been taken to prevent this [the publication of information about the state and life in it]. In nothing did Catherine employ so many devices as in concealing the true history of her people... This can be seen in her correspondence with Voltaire, in her instructions to her ministers, in the falsehoods published by hired writers…